This sucks

We have training today, and other than being an angel at not pulling on our walk the other day we have made NO progress this week.. in fact we've pretty much gone backwards.. he wont listen to ANYTHING I tell him lately.. well, some of the time. I keep getting a blank stare from him when I ask him to do SIMPLE stuff (like, does SIT ring a bell?) and any progress in teaching him the other stuff we're supposed to be learning has gone out the window. We're going to be so behind everyone else and I know he's going to be crazy as usual.. ugh.. I'm starting to think that one week he behaved well was a fluke. Oh, and I lost my clicker, too, which is great. Just great.

God, I am SO frustrated with the both of us.. I don't know what's wrong.. it's got to be something I'm doing since he's actually listening to my mom most of the time and not me. I've basically taken two steps back in everything and I'm luring him with food now. He's forgotten all our progress with learning to lay down on his mat and relax..

I just want to skip training.. ugh.. but I know that wont help.

When Milo was probably around 20 months old he started ignoring simple commands. So,

I started ignoring him. If we were playing and I said "sit" and he refused, I'd walk away, looking away from him. Or just look away and not talk to him at all. Eventually, he'd sit. I'd keep ignoring him, and he'd keep getting up, sitting, getting up, sitting and moving all around in front of me trying to get my attention. After a minute I said "Sit" again, and guess who sat?

I've been trying that.. it's actually my standard response to ignoring a command. But it's been getting me NOTHING. I can walk out of the freaking room and ignore him, and when I tell him to sit he still wont. When that stopped working I tried placing him into the position I wanted him in and giving him a treat for it.. that didn't work either. He's basically been picking and choosing when he will listen and staring woefully at me the rest of the time, or giving me that "WTF you idiot you're speaking a different language" look.

They hit stages in training where they do seem to take a few steps backward. If he's adolescent, it'll be even more so. The best thing to do is just ride it out. Keep going to classes, maybe the instructor will see something that's going on. Otherwise, just keep in mind that if they were doing well, they'll do well again when the phase is over. Try not to put too much pressure on him.

If it's not a phase, it could be that he's confused. Make sure you're sending clear signals. Make sure you're rewarding and not bribing. Also, are you on a variable reward schedule? If you are, you might not be rewarding often enough. If you're not, you might want to try that.

I agree, and don't try too hard. If he's been responding well to the verbal cue, don't step backward and start physically putting him into position (and certainly don't give him a treat for that!). Just make sure that he has NOTHING unless he works for it - pick up all toys, don't pet him or even look at him unless he'll respond to a simple cue.

^^^^sounds good to me.

Calm down. Take a deep breath. Don't train while frustrated. Keep training FUN! Use different rewards, such as playing with his favorite toy after he does a command, keep it exciting. He may be getting bored if you are always doing the same things.

I agree, there are three levels to learning for animals and people. Progression, Regression and Plateaus, the key to training any animal is learning which level they are at, at any given time. During Regressions and Plateaus levels, this is not the time to try teaching them something new. A regression typically means they never fully understood the task in the first place, but once you train through a regression they usually have it solid.
Regressions that last a long time is often a time that the trainer needs to take a long hard look at their chosen method, it maybe time to investigate a method that is better suited to that dog.
If you have a video camera, tape your training sessions, look for inconsistancies. It's the little things that kill us in training.
Take a deep breath, no point in getting frustrated, that can and often does undo our training. Make sure you are in the right frame of mind before starting any training session and don't forget to smile at your dog. Even if he makes mistakes or doesn't understand, try to find something that is going right and try to end on a good note. Don't get trapped into 'Just One More'.
And if the session is going very badly, just end it, beating a dead horse wont do your dog any good nor you. There is always tomorrow to train.

Thanks for the advice, everyone... very helpful.. just what I needed, actually, and pretty much what my trainer told me.

Oh, and guess what? He was an angel. And as soon as I told her about how bad things have been going he started listening to me and behaving decently.. oy.

The GREAT news about our training session? we had quite a few meet n' greets... and he did so well about not jumping up. WOOHOO! And I got help with shaping and how to phase out lures, which I really needed to be *shown* to me a bit more.. it's just not the same reading about it as it is when someone is helping you every step of the way.