I am happy to announce that my recalcitrant keyboard today has all the keys working. haha
Barb, I also use at different times string cheese, hard sausages like summer sausage, etc, left over table meats, sometimes tiny dog biscuits, etc.
For the performance I am looking for, enthusiasm on the part of the dog is so important. So bait, and toys, and play, and keeping it lots of fun, and interesting, is a large part of it.
You might notice in most of my clips that I don't have collar or leash on my dogs. I like to keep training fun so that they really WANT to work with me. This works pretty well, I have to put all other dogs away, because if I start working one, they ALL want to join with me and work to see what they can get.