Stimulating Work Environments

At Team Training on Tuesday, one of the foster mom's made a comment that I've thought about all week. She talked about how it seemed that her dog would sometimes give her "the look" when she asked him to get something. The look that seems to say, "you can do it, get it yourself!" As a parent of a teenager - and a teenage dog, I'm very familiar with that look.

Belle is at the point in her training where she knows every command I've taught her. The trouble is, when I work with her on her cue repetitions I'm often asking her to do the cue in the course of her work, not mine. And I have a niggling doubt that as such, I'm not preparing her as well as I could for how to do the cue in the world at large. The comment that the other foster mom expressed made me think about how and what I should adapt in the home so that Belle is working her cues - but in more of the way she will need to work them when she graduates. How do I make myself not do things that she should be doing?

I'm not sure what the answer is, but am wide open to suggestions - readers?