First behaviors: hand target, sit and down
The lure-to-cue sequence on three behaviors: a hand target, sit and down. Fade the lure early, add the word last, and record each cue's stage.
Start here Essentials
At minimum, teach a hand target and a sit in one quiet room, fade the food out of your signaling hand, and write down where each cue stands. Down follows if your dog lies down comfortably.
- Teach the hand target. Ten repetitions: flat palm near the nose, mark the nose touch, treat from the other hand (the hand target).
- Lure a sit three times, then switch to an empty hand. Make the same motion with no food in it and reward from the other hand (from lure to cue).
- Add the word before the signal. Once the empty-hand signal works five times running, say "sit," pause, then signal (adding the word).
- Repeat for down if your dog is comfortable. Use a mat on a hard floor, and stop if lying down looks hard for the dog (sit and down).
- Update the cue inventory. Set each behavior's stage on the cues sheet (the stages).
Minimum time: three or four sessions of 2 to 5 minutes, over one or two days. Done when: your dog sits on the word plus the hand signal five times out of five in the kitchen, and the cues sheet says so.
1. From lure to cue Understand
Every behavior in this chapter, and most of the behaviors in the rest of this manual, is taught the same way. You get the behavior to happen, you mark it the instant it happens, you pay for it, and only when it is happening reliably do you give it a name. The name comes last because a word means nothing to a dog until it predicts something the dog already knows how to do. How dogs learn set up the two tools this depends on: a charged marker (a click or a short word such as "yes" that the dog has learned predicts food) and the habit of rewarding immediately. If your marker is not charged yet, go back and do that first; everything here leans on it.
There are three common ways to get a behavior to happen in the first place. VCA's training-basics page for puppies describes all three, and so does Karen Pryor Clicker Training's glossary. They are not rival schools; most trainers use all three, and the choice depends on the behavior and the dog.
| Method | What you do | Suits | What to watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lure | Guide the dog into the position with food held at its nose, then mark and reward. | Sit, down, stand, turning, following the hand. Fast for a first-time learner. | The dog learns to follow food rather than a signal unless the food leaves the hand quickly. |
| Capture | Wait for the dog to do the behavior on its own, then mark and reward. | Things dogs do often: sitting, lying down, settling, eye contact. | Slow at first; needs treats on you at odd moments. |
| Shape | Reward small steps toward the goal, raising the standard a little at a time. | Behaviors that are hard to lure, and dogs that ignore food in a hand. | Needs good timing and a clear picture of each small step. |
Luring, and why the lure leaves early
A lure is food (or a toy) held where the dog's nose will follow it, used to move the dog into a position. VCA's page describes a good lure as acting like a magnet on the nose, and it suggests treats about the size of a pencil eraser. Luring is quick: most dogs sit the first time a treat travels up and back over their head. The cost is that the dog can learn "follow the food" instead of "sit when the hand moves this way." Karen Pryor Clicker Training's glossary warns trainers to fade the lure early so the dog does not come to depend on it, and VCA's page on reinforcement adds the consequence: a dog whose lure was not replaced responds to seeing the reward rather than to the hand signal or the word.
To fade a lure means to remove it in small steps while the behavior keeps happening. The first and biggest step is the switch to an empty hand. VCA's training-basics page says that with most puppies you can switch to an empty hand making the same motion within 5 to 10 repetitions. Convention We use the low end of that for the first behaviors: lure three times, then try the empty hand. If the dog follows the empty hand, mark and pay from your other hand. If it does not, lure twice more and try again. Karen Pryor's article on fading describes the same rhythm in her own training, prompting two or three more times before she withdraws the prompt.
The American Kennel Club's sit article gives the detail that makes the switch work: the treat comes from the other hand. The signaling hand stays empty, so the dog learns that the empty hand's motion is the signal and the food arrives from somewhere else. A treat pouch or a pocket on the other side works for this; so does a small dish on a counter, out of the dog's reach.
