Progress now rapid!

I am so happy to report that obedience training is really taking shape now. Moto is enjoying his lessons and I love watching the wheels turn. He is probably the most intelligent dog I've ever had, and that's saying a lot because this unbiased mom thinks ALL her pups are very smart! What is different about Moto is he loves problem-solving and it's so much fun letting him work things out. Example: yesterday we worked on directed jumping. I moved the jumps a bit farther apart. Not a problem when going over the high jump. But, when I indicated the bar jump he started to come through the middle. I went forward to block this from happening. He stopped and you could see him sort it out, and then went over the bar which of course I celebrated with lots of praise. His dumbbell retrieve is absolutely lovely now and he moves out smartly to the dumbbell and comes back at a quick trot. So next week we'll start articles!
The other huge thing that happened yesterday was that he preferred my company over the other dogs. It's been so nice and warm lately, and we were able to have a nice game of fetch. The way the game usually goes is I throw the tennis ball and Shiloh retrieves it. Blitz will also get it intermittently, Dusty (who is now 14) likes to chase around and bark at all the activity and Daisy usually grabs a tug toy and invites someone to play tug with her while all this is going on. Moto typically would play tug with Daisy, and then Blitz would join in. This time Moto didn't play tug at all and opted to compete for the ball. This didn't please Shiloh much but I was thrilled that he would run to get it and he came right back to me with it. I made sure I let Moto know this was a GOOD thing and celebrated and praised this new behavior.
We are on our way - hooray!