As always, begin with focus, chin rests and looking at the PVC stick.

We use Mechanical (leash pressure) as a second cue to “take it.” It will make your life easier down the road even if it is hard to visualize it.

As you can see, Anna’s dog can hold the PVC stick with very little of her help for a few seconds. It is essential your dog can do this by now.

As in Stay Positions, we first need to explain to the dog that the leash is now in play. We will pop the leash and within a second, place the stick in the dog’s mouth. Due to Classical Conditioning, the dog will anticipate and will begin taking the stick in response to the pop.
Once in a while reinforce for the focus only.