Reaching Mr. Unreachable

Today was a good day. It was hot, but I wasn't complaining. I had to wear my jacket to "hide" the tennis balls from Romin, but like I said, the warmth was welcomed. Every day I go to work with the dogs I ask myself what I want to work on today. I am keeping progress charts on each of them so that eventually other people can pick up and begin to work with them as well.
Luke is coming along very nicely on the "mine/take it" exercise. When I present a fist full of treats to him, say "mine" he looks at me, sometimes with duration and then he gets an even better treat from the other hand with my saying "take it". Our next step is to offer the treat between two fingers, a little more tempting. We are also working on the cue "settle" where Luke goes to lie on his mat, which he does no problem. We are working on duration and distraction and using the release word "okay". He is doing brilliantly. I have decided that Luke needs a job. I may start scent work with him. I am thinking bed bugs.......
For Mr. Unreachable, aka Romin I decided to use tennis balls to my advantage today. When I take Romin out he has one thing in mind, get to the pen and get my tennis ball! We walked along the path, Romin doing his dutiful sits along the way, but not much acknowledgment of me. When we got in the pen I decided to do something a little differently. Normally I take out the two tennis balls and begin a game of fetch where I toss one ball and on his return say "drop" and click toss the other ball. This time I kept the balls in my pockets and Romin proceeded to search the pen for a tennis ball. Whenever he looked my way I would click. Sometimes he would come and get the treat and other times he would look at me then continue to search. That was okay, as long as he was "checking in". At one point he was at the far end of the pen. I called him. As he came running to me I pulled out the tennis ball, showed him the ball and then tossed it. I am hoping to teach him that all good things come from me and that his behavior results in consequences that he finds reinforcing. His progress is slower but there is progress nonetheless. He enjoyed a rub down in the gazebo today and when I stopped he turned to me asking for more. That's progress!
I know this is a long post but I have to say one more thing. I love working with shelter dogs. It is some of the most challenging and emotionally draining work I have ever done. Because my time with them is so limited I have to make sure that every interaction counts. The clicker is wonderful for this because the effects are cumulative, like pennies in the bank. Every interaction is building a foundation these dogs can rely on when they move on to their forever homes. Good stuff.