Success!

On my drive down to the shelter today it was torrential rain and I wondered if I would even be able to take Luke out. It is not good for the dogs to go back to their runs wet, after all it's not like going into a cozy home. Luckily the rain let up a bit by the time I got there and we headed for the pen. Luke finished up pretty quickly, seems he was anxious to get out of the rain as well. We went straight to the exam room which I had previously set up.
We did some targeting work on the mat and he was getting it pretty quickly. His job was to go lie down on the mat and he was consistently doing this. I was using cheese and it almost seemed as though he was working halfheartedly so I changed to liver. That got his attention! I am very close to introducing a cue for this behavior. I have decided on "settle". When I can predict fairly certainly that he will go to lie on the mat every time this is when I introduce the cue. We also practiced "leave it" and he was doing really well with this. Much less pawing and mouthing on my hand.
After all that work he was ready. I turned out the lights in the room, put on the "Through a Dog's Ear" music, gave him his chewie bone on the mat, I sat down in my chair (I had put that in the room previously) and proceeded to read my book. Luke stayed on the mat the whole time until he finished his bone. It was a very peaceful moment. If I closed my eyes we could have been in my living room. It was that perfect.