Kratty

We used a lure (Treat) based process with a motion that became the hand signal for a command. Once they learned the hand signal, we attached the verbal command to that signal. Dogs follow hand signal better than human words.

For sit: Have pup on leash and standing in front of you. Hold lure (treat) at your finger tips, palm up. Move lure toward the puppy face and over the top of his head. While they are following the lure, they will go into the sit position. Mark behavior and Reward. Repeat until they are following that hand lure consistently. You know have developed the hand signal, we use, for this command. Palm up and hand raising upwards. After some time, use they hand signal without the lure treat. This way they are following you hand signal instead.

Once they are doing this consistently, you know have to attach the command word to that hand motion. Say sit and then use that hand motion. Mark the correct behavior and reward. I don't use the lure treat as my reward treat, but you can at first. I always keep my reward treat in my other hand, that way they don't get distracted when using a lure in other commands...

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