Deadline. A lure that stays in the hand becomes a bribe: the dog checks your hand for food before deciding whether to respond. Give the lure a deadline in repetitions, not in days. If you have lured the same behavior more than ten times and have not yet tried an empty hand, try it on the next repetition.
Signals, then shrinking them
A hand signal is a movement of your hand that the dog has learned predicts a behavior. In this chapter the hand signals come from the lure motions themselves. The upward sweep that raised the dog's nose for a sit becomes a flat palm lifted a few inches. The downward line that drew the nose to the floor for a down becomes a palm lowered toward the floor. Karen Pryor's article on fading describes making a gesture smaller on each try until a tiny movement is enough, and the AKC's article on fading the lure lists the same thing as its last steps: keep shrinking the physical cue until a small signal remains, or drop it so the word works alone.
A cue is any signal that tells the dog which behavior will be rewarded now. Karen Pryor Clicker Training's glossary says cues can be verbal, physical (a hand signal) or environmental (a doorway, a mat). A dog can learn more than one cue for the same behavior: "sit" and a lifted palm can both mean sit.
Adding the word
VCA's reinforcement page puts the order plainly: first get the behavior reliably, then add the cue before it. The AKC's sit article says to add the word when the dog sits reliably for your empty hand, saying it just before the hand signal. Convention Our standard for "reliably" is five times running with the empty hand, which matches the stage rule on the cues sheet.
- Say the word once, then pause, then signal. "Sit," a half-second pause, then the palm lifts. Say the word in a normal voice, once. Repeating it ("sit, sit, sit") teaches the dog that the first one does not count.
- Mark the sit and pay. Same as before. The word has not changed anything yet for the dog.
- Watch for the dog beating the signal. After a number of repetitions some dogs start to sit on the word, before your hand moves. Mark that and pay generously. That moment is the word starting to work on its own.
- Test the word alone now and then. Say the word and keep your hands still for a few seconds. The AKC's fading article describes the same test: give the cue and pause briefly, and if the dog does not respond, help with the signal. A sit means the word is learning. No sit means you go back to word plus signal for more repetitions, without comment.
Every time while learning, every correct response gets marked and paid. VCA's reinforcement page calls this continuous reinforcement and says to move to intermittent, variable rewards once the dog responds consistently. That move belongs to Proof it and keep going, after the cue works in several places. Fading the lure is not the same as fading the reward: the AKC's fading article is clear that the dog still gets paid, sometimes with food and sometimes with praise, and Karen Pryor's article says the same about the marker: prompts and cues are faded, the marker is not.
Capturing
Capturing means marking and rewarding a behavior the dog does on its own, so that it happens more often. Karen Pryor Clicker Training's glossary and VCA's training-basics page define it the same way. Sitting and lying down are good candidates because dogs do both many times a day. Keep a few treats in a pocket. When the dog sits in front of you, mark and toss a treat a short distance away so the dog stands up and has the chance to sit again. When the dog lies down near you in the evening, mark and place a treat between its front paws. The AKC's down article suggests training when the dog is already tired, after a walk or play, for the same reason: a tired dog lies down more often.
Capturing has two advantages. Nothing touches or steers the dog, so a shy dog or a dog uneasy about hands is comfortable with it. And the dog does the whole behavior itself, so there is no lure to fade. Its disadvantage is speed: you wait for the behavior, and early sessions can feel slow. Once the dog is offering the behavior often, add the word just before you expect it, the same way as above.
Shaping, in a sentence
Shaping is building a behavior by rewarding small steps toward it and raising the standard gradually (Karen Pryor Clicker Training's glossary calls these steps approximations). For a down, that might mean rewarding a glance at the floor, then a lowered head, then bent elbows, then the full down; the AKC's down article gives that same progression. Shaping is in Go deeper below because the lure and capture routes cover the first behaviors for most dogs.
