Reply To: Stimulus or cue?
You wrote, “Thank you for your detailed response. I agree that it is counterintuitive for a dog to leave the subject, return to the handler and then return to the subject. She is actually quite happy to do that, though. It is the sit at handler that messes her up.
I’m sure that she’s “quite happy to do that.” You’re not working her in drive and so to her it’s a game. Game behavior is unreliable. And you’ve reinforced the recall so she’s “happy to do it.” Her “sit at handler” has “messed [her] up” because it’s counter‒instinctive.
You wrote, “My original question was about cuing her sit. I think that returning to me is the stimulus to sit. But I want to make sure that my behavior isn’t interpreted as cueing her sit.”
What behavior of yours are you talking about?
