When teaching a new cue (usually a verbal cue), you repeatedly pair it with a known cue (usually a hand signal) so that the new cue reliably predicts the known one.

Once your dog realizes this pattern, they begin responding to the new cue on its own. This is called "jumping the prompt."

Pairing a new verbal cue with a hand signal usually takes far more than 5 repetitions. Because of this, we use a shaping algorithm with short 90-second sets. Instead of counting right vs. wrong responses, you track how many times your dog responds to the verbal cue alone vs. how many times they still need the hand signal prompt afterward.

When your dog is jumping the prompt 50% of the time, they are ready to Push to the next step, where they are required to respond to the verbal cue alone.