I received my Drive and Focus DVD. Very refreshing...primarily +R and good timing from a man who obviously has great knowledge of dogs.

Two and a half years ago I attended a four-day Agility Foundation Skills seminar with a well-known canadian trainer. If you substitute the words "play drive" or "toy drive" for "prey drive", the basics are virtually identical: Build drive/excitement, require focus, reinforce.

I am relieved that this is not completely foreign territory for me.

Two questions immediately spring to mind. First, my "habit" is to reinforce when focus is on me as opposed to the toy/prey item (except, of course, when revving the dog, or "making drive" as Bernard calls it). It's like an added micro-step: look at my face and you get reinforced. Is there a reason to change my requirement, that I would want the dog focused on the prey item rather than on me, during the sit for example?

Secondly, I notice that the heeling in the video was rather "wrapped", with the dogs tending to heel severely turned in toward the handler. Is this a more desireable heeling position in SchH, or simply a side effect of the prey-item focus and what is being reinforced?

Thanks for your help!
Tracy