How can I finish teaching my dog "down"?

Question

I started yesterday with "sit" since she already knew it. I got her doing it fairly steady, only getting distracted to l**k her foot.

Then I started with "stay." She has it down pat without distractions so I moved onto "down."

To do it I started with "Sit" then "Stay" then I came back up and told her "Down." while I pulled down gently on her collar. She easily submitted. I did this a few times and now I don't have to pull on her collar, all I have to do is say "down" and put my fingers to the floor and drag it away from her nose.

Now how do I get to the point that I can say "down" and she'll go down without my fingers? Do I just keep doing this over and over until she's got the command and idea?

Answer 1

Keep repeating the command, use a treat to guide her to the ground. Keep at it, she will get it! My dogs respond better to a hand signal than the verbal command for down,but sit and stay better on command than with a hand signal. One more thing, make sure you use down for down and off for getting off of people or furniture. Avoid confusion and try to keep things simple.It takes practice and patience. One day of training and it seems like you are doing well!

Answer 2

You have to get her in a sit position and then take a treat take it to the ground a pull it a few inches away from her

Answer 3

Repetition with praise is usually it!  If you have not already, also introduce hand signals along with the verbal command.

Sit = raise hand flat with palm up

Stay = flat hand like a stop signal

Down = lower hand flat with palm down

Come = point between your legs (note the dog should come staight in AND sit with its snout pointed up looking at you)

Good for you with all the obedience training!!!

Answer 4

Start making your hand signal more subtle. Until its just a slight movement of the hand. You may always need to use a small hand signal, but you are going great so far!

Remember when teaching your dogs commands, practice in different spots, like at a park, then in the living room, then in the back yard etc etc, so the dog understands she is to follow your instructions regardless of where you are.

Have fun :)

Answer 5

For this question I actually went to my Petco Puppy Training manual.  It actually has you use the treat like you are already doing, and it isn't specific as to when you quit using the treat, but my trainer has always told us, that once your dog is used to a command and does it frequently, begin weaning them of the treats by only giving them a treat maybe every other time they do it right.  Eventually as they mature you will be able to give them the command without the treat.  Take your training one step further by adding the stay to the down position once your dog has learned "down".  Take a step or two away from your dog while saying "stay".  Then return to your dog and praise them and give a treat.  Now, we tried this with Pepper, and the mistake we made was giving him the treat after he went down, because as soon as he got the treat, he popped back up, so we would put him back in down and give him another treat.  The little stinker learned that if he went down, he would get a treat, and then he could pop up and we would do it again, and he would get another treat.  He is a smart dog...LOL  Our trainer taught us that we needed to finish the entire exercise before giving the treat: down, stay, and eventually we did the recall too (Pepper, come!)= treat.  By the time we finished training, Pepper could go down (coaxed with a treat), stay, and we could walk all the way around him in the stay position.  It was really neat.  

Answer 6

you should try training your dog by using positive reinforcement, rather than pulling down on her collar, but it looks like she has learned the basics pretty quickly.

Try using treats to get her to sit, stay and drop- this should be much more effective.

You can also look into clicker training- this is really effective as all you do is 'click' when she does the correct behaviour and you can reward her when she is finished training.

You should train your dog to hand signals over voice commands in obediance, but it is good when they can respond to both seperately.

If you are rewarding her with treats regularly, she will quickly learn the command and should respond well to training in other commands.

Remember that commands like 'drop' 'roll over' and 'play dead' can be a little bit tougher to teach a dog because it fources them to be submissive so it can take more time to train, but is well worth it.

Answer 7

Yeah give her more time. She'll eventually just be like hey that word means I have to lay down.