Existing chocolate was practice i sons property ( near the criminal That is not the way things are done the marker system. When it comes time to name a behavior we always give the command before we add a signal or gesture for the behavior. It is important give the command a fraction of a second before adding the gesture to help the dog. This break time is important. Remembering that dogs always follow a physical signal over a voice signal. When they are given at the same time the dog be following the physical signal and not learn the voice command. When these handlers then then want to drop the gesture the dogs not perform. Those dogs have only learned to follow the signal and not the voice command. The timing of commands to signals is very much like the timing for marking a behaviors and then delivering the reward. The command and the signal cannot happen at the same instant or the dog always work off the physical signal and not the voice command. Flow Chart on Adding Commands to Marker Training When dogs begin to approach the point where we add a command we them start to anticipate a behavior. Anticipation the learning process is a good thing. Anticipation tells us the dog is thinking, he is actively trying to participate the work. Even if the dog anticipates with incorrect behavior it tells us he is trying to work with us and he wants to do what he thinks we want. 't discourage it too quickly. Old school dog trainers give corrections for anticipation. They expected perfection all the times. Think about this from the dogs standpoint. He gets corrected for trying to do what HE THINKS YOU WANT HIM TO DO. He then thinks Hey I am trying to do this what the heck I 't understand what you want and your jerking me around!!! This sucks I am going to stop trying and wait until you show me exactly what you want! Stimulus control is the finishing tool that completes the training process for a command. As you go through training you reach a point where your dog has learned several behaviors. He looks at them as his little bag of tricks that he uses to make you give him his rewards. During the learning process of a new behavior you often a dog reach into that trick bag and offer all of his known behaviors his effort to get you to give his reward. That is during the learning phase but when the dog gains proficiency this needs to end. At some point the dog should only perform the behavior he is asked to perform. He should also NOT offer this behavior when he is asked to do something Getting the dog to do this is called stimulus control. The point to add stimulus control to you work is when dog performs a behavior on command 8 out of 10 times without a signal or lure. Let me repeat WITHOUT A SIGNAL OR LURE. New trainers that very important part of stimulus control. They jump the gun and start adding stimulus control while they are still using signals to help the dog Then when they drop the signal they confuse the dog. It's also unrealistic to wait for a dog to perform the exercises 100% of the time. Waiting until a dog performs 10 out of 10 times results dogs that get bored with training. A lack of stimulus control is one of the biggest problems motivational trainers face. New trainers grasp the concept of markers, they enjoy the reward process, but they struggle with the refined process of stimulus control. this stage of training when the dog is asked to perform a known behavior and he reaches into his trick bag to offer a different known behaviors,