Shaping a down, step by step
Shaping suits a dog that will not follow a lure to the floor, a dog that pops up as soon as the food arrives, and a person who wants to practice timing. Sit on the floor or a low chair with 20 pieces of food. Pick a first step the dog already does without help, such as looking toward the floor. Mark the look, drop the treat between the front paws, and repeat. When the dog offers that step easily, about four times in five, stop marking the look and wait for a little more: the head dipping. Then elbows bending. Then the chest touching down. The AKC's down article gives this progression and its rule: begin with a step the dog can easily do, and raise the standard slowly. Karen Pryor Clicker Training's troubleshooting article gives the fix for a stuck session: split the step into smaller parts.
Two things make shaping work. First, the marker has to land on the movement, not after it; Karen Pryor's fifteen tips say to click during the behavior, not after it is finished. Second, the treat placement helps: dropping the treat low and between the paws keeps the dog's head down and makes the next approximation more likely. If the dog stops offering anything and starts to look away or wander, the step was too big. Go back to the last step it was getting paid for, and end the session on a few easy ones. Preference
2. The hand target first
A hand target is a behavior in which the dog touches its nose to your flat palm when you present it. It is the first behavior in this chapter, before sit, for three reasons.
- It moves the dog without touching it. A dog that will follow an empty hand can be moved off a couch, through a doorway, away from a dropped sandwich, or to your side on a walk, with no pulling on the collar and no hands on the body. The AKC's targeting article lists guiding a dog through crowded or stressful places and helping an anxious dog refocus among its uses.
- It is easy to get right the first time. Dogs investigate a hand held near their face. The first touch usually happens within seconds, so you and the dog both get an early success, and you get practice with marker timing on a behavior that is fast and obvious.
- Other chapters are built on it. Loose-leash walking uses the hand target to show the dog where to walk. Come when called uses it as the end point of a recall: the dog comes all the way in and touches your hand, rather than stopping just out of reach.
Teaching it
- Present a flat palm close to the nose. Karen Pryor Clicker Training's target article puts a new target about a quarter inch from the nose. Hold your palm flat, fingers together, a little to one side of the dog's face, so the dog does not have to push past it.
- Mark the touch. The instant the nose meets the palm, mark. The KPCT article says that if the dog only looks at the target at first, mark the look; the touch usually follows.
- Treat from the other hand. Take the target hand away at the same moment you mark, and deliver the treat from the other hand, low and close to where the dog is. Then present the target again.
- Move the hand a little. After a few successful touches, present the palm slightly left, right, higher and lower, still close to the nose. The KPCT article gives the same progression.
- Add distance and the word later. The AKC's targeting article says to add a word such as "touch" once the dog is touching consistently, then ask for the touch from farther away and with the hand in different places. Use the five-times-running standard before you add the word.
Ten repetitions make one short session. KPCT's target article keeps target sessions to no more than three to five minutes; Karen Pryor's fifteen tips go further and say that five one-minute sessions teach more than one long one. Convention If you have ten pieces of food and two minutes, that is a session. End it while the dog still wants to play.
If the dog will not sniff the hand, the AKC's article suggests starting with a treat held between two fingers of the target hand, which makes the first touch nearly automatic. Remove the treat from that hand within the next few repetitions; it is a lure like any other. If the dog uses its teeth, the KPCT article says to mark as the dog moves toward the target, before contact, so the mouth does not arrive. A puppy in a mouthy phase often does better with the palm presented a little lower and the treat delivered on a flat hand or tossed to the floor. Everyday problems covers mouthing as its own problem.
3. Sit, down and the release word
Sit by lure
- Start with the dog standing in front of you. Hold a treat at its nose.
- Move the treat slowly up and back over the head. The AKC's sit article describes lifting the treat over the dog's head toward its rear. As the nose goes up, the hindquarters go down.
- Mark as the rear touches the floor. Give the treat while the dog is still sitting. If the treat arrives after the dog stands, you have paid for standing.
