I must admit I was too impatient for some time. I'm never impatient with my dogs in the direct sense, but I had the tendency to estimate insuffieciently when they were ready for trying a higher level. I in between always go rapidly one or more steps back, if I see they can't get success.

What I'm confused of is, when I'm training something just catching the moment they do something naturally. For example: my more active Pit, Socks, learned the play bow and the roll over very quickly, only because I marked and rewarded, when she did it just when it happened. I then didn't put it on cue yet of course. But later she soon learned to understand the connection between her performance and the cue. It was the most easy thing.

The second Pit, Slippie, performs the bow each time when I put on my shoes before a walk. But she hasn't really made the connection between handsign and movement yet. It is not yet generalized on other spots. Will this be just a matter of training this consistently on different spots, or am I doing something wrong? The roll over I had to train with her they way it was shown in LB courses. She does it then reluctantly. So I guess she will need just more practice.

Is the reason for this that she doesn't do it spontaneously as often as Socks? Same thing with the Lab-Mix. She does rarely do those movements by herself and when she does it I'm not always ready to mark/reward. She learned it the slow way, breaking down the exercises, beginning with a down and then make her with luring hand movement fall down to the side. This is no problem any more. But the rolling over she somehow doesn't get. Always stands up on all four. May be my luring her over with handsign to the other side is not clear enough?

Well I know it's nothing very important. But I'd appreciate any idea.

Thanks!

Really hard to say why it's so hard for one and not the other.

The fact that one does it naturally more often makes sense because you've been able to capture it more often.

You say that you can't always capture it when she does it.

The key to that is teaching the dog that the time between marker and reward can be longer as the dog learns.

In other words the "time" element can be extended.

The dog can be marked outside and rewarded inside WHEN it learns that time is RANDOMLY added between the mark and the reward.

The other HUGE factor is simply that each dog can learn at different rates.

Thanks Bob. The problem is not the time between marker and reward. But as the dog is outdoors I cannot not each time see it when perhaps she does it naturally and so can't mark/rew.

But it was the same situation too with the one who learned it easily, Only that I of course could capture it more often because she did it so often naturally, when I was outdoors too.

Could it also be a because Slippie always did it under the same circumstances. (putting on my shoes). Then I could mark/rew. many times in a row. So, she perhaps has connected this behavior much more with the whole situation itself than with my gesture? In other situations she does it very seldom, so I guess I will have to teach it to her on other spots with luring.

And this is true too. Socks learns most behavious much quicker, though not everything. Sometimes Slippie or the Lab understand some other things quicker.
No problem, it will just take more time.