Three steps backward.

And how was your evening?

I shrieked at him at the time and chased him down, but I still can't keep myself from being the tiniest bit proud of him. And then I remember how many hours we've spent the week drilling "down" over and over and over and I reflect on the fact that all he seems to have taken away from this exercise is that my fingers taste almost better than the then treats I present every time he deigns to more or less "downs" after I've begged him to. I think the biggest problem with "down" is that as a climber, he has heard it so many times before that he just really doesn't understand why I want him "down" when he is not "up" . We are working on substituting "off" or of the situation presents itself (see above)  garbled shrieking  as an alternative.