More work

Recently Grouchy had a working session with the T-Touch trainer.  There were a few cool things and maybe at the same time not so cool things.
Grouchy is a dog of habit.  I think he's recognized the class/setup.  We saw trainer park near us and he started whining and wagging while in the car.  He has only seen her and her car once - it was parked, it was in a different location, and the windows were up so I question whether he could smell anything.  But he had no alert reaction, just awareness and he seemed happy and eager.  We started off with some new T-Touch touches to do at home and a few quick approaches with the trainer.  Then she had two volunteers come help us.  We watched the people enter and leave the training area and walk around and did a few approaches, up to Grouchy touching their hands.  (within 5 minutes!)  We also did the CGC stop and talk for a few seconds.  It wasn't a real conversation, because I was focused on Grouchy but I was able to talk to the person but not look at them because I was trying to pay attention to Grouchy.  He kept his sit and didn't seem too worried.
Next her volunteers brought their dogs in.  Grouchy watched with more interest and concern.  He watched the dogs walk back and forth, disappear behind a corner, and sit in sight.  We did limited approaches to the dogs and we did parallel walking and walking past the dogs.  There was one instance where I picked the wrong way to turn, so Grouchy + I and volunteer + dog reached the end of a row and turned towards each other (instead of away, which is what I should have done).  This resulted in a Grouchy bark and half lunge.  It caught me off guard because although I knew he was alert, he was not overly stressed, but again, I think it was because of a poor turn choice.  Grouchy's reaction was less going after the dog and more seemed to be a declaration of his discomfort and a get away from me.  He was able to continue working after that.  We also did some where we were stationary and the volunteer + dog walked towards us, stopping 10 ft away or so.  One very nice thing about this was trainer stood right next to a sitting Grouchy and was almost at head patting level.  Grouchy was not worried about her.
He worked with trainer, 2 strangers and 3 dogs.  It was successful!  We also had people over the night before so he was confined to our room.  He didn't seem to stress stack.
However, the next day, on our group walk, he was not comfortable with the other dog that was there.  We've walked together previously at the Battlefield and that went really well, Grouchy was mostly relaxed.  He was more on edge this time and even growled we were both at a stop - but he was facing Grouchy.  Maybe there was some stress stacking there.

Sassy has been a handful.  She has been doing well in agility and on walks, but she keeps getting in the trash and counter surfing.  Last night, she had already been fed dinner and we left for 30 minutes.  We came back to open trash can and popcorn cobs on the floor.  I had left her uncrated during the day when I was gone without incident.  I'm not sure what goes on in her head.

I bought a set of Fit Paws and am trying to teach them to stand on them.  Grouchy can do his two front feet but doesn't seem to either know how to move his back feet in a targeted way OR doesn't like his back feet on things.  I think I'll have to start with back foot targeting on an easy surface so he figures out how to move them and then re-introduce the Fit Paws.  Sassy gets too worked up about the treats - even kibble, even after dinner - to get it.  I did get her to do back legs up on a stool, but it's so hard to capture/shape her paws on the Fit Paws pods since it's hard to see with all her fur in the way and she's so focused on where my hands are that might be delivering a treat.  I think I'll have to work her with my hands behind my back.

As a side note, I tried shaping sessions before dinner and that resulted in overly excited, over threshold from both.  They were both pretty frenetic trying to get treats and taking them very hard.  So I think no more training before meals... that drive is counterproductive.