how to teach down
Becca is my first corgi. She is smart, I'm beginning to think scary smart. Three days and she has sit, off and come with at least an 80% success rate. Down however is harder. With all my other dogs I started with a sit then took my bait down to the floor and forward. They would have to lay down to reach it. Becca is so short there is no problem reaching the bait. Any suggestions?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Ludi on
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You can try pushing down and "in", at a 45 degree angle, while she sits so that she lowers her head. She may go sploot! and into a Down in order to sniff your hand. Ace managed to outsmart me with that, though, so I had to find "targets" that would make him naturally go into the Down. One was keeping treats in my hand while on the floor. He would paw at it (this is another great behavior to teach, touch with the Nose and Paw) and eventually get so exasperated, he would go into the Down. Clicker training + shaping/capturing works so well for this breed. They are so darn smart they're usually ahead of us. :)
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Permalink Reply by Beth on
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I was just going to mention this: many dogs will eventually "down" out of sheer frustration, so if you wait long enough they usually will lay down at some point. A marker word helps.
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Permalink Reply by Alison Prasavath on
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My husband and I worked on this with Noodles for what seems like ages. We tried all the tricks people told us and he would only lower his head or paw at our hand for the treat. One day though, he all of a sudden laid down when we said "down" and now he does it on command. I can't tell you what changed, but apparently something clicked. Sorry I couldn't be of more help.
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Permalink Reply by Bradly and Jenny Boesen on
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Not a suggestion, but a funny story. We tried teaching "roll over" after "down," and now she goes down and rolls over with just the command "down." Sometimes Leena does all of it with "sit."
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Permalink Reply by Gabi Walker on
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Haha that's adorable ... I giggled when I pictured this :)
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Noodles does the whole routine once we have him sit. Apparently we always have him do his tricks in the same order and now he just figures he might as well do everything and then he will be rewarded. You have to laugh. It goes like this "sit", "shake", "hi-fve" (he jumps up with both front paws), "speak", "down" and "roll-over". Then he sits back up, tongue dangling out, nub shaking just waiting for us to praise him. It cracks us up every time. We are mean some times and we wait for him to do his whole routine and then we tell him again what specific one we wanted him to do. It takes patience on our part until he does just the one. He is probably wondering what is wrong with us because he did everything he knows how to do and we weren't happy.
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Permalink Reply by Bev Levy on
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Sparty learned Down but just had no interest in staying there. I spent weeks of our first set of classes kneeling and holding him down during the Down Stay portion. It was a little embarrassing but eventually he did learn to do it right. Those short legs make it difficult to tell whether they are sitting, standing or laying down. And their big brain requires you to be persistent!
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Permalink Reply by Danielle and Sophia on
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That was a hard one for Sophia too! She was the last one in class to finally get it. The teacher had me sit on the ground with my knees up so she was able to go under my legs. I would guide her trough with the treat while saying go down, and sometime slide my legs down gently pushing her down. Make sense? It's kinda hard to explain, LOL She got it now staying down is the challenge. ;)
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Sometimes it helps to wait them out and give them time to think it through. Just don't give up that treat for anything. Sit or crouch, hold the treat low, and don't let them get it til they lay down. Then you need to weed out the unwanted behaviors, because the dog might not be sure if it was the pawing, nosing, pushing, or laying down that prompted you to reward. It took awhile with Maddie. I don't remember Jack having trouble learning it, though it is his least favorite command.
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Permalink Reply by Rachael & Waffle on
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I don't suggest this as anything other than a last resort... and a disclaimer is that I had JUST started learning about dog training and stuff and the internet wasn't offering me suggestions that worked...
but I had my dad pull Waffle's legs out from under him and I clicked when he hit the floor. After two times of this, he was doing it willingly by himself and has never ignored a "down" since.
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Permalink Reply by Snickmom on
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Dolly, my mix, wouldn't go down and I too tried all the different methods on the internet. She does roll over on her back for belly rubs easily so I gently pushed on her shoulder until she was laying on her side then captured the down position when she started to get back up. We worked on that so that I just had to barely touch her shoulder with a finger for her to go to the down position. Then we had to work on down on the cold tile, brrrr. Now she is great at down!
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Permalink Reply by N a t h a n & L u f f y on
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Hmm, for some reason my earlier reply didn't get posted but I was thinking maybe putting him on a elevated surface (not too high of course) and luring the treat below that elevated surface Becca is sitting on so she has to lay down to reach the treat. *disclaimer* never trained a dog before so take my advice with a grain of salt LOL
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