Steve, I know that you were not implying anything, I was getting off topic and wanted you to know that I recognized your response was referring to the handling class and you made some good points.

But if I ever do anything wrong (lol) feel free to point it out to me.

Jim;
Maybe you could speak to the handler again and ask if she would understand a command to "Leave it" before a correction for refusal to follow said command.
Our local SchH is really a small core of four, with numerous visitors. Our leader is a professional trainer who deals with behavioral issues in his regular practice, and quite often we host some of the dogs/owners that he's working with.
In our routine, dogs are not corrected for displays of aggression. First, they are told to "leave it". If they insist (as mine OFTEN does}, they are given a verbal correction. Only after continued refusal are they given a physical correction AND added distance. We don't continue to correct while leaving a dog in a no-win situation!!!
If the dog is still upset, the owner is asked to put the dog away until later. HOWEVER, that dog is not finished. We will make another attempt later, or at least give the poor thing some alone time on the field so that pooch closes on a high note and looks forward to coming back. BTW, this hardly ever resolves itself in a single session.

Steve, Environmental Stressers... awesome, I get it now. I have the dvd, but been working with pack structure mostly. Even if I had watched it, I doubt I would have "got it" without the experience from the Thursday night class.

Duane, Fara knows and responds to the leave it command but I failed to use it under stress. Guess I was a little stressed out too.

I will call the instructor and asked if I can train/engage Fara in the adjoining room while they do conformation. That will create space and distance while allowing me and Fara to focus better. I'm sure she wont have a problem with that.

Good point on the chasing Steve, I had totally overlooked that.

It was kinda funny one time Betty, I got a Best of Breed with Andy, the judge was an AKC Shepherd guy. He loved the way Andy was moving around the ring. It was because he wanted a piece of the dog in front of him and I was trying my best to keep him back. It must have looked like that "Flying Trot" or whatever the heck it is they look for.

ROFL ROFL That's more then kinda funny...

We duplicate a lot of what Jim was talking about, but when I thought about it a bit more after your post it's night and day.

All working dogs with experienced handlers. And when we are darting about we are probably giving the dogs a little more room then what Jim experienced.

Jim, I had a very similar experience, the last class I registered Jethro into. I ended up leaving the class after the second session because there just wasn't enough room for Jethro to cope with the proximity of all those dogs moving around. The instructor expected harsh corrections for barking, and had a spray bottle of bitter apple set in the middle of the floor if any of us wanted to spray our dogs to stop them from reacting.

I left and have never gone back. Part of the problem, in my view, was that the room was too small and Jethro could not handle the close quarters. I also disagreed with the instructor's approach for handling reactivity.

We did join a distractions class that was being held out on a field, where I could choose how close to work Jethro in with the group. This worked much better, because we could circle well outside if we needed to increase distance. I noticed the experience was still very upsetting for Jethro, though, and we didn't continue.

Jethro and I do a lot of work right in our neighbourhood, practicing Leave It, and also Sit, Wait, Halt, and Down at varying distances from approaching, receding, or passing dogs. Any dog on leash we give a very wide berth.

It might be that Jethro is aging out of some of his worst reactivity (he just turned 2) or the methods I am working are well suited to his temperament. I have been getting a lot of comments from my neighbours who have watched me work with Jethro since we got him, and they are saying he has settled down a lot.