- Release, and reset. Say your release word (below) and toss a treat a step away so the dog stands up and you can start again.
- After three lured sits, switch to an empty hand. Make the same motion, mark the sit, and pay from your other hand. Shrink the motion over the next sessions.
The AKC's article says to avoid pushing down a dog's hind end, because it can intimidate and confuse the dog. Physical placement also makes the dog's learning harder to read: you cannot tell whether the dog sat or was folded. If the dog backs up instead of sitting as the treat goes over its head, practice with its rear near a wall or the side of a couch, and move the treat more slowly and closer to the nose.
Sit by capture
Some dogs sit the moment they see a treat. For them capturing is faster than luring. Stand still with a treat hidden in your hand, wait, and mark when the rear touches the floor. Toss the treat away to reset. When the dog is sitting within a few seconds of your stillness every time, add the word just before you expect the sit. A hand signal can be added later, the same way, by making the signal just before the expected behavior; or skip it, if the word alone is what you need. Most households want both, for reasons the senior section explains.
Down by lure
Down is harder than sit. It puts the dog in a lower, more vulnerable position, and on a slippery or cold floor many dogs simply prefer not to. Teach it on a mat, rug or dog bed.
- Start from a sit. Hold a treat at the nose.
- Lower the treat straight down between the front paws, slowly. Then, if the dog's head is down but its elbows are not, draw the treat slowly along the floor away from the paws. The AKC's down article describes this as an "L" shape: down, then out.
- Mark when the elbows and chest reach the floor. Deliver the treat low, between the paws, while the dog is still down. The AKC's article calls the alternative the "push-up problem": a dog paid after it gets up learns to touch down and bounce.
- Release, reset and repeat. After three lured downs, switch to an empty hand making the same down-and-out line, and pay from the other hand.
The AKC's down article says not to force a puppy into a down. Pushing on the shoulders tends to make a dog brace against the pressure, and it may frighten the dog. If the dog will not go down after a few slow tries, you have three good options: capture the down in the evening when the dog lies down by itself, shape it (Go deeper above), or, for a large dog, try the AKC's suggestion of a low bridge (your leg or a low stool) that the dog has to lie down to pass under for the treat. Each of these leaves the decision to lie down with the dog.
The release word
A release word tells the dog that the behavior is finished and it is free to move. Without one, a sit lasts until the dog decides it is over, which teaches the dog that it decides. The AKC's stay article names common release words ("okay," "free," "release") and notes that "okay" slips out in ordinary speech, which can release a dog by accident. Preference We use "free," because people rarely say it to each other while a dog is sitting. Agree on one word for the whole household and write it on the household sheet.
The AKC's stay article teaches the release before teaching any stay: ask for a sit, wait a second, give the treat, then say the release word right away and encourage the dog to move, with praise. Repeat until the dog moves on the word. In this chapter, the release ends every sit and every down. That habit is all that the first behaviors need. Settle, stay and leave it builds duration, distance and distraction on it.
The release word in detail
Three details keep a release word meaningful. First, say it every time the behavior ends, including when you are about to ask for the next behavior; otherwise "sit" followed by "down" teaches that sit ends whenever a new cue comes. Second, the treat comes during the behavior and the release comes after the treat, so the dog learns that the payment is for holding the position, and the release word itself is not followed by food. The AKC's stay article describes the release as a word used consistently and exclusively to say the behavior is done. Third, if the dog gets up before the release, do not scold. Ask again, wait a shorter time, and release sooner. The AKC's stay article also says not to punish breaks, and the reason is practical: a dog that is scolded for moving learns to be uneasy in the position.
Teaching "stand"
Stand is the third position. It is useful at the veterinary clinic and for grooming, and both 4-H ladders below include a stand for examination in the first year. It uses the same sequence as sit and down. From a sit, hold a treat at the nose and draw it straight forward, level with the nose, about the length of the dog's head. Most dogs stand to follow it. Mark as the back legs straighten, pay at nose level so the dog does not sit again, and release. Switch to an empty hand after three repetitions; the signal becomes a flat palm moving forward. Preference The stand is the position dogs hold least easily, so pay quickly and release early.
