Success!

 Over the last couple weeks (or months), Dante started having trouble with the "jump" command.  If he decided to attempt to "jump" at all, he would always "army crawl" and wait to lift his back legs until the last possible minute.  A few days ago I decided to give him a running start to jump into the car and viola!  he did it perfectly.  So, over the last couple days every time I told him "car" I would allow him to start a few steps away.  

Today we were out and I saw this flower bed and thought we'd give his new technique a try.  He "jumped" perfectly the first time I asked without me having to be over excited and encouraging.  He even "sat" and did a "let's go" walking on it!  *Throws Dante a puppy party*  And this is the narrowest surface I have ever asked him to "jump" on!  Yay for little big successes! :-)