Aspen just can't get the hang of "down"! He will follow the treat from a sitting position down to the floor as I say "down", but if I do it without the movement, he doesn't get it. Is it just repetition? I have been doing this for 2 months and he still doesn't know it. He knows the hand command for "sit" and will sit if I say to do so. Why doesn't he understand "down"? Am I doing something wrong? Should I add a hand command to "down"? It is kind of hard to do a hand command because I have the clicker in one hand and treats in the other.
Try moving your hand down in the same way as when you have a treat but with no treat in your hand. Then when he's in position click and pick up a treat from a bowl next to you or a treat bag round your waist and give it to him. He's still very young, it will come.
Use the treat hand. Flat hand moving downwards towards the ground, treat under your thumb. Here are two videos of me doing it, you can see the exaggerated luring in the first one, just the signal in the second.
Sometimes I feel badly because I am only around other adult dogs who know their commands. I have to keep reminding myself that he is just a pup!
So should I not show him the hand command for sit either? And I should just teach him to lay down from a standing position?
@alschwahn there are several adult dogs in our class who can't do it without the hand still..not sure what they're doing "wrong" though. Try using the verbal alone, wait for him to do it, if he doesn't, repeat the verbal WITH the hand signal. This is how Coco learned it (as a 17 month old - we only got him at 16 months). It's easier from a sit, but try it from both, you'll want him to do it from both positions, probably. Good luck, he'll get there, he's only young.
They lie from the sit or lie from the stand, whichever I've asked them to do. They need to know 'stand' before that, of course. Most pups find lying down from 'stand' harder, so we leave that until they are good at the lie-from-sit. Hand signal only first for a week or two. Then hand + verbal for a week or two. Then just verbal. But we have silent training too where we go back to hand signals only.
Best practice is you don't introduce your verbal cue until you know your dog understands your visual cue. So, drop the verbal cue and work on diminishing the visual cue from bending over and moving the treat from his nose to the floor, to simply a small movement of your downwards-facing palm, in a downwards direction. No other body movement. This can take a while, so do it in small stages. You shouldn't have a treat in your hand when you do it; it's always very important to only ever do a couple of reps of a new behaviour with a treat visible, otherwise your dog starts to rely on it, and that's a bribing, rather than training. Once you have managed to diminish the visual cue to something that doesn't involve your whole body, and you would bet £100 on your dog following that visual cue, you can start introducing your verbal cue in the normal way: new cue - old cue - behaviour. If you need that explained in any more detail, just shout.
@snowbunny beat me to it. That's how we were taught as well. LOL, we only bet $50, but that probably is 100 pounds (no pound symbol on my Canadian keyboard) if I convert.
If he's standing, ask him to lie down from that position. If he's sitting, then ask him to lie down from that position. It doesn't matter how he starts off. The thing you are trying to teach is 'lie down'. Not 'sit and then lie down'. Of course, if he's already lying down then you do need to get him up so sometimes ask him to sit and sometimes stand before you ask for the lie down again. And def agree that you should be in no hurry at all to introduce the verbal cue. When you are ready to (when you're willing to bet that $100!) the way to do it is to: 1. Say your new verbal cue (he'll do nothing) 2. Give your hand signal (he should lie down) Repeat the above, in the same order, with the verbal cue coming immediately before the hand signal. He'll work out that the verbal cue always predicts the hand signal and he'll start responding to that before you give the hand signal. Then you know he's got it and you can use the verbal cue alone
"Down" was the hardest command to teach Homer when he was at his puppy class. He still looks at me with a 'do you really mean I have to lie down' look before he responds.
Aspen hasn't done puppy classes, and I am hoping that if we do try some out it will help out a little bit. Especially with the training with other distractions around.
I was told to say the verbal cue while the dog does it. So, use your hand signal, then at the moment he lies down, say the verbal cue. Lucky seems to pick up the verbal cues fairly quickly this way, but he's generally good at learning verbal cues. Maybe it's not the best way to do it, but it works for us!
I found Ella responded to my hand signal before my voice. I used a lure for quite a while and stayed bending down for a while too as I found that she had a tendency to sit up as I straightened back up. Honestly, I think this took about 6 months to proof. It used to drive me nuts
@Boogie I tried the treat hand along with clicker and Aspen laid down every single time!! Thank you thank you!!!