One practitioner's foundation order
Ken Ramirez, writing for Karen Pryor Clicker Training, gives one practitioner's sequence of nine foundation behaviors: approach and eat, follow, target, the clicker, station, follow a target, tactile (accepting touch), management and husbandry behaviors, and capturing. He answers the question of whether order matters with "it depends," and presents the sequence as a starting plan rather than a fixed recipe. Two of his reasons are worth keeping. An animal that will not approach and eat from the trainer cannot start training. And he introduces the clicker only once the animal is comfortable, so the click does not become linked with something frightening.
This manual differs in one place: the marker is charged in How dogs learn, before any behavior, because this manual assumes a household dog that already eats from its people. If your dog will not take food from your hand, his first step is the right one for you: work on approaching and eating comfortably before anything else, and read the Limits box below. Preference
Benchmarks from 4-H obedience
Youth 4-H dog projects publish the exercises a first-year handler and dog work toward. They are show rules, not requirements for a pet, but they give a sense of what a beginning team is asked to do, all on leash.
| Program | First-level exercises | What it adds later |
|---|---|---|
| University of Arizona Extension, Pima County 4-H obedience guidelines (revised December 2023): Pre Novice, the first year | Heel on leash, figure 8, stand for examination, recall and finish, long sit (1 minute), long down (3 minutes); a six-foot leash | Novice: the same core with heeling off leash |
| Purdue Extension 4-H dog obedience class exercises (2021): class 1A | Heel on leash, figure 8 on leash, sit for exam on leash, sit stay on leash (30 seconds), recall on leash | 1-minute group sit and down stays at class 2; hand signals as a scored exercise at class 5 |
Two things in these ladders bear on this chapter. Sit and down come early and stay durations grow slowly, from 30 seconds to a few minutes over a year. And the hand-signal exercise sits near the top of Purdue's ladder: a dog working on signals alone, with no word, is a recognized skill in its own right. Convention
Three responses in this chapter are information, not disobedience, and the chapter cannot settle them.
- The dog will not take food in a quiet room it knows. A healthy, relaxed dog usually eats. A dog that refuses food it normally likes may be stressed, unwell or in pain. If it lasts beyond one odd session, ask the veterinarian. Ask the authority
- The dog will not lie down on a hard floor, lies down stiffly, or gets up quickly with effort. Try a mat first. A dog that avoids lying down on any surface, or that lies down slowly and awkwardly, may be uncomfortable in its hips, back or elbows. That is a question for the veterinarian, not a training problem.
- The dog stiffens, freezes, ducks or turns away when a hand approaches. That is a fear or discomfort signal (see Read your dog). Teach by capture, with no hands near the dog, and talk to the veterinarian first and then a credentialed behavior consultant if it continues. If there is any growl, snap or bite, the stop-and-call list in Read your dog applies before any further training.
4. The cue inventory, and a word we do not use
The cue inventory is the cues sheet in your training log: one row per behavior, with the word, the hand signal and the furthest stage the dog reaches reliably. It replaces a vague sense of "she knows sit" with a record of what the dog does, where, and on which cue. The sheet's rule for a stage is five times out of five, not the best moment you have seen. Test it
| Stage | What it means | Test before you move it up |
|---|---|---|
| Not started | No training yet. | None. |
| Lured | The dog does the behavior when food guides it. | Five lured repetitions in a row, then try the empty hand. |
| On a hand signal | The dog does it for an empty-hand signal; the food comes from the other hand. | Five out of five with an empty hand. The word may be added at this stage; note it in the Word column. |
| On the word | The dog does it when you say the word with your hands still. | Five out of five on the word alone, in the room where you trained it. |
| In three places | The same, in three different places at a low level of distraction. | Five out of five in each place; write the places in the sheet. |
| With distractions | The same, with something interesting going on. | Five out of five with a named distraction; Proof it and keep going covers proofing. |
The inventory does three jobs. It tells you what to train next: the lowest stage on a behavior you need. It shows the household what each cue means today, which matters when several people train. And it gives you something accurate to tell a trainer or a veterinarian. When your setup lists a cue the dog already knows, the sheet seeds it at "on the word"; check that stage with five tries in a row before you trust it, because a dog that "knows sit" often knows it in the kitchen, for one person, with a treat in view.
