Completely agree. Unfortunately nobody tells you these things until its too late!

Yeah - but the background to Layton (since I seem to be being "blamed" as such here) is that he was a 3-5 year old rescue/ex-stray when we got him, and had previous training that it's being hard to overcome - like I say, they'd taught him that "down" involved do a barrel roll and stick yer legs in the air (which caused fits of laughter in the park when we realised that one).

Sadly then they got bored with him and kicked him out onto the streets

Blame? I was only offering advice, I thought.

......then they didnt teach him down did they..they taught him to barrel roll and stick legs in air

if thats the case 'retrain it' go back to basics and when he has learnt the behaviour and its time to put the verbal cue....change the word

I knew I had seen a video for what I was talking about - its the middle section of this one



It does take a while for dogs to realise they dont have to be right infront of you to sit or down, totaly normal, and having a 'target' on the floor makes it quicker for them to realise

If you are worried about his 'down' being a different thing (sounds cute) you can train to a different word - as you are looking for an instant down 'flat' or 'splat' might be good commands