How to establish an effective down...

...when on a walk outdoors?

Both Khal & Sasi are coming along really nicely with it, Khal more than Sasi, he will 'down' in the house & garden but not on a walk...Also how to I get him to 'down' for more than the 30second attention span he has at the moment, same question could apply to both dogs really

Thanks guys, Bev

I use the ball to reinforce training when out. Before I throw a ball I sometimes ask for a trick or action. They hold it till I throw the ball. It is a fun game and you can increase the length of time they hold it.
Use a release word when throwing though.
Alternatively play games that involve them staying - like when you put them in a down and hide their ball then return and send them to find it?

Ahhh fab thanks Claire. Khal has just started showing an interest in balls the last few weeks, but then I was using balls for touch exercises with him,Touch, click , reward. so now hes more into chasing them & giving Ruby a run for her money

Bev

Have you got an effective down in doors and in the garden?

This might help

Stay……………………….!

Dogs may be required to adopt the sit/stand/down positions when competing in various disciplines:

In Obedience and Schutzhund the dog is commanded to sit/down/stand during heelwork whilst the handler continues to walk on without it, return and “pick it up” and/or return and ask for another position and/or stop some distance away and ask for a recall.

Obedience competitions also include distance control; this is where the handler commands the dog to take up all the positions in a predetermined sequence decided by the judge without forward movement.

In Obedience, Working Trials and Schutzhund dogs are also required to maintain a sit/down and/or stand for up to 10 minutes whilst the handler is out of sight. In addition Schutzhund dogs are required to maintain a long down not only whilst another dog and handler is carrying out heelwork, retrieves and jumps on the field but also whilst gunshots are fired!

In gundog work dogs are required to maintain a steady position at “the peg”, as well as sit to shot etc.

In real life the ability to place a dog into a particular position and maintain it, can be extremely useful. For example, if you have dropped something, need to attend to another dog, a child, open a gate, clear a spillage/breakage etc the possibilities are endless. It demonstrates that you have full control over your dog and any situation you may be put in and enables you to give your full attention to the matter in hand without having to worry about the dog(s). It is, a supremely practical exercise.

More competitions are lost on the “stay” exercises than all the other exercises put together. Why is this? I believe it is because owners think it is not a “skill” that has to be trained, there is no element of difficulty, the dogs do it anyway…….

It is probably the worst trained and performed exercise precisely because of this view.

One of the main problems with training is handlers not breaking down the exercise properly and expecting the dog to cope with too many variables at once.

Once you have trained a dog to sit/stand/down on command and in any order (this is “proofed” by making sure the dog will obey no matter what his orientation is to the handler eg beside, in front, behind and out of sight) you can then start to work on training the dog to maintain the position.

There are four distinct variables that have to be incorporated into the training:

 Duration
 Distraction
 Distance
 Difficulty

And they should be trained in that order.


Training for positions should be started as soon as you have your pup, ie anytime from 7 weeks onwards. I am not going into detail here in how to train a dog to sit, stand, down in its own footprints and in any order, but it is a very simple thing to do, and I would recommend you use a table when pup is small, it is easier for you and easier for the puppy.

Once you have these positions on cue they then need to be “proofed”.

What does this mean?

Dogs are much more likely to follow body language than verbal cues and in order to make sure a dog will do this in whatever position we may find ourselves, we need to make sure they “have their ears on”. A good way of training this is similar to “Simon Says”. IE will your pup sit if you bend over and touch the floor with your hands whilst giving the cue? No? Then your dog is not “proofed”. The possibilities are endless and should include the dog not being in direct sight of you.

Why?

Because you may fall over on the street and need to prevent the dog running off or into the road. It should be conditioned to respond as an automatic reflex in whatever situation. You may be in the house and your dog has escaped, imagine how useful it would be if, looking through the window you could shout “sit” to ensure his safety!

Done all that, now what?

Now you have to generalise.

What does this mean?

It means making sure your dog not only knows the positions in the house, and whatever position you are in, but that the same rules apply in other environments.

Okay, my dog will now take up the positions no matter where I ask and when, now what?

Now we start on duration.

How do we start this?

Beside you

Why beside me?

Because if a dog will not stay in a position next to you, it is certainly NOT going to do it when you are not in a position to control it.

Ok, so how do we go about it?

Once I have the positions trained, I then make sure that a dog cannot decide for itself when it will change position.

How do you do that?

For the down I sit on a chair with the dog beside me on a lead. I then put my foot on the lead whilst holding the end of the lead in my right hand.

Why?

Because the dog then cannot get up; if it tries to the pressure of the collar against the top of its neck downwards will mean it either will become very uncomfortable if it struggles or help maintain the position if the dog settles.

Is there any reason you start this with the down position?

Yes, if a dog is left for an extended period it will generally choose to lie down rather than sit or stand. And, for competition purposes, no other position is required to be held as long as the down. Also, it is a position which a pup can maintain more easily than a sit or stand, especially on slippery surfaces.

How do I maintain the down?

By giving the dog no reason to get up and preferring to stay there.

How do I do this?

By feeding it, if you keep shovelling food into the dog it will have no reason to get up.

What if it does?

It will not if you are using the lead under the foot method as it cannot.

So when do I release the dog?

When you choose but you must NEVER let the dog go to sleep or get up to answer the phone etc.

Why not?

Because the dog must be alert and KNOW it is in the down and if you get up for any reason, you cannot reasonably expect the dog to stay there, you must release the dog BEFORE you take your concentration off the dog.

How do I do that?

I give a release word (be careful what you choose) and then get up and move about.

Should I praise it then?