Stages move down as well as up. A dog that sits on the word in the kitchen may need a hand signal in the park. That is normal: many dogs do not carry a cue from one place to another without practice there. Test it Write the place where it worked, and treat the new place as a new stage.
"Stubborn" is a word this manual does not use
Karen Pryor's fifteen tips put it directly: a pet that does not respond to a cue is not disobeying; it has not learned the cue completely. We go one step further. We do not use the word "stubborn" for a dog, because it names a character trait and points to no action, while every common reason for a missed cue has something you can check and change.
| What may be going on | How to check | What to change |
|---|---|---|
| The cue is not learned yet in this place | Look at the inventory. Is the cue at "on the word" here, or only in the kitchen? | Go back one stage: word plus signal, or lure once, in the new place. |
| The dog responds to the food, not the signal | The AKC's lure test: give the cue with no food in either hand. No response means the lure is still doing the work. | Switch to an empty hand and pay from the other hand. |
| The cue changed | Does each person say the same word and use the same signal? Did you add a word ("sit down") or lean over the dog? | Agree the words on the household sheet. Say the cue once, in the same form. |
| Too much going on | Is there a dog, a smell or a person nearby that the dog cannot stop watching? | Move farther away or to a quieter place. Distractions come last, in Proof it and keep going. |
| Under-rewarded | How many rewards did the dog get in the last minute? KPCT's troubleshooting article suggests roughly 10 to 15 a minute for new behavior, as a guideline, not a rule. | Smaller pieces, more often. Use the treat budget to keep the calories in range. |
| Uncomfortable or unwell | A dog that sat yesterday and will not today, a dog that will not lie down, a senior that stops responding to a known cue. | Stop and ask the veterinarian. Ask the authority |
Cue inventories for households with several trainers
When several people train one dog, each person's version of a cue is slightly different: a different tone, a wider hand, a habit of bending over. The dog learns each version separately, so a cue that works for one person can be at "lured" for another. Three habits keep the inventory honest.
- One agreed list. Write the words and the signals on the household sheet before the first session: "sit," a lifted palm; "down," a lowered palm; "touch," a flat palm at the dog's nose level; "free" to release. Everyone uses that list, including visitors who want to give the dog a treat.
- One stage per person when it matters. If the stages differ by person, write that in the Places column ("on the word: Ken and Aiko; on signal: the children"). The stage the dog reaches with the least practiced person is the honest one.
- A shared session log. Each person adds a session row. A family that splits 15 minutes across four people can see from the log who is getting results and with which reward.
Children can be excellent trainers with a small dog and a clear routine, but whether a particular child runs sessions alone is a decision for the parents, made after watching the child and the dog together. Ask the authority Read your dog explains why supervision with young children applies to every dog.
5. Older dogs, sore bodies and fading hearing
Older dogs learn new cues. What changes with age is the body that does the behavior and the senses that receive the cue, so the method changes, not the expectation that the dog can learn.
- Hand signals first. Hearing often fades with age, and a dog that cannot hear a word clearly cannot respond to it. Teach and record the hand signal as the primary cue for an older dog, and add the word as a second cue for close range. Karen Pryor Clicker Training's glossary lists hand signals as cues in their own right, and Purdue's 4-H ladder scores a hand-signal exercise on its own. Signals need the dog to be looking at you, so the name game from How dogs learn (the dog turns to you on its name) matters more, not less; for a dog that cannot hear its name, a gentle touch on the shoulder, a stamp on the floor or a light flicked on can stand in, once each is paired with food.
