Hi - any tips on luring the down command? I've tried repeating some of the Kikopup tips and luring from the sit position to get her elbows down, but she'll just paw at the hand with the treat in and more often than not her back end will pop up and she'll end up just pouncing on my hand to retrieve the kibble. Generally her impulse control is great if we're doing a "leave it" exercise - she'll sit by a pile of treats and not eat them, but when she's being rewarded for a sit etc she's quite snappy to get the reward. This impatience seems to be the difficulty with the "down", but I'm not too sure how to tweak what I'm doing. Any thoughts gratefully received so she doesn't become frustrated with it.
I had this with Spencer, so I used an old cycling glove. He’s 10 weeks in this video, that was two weeks ago and I don’t need the glove any more. It took just over a week for him to really get it. I’m working on having a pretend treat in my luring hand and rewarding from different places now. Then I’ll work on the ‘down’ signal.
Thanks @Boogie - he's beautiful, and the video really helps. I'll try and fish out my cycling gloves though I fear the velcro may prove too much of a temptation for a certain furry one!
What we had to do with our dog was lure him under a bent leg to stop his bum coming up. By this I mean sit with one knee bent up to create a triangle, get him to sit one side of it and then lure him into a down position from the other side under your leg. This way he HAS to lower his body to get to the treat so he soon learnt what we were asking. Hope this helps!
You can also shape the down by rewarding approximations of the down position. Once you have one position you wait for another little movement and reward and then only reward for that position, then wait for a little more etc until you a full down.
Hi loopyLuna, i woulf try with the dog standing side on. Put the lure on dog's nose, move it slowly to dog's chest, and then to the floor between the dog's front legs. If you watch most dogs, they get to a down position without going into a sit. I understand obedience clubs frequently teach down from a sit position. But that is not what dogs naturally do. Why not try from a standing position?
What you are describing here is technically a 'drop' in obedience terms not a 'down'. That's why obedience classes, well together with every puppy life skills class that I know of, start from a sit position
Manifestly, I didn't know what the situation is in England re terminolgy. I now know English handlers use two different terms. In Australia there is no formal term called drop. Judges never use the term. It is down. LoopyLuna was asking for assistance in luring the down. So on your terminolgy it should be done from a sitting position. Fine. Irrespective of terminolgy, if it works from a stand and the dog achieves some recognition of the posture, then it may be easier to get the dog to go down/drop from a sit position.
Thanks for all the ideas, they were great. It finally clicked for us today and she's getting into the down position when I put my hand flat on the ground like in your video @Boogie but without the lure which is great because there are less scratches. Just need to practice that for a few days and then we'll see where we go from there. Baby steps.....
