Fronts!

So how can a dog with a CD, a RE, & ready for a CDX, not know what "front" means??????!!!!!

This is what I had to ask myself a few weeks ago while I was out doing some training.  Kort was sitting nicely at my left side in the heel position & I asked him to front.  He didn't move, so thinking he didn't hear me I repeated the command, same thing, I asked again, he downed, really?? I moved position & asked again, he backed up , then downed !  OMG!!! my dog really doesn't know front!
I started to think about it, in CD & CDX work I use the "come" command for his recall & drop on recall, but in Rally I use both verbal, as well as hand signals for the front command.  Oops, somehow I neglected to train this with out luring , duh!

So we are now training it & it is not going well.  I have went back to using his perch, a small stool were he just puts his 2 front feet on.  He has no problem doing the fronts this way, standing & moving into position as I move around the perch, but he really is struggling with the concept of getting off his butt from a sitting position, then moving his entire body into the correct spot.  This would have been much easier 5 years ago when we first started training, I think I remember Amanda telling me something about this very early on, but I know everything right? :)  Ya, not so much it seems :)