No, you have reinforced the position by rewarding with food, you should NEVER reward the dog for getting up; no jumping up, playing, throwing the ball etc, a “stay” exercise should not be the predictor or something exciting, it should be boring and relaxing.

So what sort of time should I be aiming for?

Until the dog will remain beside you in a fairly sterile environment for 15 minutes it is not time to move on.

Can it sniff, scratch, lick, shift position, catch flies etc?

No

Why not?

Because this means the dog is losing concentration and not thinking about what it is doing and it is the slippery slope to larger movements and getting up.

Ok, my dog will lie down rock solid with no movements for 15 mins, now what?

Time to start doing odd things

What sort of odd things?

Clap, whistle, bend, hum, sing etc.

Why?

Because you want the dog to learn that whatever happens after you have given the command, does not supersede that instruction.

Do I keep feeding?

Yes, but you make the gaps between feeding bigger.

Then what?

You then start to move into the garden, then in the street, then the park, anywhere where you can ensure your dog is safe and where bigger and bigger distractions can be found?

Such as?

People walking past, bikes, skates, dogs, cars, prams, when you get really good you can even get people to throw balls etc past the dog. I live on a corner so I often get the neighbours children involved in my training. Caveat, do not ask for long periods at first, go back and ask only for a minute, remember it is much harder for a dog to exert a level of self control when it is in an exciting environment.

Ok my dog will now stay beside me for 15 mins whilst the Salvation Army march past, what next?


Then you start to introduce distance.

How do I do that?

Take it right back to inside the house, and move a step away and immediately back and feed. Step sideways, forwards, backwards. Then you gradually increase the distance, but very slowly, the dog must be relaxed but alert and expect that you will ALWAYS come back and feed it. Again, you should be increasing the duration of the stay in incremental steps once you have started to introduce distance.

You can then start to go out of sight eg behind a door for a nano second, and then reappear and gradually increase the time you are out of sight. Always make sure YOU can see the dog even though the DOG cannot see YOU.

Why?

Because you always want to know what it is doing and ensure that it does not fail.

I can now leave my dog in a down for 15 minutes whilst I am in the other room, what now?

This is when you introduce difficulty, the final stage!

How do I do this?

You combine all of the above elements, again taking the duration down to a minute. Leave the dog for a minute out of sight whilst a distraction is introduced. Gradually increase the duration, then the level of distraction, then the proximity of the distraction to the dog.

Is there anything I should NOT do as a distraction?

Yes, NEVER call your dog by its name!

Why not?

Because you have hopefully spent a lot of time teaching your dog to respond to its name, you do not want to use it at an inappropriate time!

Anything else?

Yes, get used to going back to your dog, feeding it and then immediately moving away; go back to either side; circle the dog; try and tempt the dog to get up by gently tugging on its lead, it should plant itself even further into the ground.

Is there any particular position my dog should be in?

Depends on what you are doing. In Schutzhund and Obedience, the dog may only be given one command on the positions on the move or distance control, and this is achieved by training the dog to cantilever into the down and take up the “Sphinx” position.

Is there any downsides to this?

If you are leaving a short coated dog in this position, it can make judges and stewards scrutinise the dog very closely, it is also not a very “stable” position as a dog can come out of it in one movement.

What else could I do for long periods?

You can teach the dog to take up the position on one hip, this is very stable and has the advantage that the dog can still see all around it.

What about putting a dog flat on its side?

This is the most stable position, as, in competition, a dog may roll up from that into the one hip position without being penalised. Some dogs however are not confident enough to be left in that position.

Is there a difference between a “stay” and a “wait”?

No, the use of either of these words is superfluous and completely unnecessary. If trained correctly a dog should maintain a position until and unless it is either told to do something else or released from that position. When beginning this training and making it rock solid I would always recommend owners going BACK to their dogs before releasing them rather than calling the dog to them; this is in order to prevent dogs anticipating getting up which is the last thing you want.


Is there anything else I should do?

Yes do not get a dog out of a warm car and expect it to lie down in a cold wet field for 10 mins or more?

What should I do then?

Warm your dog up by throwing a ball about, roll your dog over in the wet grass so that when it is asked to maintain a position it is already warm and wet and not shivering!

A dog that will sit/stand/down on command is a dog that will always be under control.

Excellent article SB.

Thanks SB, looks very interesting, will have a proper read when am home from work

To get our chap down, I guided him down with a treat, putting my knuckles on the ground until he adopted the correct position. To get him to stay in this position, I then gradually lengthened the time it took for me to award him the treat. For even longer, you need to practice the 'stay' command, which you can do by gradually stepping away from him once you've got him to lie down and only rewarding him when you're ready to summon him over.

Can't say anything else really other than, I've just started working on distance down's outside.. it is hard - I have it in the house and in the garden too.. I'm using it so that when a dog is ahead, instead of Louie going straight over to meet it rather than wait until I know it's alright, he can lay down, I have a chance to leash him then ask the owner.. (in an ideal world )

I've took them to boring places, exciting places and in between places - just to practice a little. I do it about 3 times on a walk - atm I have the down, but not the distance I have in the garden..

Can't wait to hear how your's come along. And Good Luck with Devil dog

Always love the stuff you write about training SB, it makes so much sense.

Im teaching Diesel using a clicker, where would I incorporate this into teaching down/stay? Do I keep clicking while feeding or would you suggest clicking at the end just before I say he can move? Obviously its early days for us but I can get him to down/stay in the house but not for very long, I think I have made the mistake of repeating 'wait' and he DOES anticipate when he can get up.

Do I repeat 'down' when he is lying down or just keep feeding him? And what should I do/say to release him from it that wont have him bouncing around like a loon?

Thanks x

You just use a release word like ok, and you do not have a game or anything afterwards, just release him very nonchalantley.

HTH