Sekah

I don't really get into the festive spirit on the day, but I do like holiday photos! Cohen came up with the pose for this one herself, believe it or not.

This is probably one of the kindest ways to teach stay.

For dealing with obedience type behaviours while playing frisbee, it should be easy enough to reduce distance & distraction sufficiently enough to work for the toy. Start nearby with easy-to-perform exercises before trying to get a down at a distance. Hand touches are good ways to bring your dog back to you, then you can ask for the behaviour. Remember to split progress into tiny bits, don't lump it together.

This is good advice. I don't see anything fundamentally wrong with what you're describing, assuming it's done carefully and in moderation. Many top tier handlers start their pups off like that. Many top tier handlers opt to wait to put foundations on their green dogs. Both seem to have equally happy, healthy and talented dogs.

There are lots of options online for classes, from everything from competitive obedience to agility, tricks and more. If attending in person isn't an option, it may be well-suited for you.

You may need a nose touch to a target while working on contact obstacles. Having a hand touch can be a helpful bridge behaviour for a target touch, but not necessary.

That's awesome! It's a relatively advanced trick, so keep at it. Beg/sit pretty is basically my favourite thing that I've ever taught my dog. It's so many kinds of adorable. Good luck! Let me know if you need help troubleshooting any issues.

Here's my video of my 'for fun' freestyle routine. https://www.facebook.com/CohenTheAustralianShepherd/videos/1581850362102340/ I do it with a team for public performance, so I don't get to choose the music, unfortunately. It'd be a lot better if I could do it to my music of choice. I also don't use a lot of heeling for... reasons that aren't exactly apparent to me. I guess I'm mostly in it for the tricks.

There are a few threads about freestyle in the Obedience, Agility... subforum. It's basically just stringing tricks together with music. Some people design their performances to be in line with certain titling organizations' requirements, some do whatever they want for fun. The first step is teaching some tricks. Spin, heeling on both sides, backing up and paw lifts tend to be good starter tricks.

In AAC, the table is only present in Starters & Advanced standard courses, not Masters. Plus I believe they're switching to electronic timing on those. A down used to be required for the judge to begin counting previously, but now that the timer is pressure-activated, a specific position is no longer required. (Yay!)

Seconding the suggestion of getting the heeling picture exactly how you want it before ever adding motion, D'Elle. That means having a nice, straight heel, properly positioned, with offered focus. I want a dog that is excited and engaged and who thinks heeling is just another trick. Then I start testing the dog's understanding by asking it to find heel position from various angles. Having some history of hind-end awareness exercises certainly helps here, so the rear can swing into position easily. Then add your first step, and have a party. General bits of advice - heeling is a duration behaviour, so don't forget your release cue. Reward placement is important. Attitude and engagement are, in my opinion, more important than precision -- I'd focus more on the former at first than the latter. Here's a photo that a friend took last week. I'm a bit off-balance and trying to hold my loose shirt back awkwardly with my hand, but the dog looks pretty good.

If training isn't fun for everyone involved, I recommend that you take a step back and reassess. (Which is exactly what you're doing -- kudos.) Your dog is not in competition with you, and is not lunging and barking just to be bad. Your dog is struggling with coping with her environment and is doing what comes most naturally to her. When a dog is stressed to a high degree, the part of their brains that is associated with learning shuts off (in a manner of speaking) and they rely on instinct and fight-or-flight responses. Basically, you don't need to punish your dog for something that she has little control of. Punishment has its place in some training, with some dogs, and some handlers, but I posit that it's not necessary (not in your situation, and not in many others). I'm good friends with many trainers who choose to use prong collars and e-collars as part of their training plan, but you know what? They use oodles and oodles of play, food and other means of reinforcement to build behaviours long before corrections enter the mix. My dog is reactive, though you wouldn't be able to tell to look at her. She can interact, shoulder to shoulder, with other dogs in intense, distracting environments and doesn't miss a step. Leashes aren't necessary, and working with her is fun pretty much all the time. Honestly, I'm pretty dang proud of how far she's come. I've accomplished everything via motivational training, lots of food, an understanding of environmental reinforcement and making everything into a game. Good luck with your pup. I agree with just about all of the advice offered above.

You could probably find some freestyle chat via the boards at Fenzi Dog Sports Academy. However, I believe you're only granted access for the duration of the class (I'm still a Fenzi Academy newbie, so feel free to correct me). There's Facebook support groups tied to Fenzi, as well as a couple freestyle and/or trick groups on FB, but I understand that's a no-go for you.

Cop-cop (dog feet on your feet, then walk) is pretty universally a crowd-pleaser, for some reason. I think I tend to get a fairly good reaction when we do a long scoot (backing up towards me from a distance). Really, anything in reverse seems to impress people. Plus any jumps or rebounds, if you're up for training them.

I don't see much carry-over between cued tricks and behaviour problems myself either. I'm pretty sure that with a mind to stimulus control, you'll not see an issue.