Introducing trot on the lunge?

[o? look, ??'s K????]

My horse is being trained to lunge, it's been about 2 weeks since I started.
To my surprise she is doing excellent and lunges in full circles in walk without stopping now. It's quite boring for her as she's young, I'd like to introduce trot so she has more to focus on. I'm working with the verbal command when trotting her in-hand and I'd say she only gets it 40%, is it too soon?

I try not to work with the whip because it really works her up. She learned the command 'walk' while training to lunge but to me it looks as if she feels she's being told off when I ask her to speed up on the lunge, woah tongue twister.
Like yesterday I kept clicking my tongue, she sped up in walk then I repeated 'trotting' and waved the line a bit but she just remained a quick pace in walk and was pretty unsure.
Fail --> SC : Sports > Winter Sports > Ice Skating
I have desensitized her, but I don't want her to be 'desensitized' with the whip, I want her to respect it which she does. She's fine with me rubbing it all over her etc, it's a problem with me using it.

I tend to use it far too much with the wrong body language without even noticing, and it's only when someone is recording us I notice it so I'm going to work on that with a different horse. She is being trained so I don't want to send the wrong message from my fault and mess up, without the whip we work much better together and she's amazing.

It's not that she's scared of the whip. It's a problem with ME and I don't want to use it right now with her, ever since I took it away she has been an angel
I'm not asking how to use a lunge whip...I know how to.

If you actually read the question I wasn't asking anywhere near that...

 

[?Meagan Kay?]

I'm no professional, but I'd say it's definitely not too soon...... I trained two 7 year olds how to lunge about a month ago, and they both picked it up fairly easily.... after I got after them a bit. You sound like an intelligent, knowledgable person, but I just wanted to throw this out there - be sure you are communicating with her very strongly. Body language and gravity of focus are key in lunging, especially a horse that doesn't quite get it yet. And with a horse that doesn't quite get it yet, I be sure to also communicate vocally A LOT. Praise when they're doing it right, negative things when they don't do as you ask. When I click I also say walk (or trot or canter..... Later of course ;-] .... Because then they will really begin to understand all the verbal cues. I'm sure you already know most of this, but I just wanted to put it out there. Anyways, both of the 7 yo geldings I taught to lunge were trotting within a week. And they are still fine and without issue, so I really don't think I did it too soon. I don't know how old yours is, but I'd say she's ready. Good luck :-]


------- Just read the part where you said she is unsure about picking up the next gate. Just continue to encourage her and push her into it until she breaks to trot. Once she breaks to trot, even if it's only for a stride or two... Which is probably what it will be, praise her for it and make sure she knows she did what you asked her and she did it correctly.