- A soft surface for the down. A dog with stiff joints may sit and lie down slowly, or prefer not to lie down on a hard floor. Teach the down on a mat or bed, and accept a slower down as a correct one.
- Shorter sessions, smaller pieces. Two or three minutes, a few times a day. Older dogs often eat a measured senior diet; take the training food out of the day's ration, using the treat budget.
- A known cue that stops working. A senior that stops responding to a cue it has known for years is a veterinary question first: hearing, sight, pain and cognitive change can each look like "not listening." Ask the authority
A simple test tells you which cue an older dog relies on. Stand in front of the dog at arm's length and say "sit" with your hands still behind your back. Then give the hand signal with no word. Repeat each at about six feet, across the room, and with the dog looking at you from a different angle. Record what worked at each distance in the Places column. The result decides which cue goes in the Hand signal and Word columns as primary.
6. See it See it
Pearl and Walter: whose cue is it? Pearl is a 9-year-old beagle, 28 pounds, who has lived with Walter Kaminski since she was a puppy. They moved to a condominium in August 2026. She has had no formal training; she "knows sit for a biscuit." Her hearing is fading. Walter chooses two 10-minute sessions a day. Her veterinarian's figure for her senior diet is 520 kcal a day (fictional), so her extras budget is 52 kcal a day. Her sessions use pieces of her own kibble, at 340 kcal a cup, taken out of her meals; that food is not an extra and does not use the budget.
Known. Pearl sits when Walter raises a biscuit, which means the raised hand has been working as a lure for years. Her hearing is fading. She eats readily from his hand.
Walter's test. He runs the hearing test from the senior section with an empty hand and kibble in his pocket. On "sit" with his hands still: she sits at arm's length, and at six feet and across the room she looks at him and does nothing. On the lifted-palm signal with no word: she sits at every distance, as long as she is looking at him. He writes the cue inventory row as: Sit; word "sit" (close range only); hand signal "flat palm lifted"; stage "on a hand signal"; places "living room." The inventory records the hand signal as Pearl's primary cue.
Next. Walter teaches the hand target from scratch (ten repetitions, flat palm), then the down by lure on her bed, because she prefers soft surfaces. He uses "free," with an open sweep of both hands, as the release, since a word alone may not reach her.
Assumed. That Pearl prefers her bed to the condo's floors for lying down. Walter assumes this from watching her; it is his observation, not a finding. Open. Whether a slow down on hard floors reflects discomfort. Walter watches for it and asks the veterinarian at the recheck the veterinarian has already set for next month. Settled by the test. Which cue Pearl relies on: the hand signal.
- VCA: Puppy behavior and training, training basics: lure, capture and shape side by side, with the empty-hand switch in 5 to 10 repetitions. Written for puppies; the method applies to any age.
- AKC: How to teach your dog to sit: the lure, the empty hand with the treat from the other hand, and the word added just before the signal.
- AKC: How to teach your dog to lie down: down by lure, shaping and capturing, and why the treat arrives while the dog is still down.
- Karen Pryor Clicker Training: How to teach your pet to target: one practitioner's targeting steps, with the quarter-inch start and short sessions.
7. Practice Practice
Minimum: ten hand-target repetitions, three lured sits followed by empty-hand sits until five run in a row, the word added before the signal, and the cues sheet updated. Time: three or four sessions of 2 to 5 minutes over one or two days, plus 5 minutes to update the log. Materials: about 40 small pieces of food (the dog's own kibble works for most dogs indoors), counted out from the treat budget; a pouch or pocket on the side of your treat hand; a mat or rug for the down; your marker; the cues sheet and the sessions sheet.
- Count the food. Take the session's pieces out of the day's ration or treat allowance. Ten to fifteen pieces make a session.
