Baxter Board and Train day 4

Persistency and consistency is the key with Baxter. He is doing fine and his commands are getting better every day but he absolutely will take advantage of a weak leader. If he thinks he can blow someone off he will turn up his cute little nose and walk away. It will be very important that his owners follow through and if they say "sit!" that they insist that he comply. It isn't that he is defiant, he is just independent and if he doesn't see the logic in what you are asking him to do he will form what he thinks is a better plan. By insisting that he comply with a given task we are telling him that he can be confident in our ability to lead and trust our judgement. 
His Heel is good, his Autosit is not quite automatic but he is getting there. He knows Sit, Down (at my side and when I am away from him), Implied Stay, and Come. He actually seems to enjoy the Come command so that is really good. We are doing Placemat tomorrow and I anticipate he will actually really enjoy this one so I am looking forward to it. What I have left to do is to clean up his commands and try my hardest to get him to hurry up a little as he still moves very slowly as if hoping I will change my mind before he actually lays down all the way.
There is a joke among Akita people that you can train an Akita to do anything you want...except to hurry. Perhaps the same is true of the Maltese? Either way, I am enjoying training another very indepentant dog. It is bringing back memories of when I trained Kylie.