I am been reading a few books on dog traing and clicker training and have realized that I have been overshadowing some cues.
I have been saying 'Fetch it!' at the same moment as I have indicated with a hand signal. I have tried separating the two - pausing a few seconds between the verbal and hand signal. But most times my dogs wait until I give the hand signal - refusing to move on just the verbal cue.
Do I have to introduce a new verbal cue to get them to respond to that and not just wait for the hand signal?
overshadowing
When teaching a new cue, the sequence is New Cue, Old Cue, Behavior (I'm assuming you already get the behavior with the old/established cue?) which is what you are currently doing. It may be that you just need a bit more time with this- after all the dog has basically learned to tune those words out, so it will take a while to realize that they are salient/important. Using another cue might make the process go faster, perhaps change to Get it or Find it or whatever works for you.