- Hand target, ten repetitions. Flat palm a quarter inch from the nose, mark the touch, treat from the other hand. Move the palm a little left, right, up and down as it gets easy. Write a session row: skill "Hand target," attempts (ten) and successful responses.
- Sit: lure, then empty hand. Three lured sits. Then the same motion with an empty hand, paying from the other hand. Lure twice more if the dog does not follow, then try again. Release with your release word after each sit.
- Count five in a row. When the empty-hand signal produces five sits running, add the word: "sit," a pause, then the signal. Mark and pay every sit.
- Test in the kitchen. In a later session, give word plus signal five times. Five out of five meets this chapter's Done when. Write it on the cues sheet: sit, word "sit," hand signal (describe it), stage "on a hand signal," places "kitchen," with the date.
- Down, if the dog is comfortable. On a mat: three lured downs, then the empty hand, paying low between the paws while the dog is down. Stop and read the Limits box if lying down looks hard.
- Update every row you touched. Hand target, sit and down each get a stage and the date. Rows you have not started stay at "not started."
- Capture downs for one evening. Keep five pieces in a pocket and mark every time the dog lies down near you on its own. Note in the session row how many you caught.
- Shape a down with 20 pieces, using the steps in the shaping section, and log how many approximations it took.
- Move one cue to "on the word." Shrink the signal over several sessions until a small hand movement is enough, then test the word alone, hands still, five times.
- Take one cue to three places. Kitchen, living room and one more (a hallway, the yard, a quiet porch). Lower your expectations in each new place and go back a stage if needed.
- Teach stand, and add it as a new row in the cues sheet.
8. Your dog Your dog
9. Check your work Check your work
Criteria
- Does the dog touch your flat palm when you present it, and do you mark the touch rather than the moment after?
- Did the lure leave your hand within about ten repetitions for each behavior, and does the food now come from the other hand?
- Does the dog sit on the word plus the hand signal five times out of five in the kitchen?
- Is the word said once, before the signal, in the same form each time?
- Does every sit and down end with the release word?
- Does the cues sheet show a stage, the word, the signal, the place and a date for each behavior you trained, at the stage the dog reaches five times out of five?
Worked example
Pearl (fictional example), checked against the criteria. Hand target: taught from scratch, ten repetitions a session; Walter marks the touch. Lure faded: her sit was lured by a biscuit for years, and Walter's test shows the empty lifted palm now works on its own, with food from his other hand. Word plus signal five out of five: met in the living room, with the word reaching her only up close; the kitchen test is next. Word said once: yes. Release: "free" with a two-handed sweep, because a word alone may not reach her. Cues sheet: sit at "on a hand signal" with the word noted as close range only, the hand target at "lured" and then "on a hand signal," and down at "lured" on her bed. Under these assumptions (her hearing and her comfort on the floor), the inventory is accurate. The open fact about lying down on hard floors goes to the veterinarian at next month's recheck.
Common mistakes
- The lure stays. The dog sits beautifully as long as there is food in the signaling hand. Check: run the AKC's test with both hands empty.
- The word repeats. "Sit. Sit. SIT." The dog learns the third one is the real cue. Say it once; if nothing happens, help with the signal and go back a stage.
- The treat arrives late. The dog is paid after it stands up, so it learns sit-and-stand. Pay while the dog is still in position.
- Pushing the dog into position. The AKC's articles advise against it for both sit and down. If a lure does not work, capture or shape.
- Sessions too long. A dog that wanders off at minute six was ready to stop at minute three. End early and end on success.
- The stage is set from the best moment. The sheet records five out of five, not one good try.
What is still unresolved
This chapter gets three behaviors to the first stages in one quiet room. It does not settle whether they hold in other places, with distractions, at a distance or for a duration; that is Settle, stay and leave it (duration with stay) and Proof it and keep going (proofing). It does not settle any physical reason a dog avoids a position; the veterinarian does. And for a dog that is fearful of hands, the route is Read your dog and a credentialed professional, not more repetitions.