How Do I Train My Dog To Lie Down part two

In yesterday’s entry(click here to read it) , I gave one method of teaching your dog to lie down. Here is another:

Grab yourself a bunch of small, easy-to-chew treats and sit in a chair in a quiet place. Place a few of the treats in your hand and the rest in your pocket. You may want to have your dog on a loose leash so that he can’t leave during this exercise. Place your treat-filled hand on your lap where the dog can sniff it, and ignore your dog.

At first, your dog is going to sniff, nose, poke, and paw at your hand. Make sure that none of these things elicit a treat from you. Eventually, your dog will give up. Restricted by the leash, he will do the only other thing there is to do – lie down. When this happens (and it will, just be patient), reach down and open your hand and let your dog eat the treats. Praise your dog in happy tones, but don’t be so upbeat that your dog leaps up. Give your release word before he gets up.

Repeat the exercise. Your dog will probably still try to get the treat by pawing and so on, but it is very likely that he will assume the down position faster the second time. Repeat until you run out of treats.

Soon, either in one training session or after several, the dog will begin dropping into the down position as soon as you put the treats in your hand. At that point, begin saying “down�? just before he drops. Stop rewarding drops that occur without you giving your down cue. After a training session or two of working with the cue, don’t refill your hand with treats. Instead have them easily accessible, like in your other hand, your mouth, or on a nearby shelf. Try not to let the dog know that the treats are not in your hand. Give your down cue and see if the dog drops. If so, reward with a jackpot (a lot of small treats given over a period of 30 seconds, with much of praise as well) and make it obvious that you got the treats from somewhere other than your hand. You want your dog to make the connection that down equals treats even if he doesn’t see them go into your hand. If your dog doesn’t drop when you give the command, go ahead and put the treats in your hand, but start making that process less and less visible until you try the cue alone again.

Eventually, you will want your dog to down while you are standing. In many cases, this will not be a problem, but if your dog looks clueless when you give your down cue when you are standing, try to move gradually from sitting to standing. Try squatting over the chair for a few reps and then standing in front of the chair.

Remember that dogs aren’t good at generalizing, so you may have to repeat this procedure in various locations until your dog really understands what it means to down on command. Don’t forget that you need to give your release word quickly, before your dog gets up.

Next up will be a discussion of how to get your dog to remain in the down position – otherwise known as “staying.�?