I FINALLY got this video together... I took it out of an hour so they are just the best clip for view.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3naI6yVfDc

I'm not too clear on what's going on here. Are you handling the dog on the left in your sig pic? The cream coloured mix? If so, it looks like the dog was giving you very nice attention.

Also, you said that the footage was taken from an hour of class? So you guys just walk around a small loop for an hour expecting constant attention?! If so, I don't see what the problem is. Your dog appears to be the best behaved in the group, and maintains her engagement (quite nicely!) for few rewards.

How old is the dog and what is your goal for your dog?

Okay, I just read in the other thread that you want to train an eye contact heel. If you want to train it ME style, it definitely won't be happening in that class.

You'll want to train just a few steps at a time, with a lot of rewards to keep the dogs energy and engagement up. Do you have the ME DVD on heeling? You don't want your dog to get bored with the activity, especially in the initial training stages. It looked like you had very good eye contact heeling for short periods in the video, but you really can't expect your dog to maintain the behaviour willingly in the early stages of training without rewards.

 Quote: Elizabeth

At what point is it obvious that the dog knows the command? And at what point do you do more corrections for disobedience than the redoing of an exercise?
I have taken Zuki to several dog classes over the last few weeks to work with distraction. She has done a marvelous job but I can't say that success would be so good if I wasn't using hot dogs. I used about 6 hot dogs for 1 hour. I don't know if I would be expecting to much if I used less...They were of course cut into little rounds.
In the therapy dog class they wouldn't let me use treats and she wasn't near as good about leaving the other dogs alone. She will still do most of the commands just not with half the vigor.

Above is a quote from the original post, which is located Here.

Nothing helpful to add I'm afraid. I'm very much a novice handler and I hope we can get to that point someday. I wish you the best of luck in reaching your goals. Thanks for posting!

It's tough to recommend training techniques involving correction without seeing more and knowing the dog's temperament, I think.

I'm still curious what the desired end-behaviour is with the dog? Is the goal to do therapy dog work, or obedience comps, etc?

How many sessions have you done around dogs as distractions? I think I would back it up and increase your rate of reinforcement in shorter, more fun sessions. But it all depends on what you want from the dog. If you introduce corrections, while keeping your rate of reward low, her drive will very likely drastically drop (like you noticed in the other class where you couldn't use treats).

Like I said in my first reply, if you want flashy eye-contact heeling, I definitely wouldn't correct yet, but go back to basics and train the behaviour slowly, keep it fun and energetic, and then re-introduce distractions.

Thanks Tabatha.

I haven't done much correction... Just if she gets out of the range of 8inchs or so. The class was only to work her around other dogs. She was WAY better at the class in the video than the first one we went to. She had never been worked around other dogs. The video was our 8th time or so.

I don't know what I want to do with her... The therapy class was more for me than for her because I didn't know what it involved ect... However her focus and willingness to please was way lower without any treats and toys.

I have done most of her training only because I wanted to get better at it and have a well trained dog. I would love to do rally but traveling will/would make that extremely difficult. I want to go farther with OB and some jumps, weaving, and pulling in harness.

I don't have the ME video for heeling yet... If it cost less than I would have had it by now. Before I start the focused heeling I plan to get it.

Oh and as for the class I don't think it is a good place to start with a green dog. Zuki prior had never been in any class or given training advice by anyone. All of her training has been done at home with me with mostly LB advice. She was getting to where she would major wine ever time she saw a dog so I took her to the classes only to prof around other dogs. While they would be doing sit-stays with the person standing in front of the dog I was doing sit-stays with Zuki in the middle of all the dogs and I on the other side of the room.(this is her best preformed)
She is an incredible dog, I just need to work more on motivated heel.

Honestly, I wouldn't be in a hurry to move to corrections. Since you're training just for the fun of it mostly, I would continue to use food, keep the sessions short, and work on maintaining her happy attitude towards obedience. I'm not sure I'd even continue the classes at this point. Just walk down the road, go to parks, etc., and work on keeping her focus and engagement around distractions. I agree with you that classes aren't the place to teach new behaviours, and I'd even go one step further and suggest that they often cause burnout, since the dogs are worked for long periods of time and often get bored, thus losing interest in obedience overall.

You guys are doing really well, very impressive work considering you're learning all on your own! Also, does she like to play? Tugging or playing with a ball can be great for motivation in some dogs as well.

Just a little related story.....I took my pup to classes when she was 6 months old. She was Horrible. She had no focus, I couldn't even get her to perform a simple sit, and she even bit me (pretty seriously) out of frustration. I dropped out after 2 classes and trained all on my own. Fast forward 4 months later to 2 weekends ago. We were at a KNPV seminar, and she had the most beautiful attention heeling in a strange building surrounded by other working dog/handler pairs. I was very proud.

Yes I really need to get a video of us just doing what we always do... She LOVES tug. We use it in OB and a rubber Frisbee (that I think leerburg should sell.)
To the point that we are just doing it to have fun-I MUST have absolute OB in some areas. I just came back from a walk with the two of them. Zuki had no line on her just a e-collar and Keiko had a 20foot line-prong-e-collar.( I am working on the with Keiko on conditioning but have used it a few times now that we have been doing it for 3-4weeks).
I was walking on a road that deadends but has 4-5 houses. It is a long road so they don't go slow. At the corner I looked up because (I was dealing with Keiko)I heard a car. I saw Zuki on the other side of the road in the field and she was coming toward me. I just said down and she did. It is one of those "whew" moments where you get to see if your training is effective.

I have 6-7 LB DVDs and among them are the marker-food-tug dvds.