After months of working on it...Aspen finally knows "down" as a verbal cue and no longer needs the visual hand cue! Now onto getting him to "sit" and "down" nicely when exciting humans are around!
Also, how do I begin teaching a "Go to your bed" cue for when he needs a place to go to when there are people over or when we eat dinner? He will sleep on his bed at night if I tell him to lay down on his bed. Is that a start?