Teaching a down

Hi,

Our pup is now 6 months old and has been doing really well with her training with one exception, that being a "down".

I initially taught her by sitting on the floor with legs bent and luring her under my legs so she had to go down to crawl through and get the treat (hope you can picture what I mean).

I progressed to luring her from a sit into a down with a treat. Trouble is she will not stay down unless she gets the treat straight away and just sits right back up if she doesn't get it, or once she's eaten it. She won't do a down at all without a food lure, although she will do pretty much all other commands without. I can hide the food in my fist so she can smell it but not get to it and she'll stay down for a short time until she realises the treat is not forthcoming.

We have progressed from the bronze KC award, and enjoy training. As I said, she is fine at stand, sit, has a really good wait, stay and recall, walks well to heel, but just doesn't want to do down, but to progress further in training she'll need to really.

I am 99.9% certain there is no medical reason she won't do it (oe no joint pains etc).

Any other tips I haven't thought of?

Our old boy who is 11 who we rescued last year only really knew sit and give paw, but he's got the hang of loads now including down, once he stopped boinging up and down like Zebedee or Tigger! Who said you can't teach an old dog new tricks!

do you want to teach a down stay ? or movement through the positions?

I think that she wants to get the dog to stay in a down for longer than two seconds. LOL I know what you mean as mine will sit and then lay down if made to sit there too long. But he does it with standing too if I make him stand there too long. I'm not sure other than to keep up what you are doing and you will be shocked one day she will get it. Maybe use a rewarding voice from time to time instead of the treat that way she doesn't always expect the treat. The other thing is to teach her a release word. With Chance I tell him to do what I asked him to do again every time he lays down. He ends up getting fed up with going back and forth and will stay there till I tell him ok.

have you tried a treat that is longer so she can nibble at it whilst in a down...may encourage her to stay a little longer....

China was the same but then we used Pedigree Rodeo twist and used one strip held in my fist with the end sticking out so she could nibble...

she will get it, one day out of the blue!

Mine know two Positions the "up" down & the "right"down.

The up down is used if they are going to move from the postion ie in DC,Positions on the move, A recall etc, the "right" down is used if im going to do a stay.

The "up" down is the dog lying down but on its elbows & hunches, like a lion, the "right" down is more relaxed the hunches are rolled over.

I always get the dog into a "right"down stay by circling the dog in a circle around me first. When teaching this down, i stroke the down all over whilst saying "down,thats a good down" putting lots of emphasis on the word down & putting a firmer pressure on as i stroke them, I will also titbit in position. once that is solid, i will remain close to the dog,stroke & remind the positin , then take my hands off,remind with my voice "good down" then titbit in position, the next step wil be to do the reminding +titbit +remind then stand up+remind+stroke &remind & then feed in position. You are looking for over about a week to be able to stand up straight & move away from the dog reminding most of the time & the dog remaining in position, i ALWAYS feed in position & as i feed "good down" whilst stroking the dogs back & rolled over hunches with my other hand.

Eventually you wont have to remind , but always feed/praise after the down whilst in position so the dog is clear what it is being praised for , ie it HASENT been praised foer getting up!!!!

Thanks Mishflynn, I'll work on that. She's been very quick to pick up everything else, so I feel it's my teaching that's confusing her more than anything. We won't be competing in obedience to the levels you do (I doubt!), so either down will do for me for now. I'll practice hard this week and aim to be able to stand up with her still in the down at class next Wednesday.

Thanks again.

K x

the right down is better for "stability" & relaxing!!!!

Yes, our previous Airedale pup was good at the "right down", but then he was a lazy devil who you had to make sure didn't always slide from a sit to a down . He was good at everything really, he got his gold KC award by 12 months, then tragically died from pancreatitis aged 13 months

Have done some work on this this morning with madame, I have got her to do it by holding a treat in my fist and let her worry at it briefly then use the "off" command to get her to lie and wait for the treat. We'll get there! She knows what the command "down" means, just need to work on her understanding she needs to hold position until told to release.