Training your dog to answer the “down” prompt by putting her tummy on the ground requires imagination and persistence. Lie Down is a more intricate dog preparation conduct than sit, and it tends to be more trying for both understudy and instructor. The accompanying outline will assist with smoothing out the preparation cycle and lead to down-canine achievement.
It is a relatively easy behavior to teach – as long as you have something that your dog likes, such as a treat or a toy. Remember, if treats are used, please remember to take them out of your dog’s daily food rations, and grade them according to your dog’s stage of learning, and/or the environment.
Steps to teaching your dog to lie down
1. Choose a quiet place in your home to enable the dog to concentrate
2. Start with the dog near to you and sitting facing you. You may consider using a
lead for more control, if the dog is inclined to wander off
3. Get the dog’s attention by using their name
4.Make sure that you have something in your hand that the dog wants, such as a
treat or toy, and place that hand just below your dog’s nose
5. Move your hand slowly down to the floor in a straight line, so that your dog
follows it with their nose – slowly move it along the floor away from them but
make sure they are still following with their nose
6. As soon as your dog lies down, they need rewarding for doing the right thing.
Say ‘yes’, smile at them, praise them with your voice, stroke them, whilst also
giving them the treat or a game with the toy
7. Once your dog has the idea of lying down, when you move your hand down
towards the floor luring them with the treat or toy – place your treat or toy in
your other hand, but otherwise repeat everything you did before, so that they
are learning to perform the behaviour on a hand signal alone
8. Once the dog is reliably performing the down when you move your hand down
to the floor, start using the word ‘down’, just before the hand movement, so the
dog is learning to perform the behaviour on a verbal cue.
After a few
repetitions, begin to reduce the hand movement, so that the dog is learning to
be able to perform the down just when you say the word ‘down’. Fade the hand
signal out altogether by saying the word ‘down’ and just waiting a second for
your dog to lie down. If they don’t, they are not yet ready for the hand signal to
be removed altogether, so be ready to back up the word ‘down’ with the hand
signal, to ensure your dog still gets it right
9. To teach the dog to stay lying down for longer – keep the smile and verbal
praise going, but withhold the treat or toy for a second or two until you are
ready, not forgetting the release word ‘yes’ as you give them. Don’t push your
dog too far too fast, just a few seconds at a time – you don’t want them to get
up before you are ready to release them
10. To teach the dog to remain lying down when you are short distance away from
them, start taking a step or two away from them, immediately returning to
reward them in position
11. To make it more difficult, start increasing the distractions around your dog or
change your position in relation to your dog, or by asking them to sit when out
in your garden or on a walk. You may have to go back to the beginning and re-
teach with these changes
12.To make the ‘down’ command really useful, re-teach in a variety of
environments until the dog really gets the idea that the word ‘down’ means the
same wherever they are, and that they should stay in the down position until
released. You can really have some fun with this, with a bit of imagination,
which will help your control when out in public and faced with other dogs and
people
13. Some dogs are more difficult to teach than others, because their bottoms pop
up as their heads follow the treat down. Teach under a coffee table, or under
your bent legs when sitting on the floor
Instructions to Help a Dog to Lie Down : Getting everything rolling
The initial step of how to train a dog to rests is getting a small bunch of scrumptious dog treats, similar to Blue Bison Wild Path treats. Little treats are best for preparing dog since you’ll be giving your canine many during the cycle!
To start, grasp a treat so that it’s practically contacting your dogs nose, then leisurely move your hand towards the floor in an orderly fashion. Go about as though you’re following a way from your canine’s nose to a spot on the in the middle of between her front feet. Remember that your dog will follow the treat in your grasp any place you move it, so when you arrive at the ground, attempt to keep it fixed.
At this stage, most canines will answer in one of two ways; your dog will either promptly implode into the down position, or more probable, will your dog will reshape herself into a half-down/half-up position.
Choice One: The Quick Down
Assuming that your canine goes into the gut on-the-ground position immediately, you’re nearly toward the end goal of training your canine to rests! Rehash the equivalent tricking process utilizing a little substantial treat, similar to Slope’s Science Diet delicate and chewy preparation treats, to energize your canine into the down position a couple of additional times.
Then put the canine treats in your pocket and rehash the baiting development with an unfilled hand. This holds your canine back from becoming reliant upon realizing that a treat is available to perform. At the point when your canine answers the vacant hand draw, reward her with the treat in your pocket.
Right now, you ought to start to blur the brief, implying that you ought to make the pointing signal more subtle. The objective is for your canine to have the option to answer “down” and an insignificant pointing signal instead of expecting you to twist at the midsection and slap the ground.
With each progressive endeavor, bring your hand somewhat farther away from the beginning. On the off chance that your canine is answering the pointing signal with your hand about a foot away starting from the earliest stage, the following endeavor, move your pointer hand a foot and a half away.
Reward your canine when she moves into position, then, at that point, signal her again from a marginally higher pointing position. Do this until you can stand straight up, point at the ground and have your canine answer.
Add “down” when your canine moves into position with negligible pointing. Essentially say “down” right as she begins to go into the down, then reward her with a deal with like Basic Meat Liver Munchies freeze-dried canine and feline treats. Hold up dried canine treats are fantastic prizes on the grounds that have a concentrated substantial flavor and they won’t make your pockets oily!
Inside ten to twenty reiterations, your canine will make the relationship between the word and the activity, and you’ll have the option to give the signal “down” and have your canine answer it.
Choice Two: The Bended Down
In the event that your canine turns herself into a pretzel or just plunges her shoulders as opposed to falling into the tummy on-the-ground position, you have a smidgen more work to do to get to a finished down! It assists with utilizing canine clicker preparing for this methodology, as you’ll be remunerating little approximations of the completed way of behaving. The accuracy of the canine clicker permits your canine to comprehend what she did accurately.
Have a stock of little treats all set in your grasp, similar to Blue Bison Blue Pieces chicken recipe canine treats, and bait your canine by following a straight line to the cold, in the middle of between her paws. On the off chance that she does whatever looks like the start of the down position — like shifting one foot aside or moving onto her shoulder — mark her advancement by clicking a Starmark supportive of preparing clicker, and afterward give her a treat. Attempt to compensate her without moving her out of position so you can continue to expand on the underlying advancement.
Keep on remunerating the early phases of down, clicking and treating each time your canine draws nearer to a genuine down. Remunerating these little variants of the completed way of behaving keeps your canine from getting baffled and keeps her playing the preparation game.
At the point when your canine at long last thuds into position, celebrate with a big stake of treats, as Crucial Basics minnows freeze-dried canine treats. These high-esteem treats have an exceptional fragrance and surface that canines love.
Wrap up preparing the way of behaving by blurring the pointing speedy as portrayed above, until you can bear upping straight and do an unpretentious highlight get your canine to go into the down. Then, at that point, add “down,” and you have a canine that will thud any time you inquire!
Bit by bit manual for training your canine to rests
Move your hand towards the ground, simply before their paws.
On the off chance that they follow the treat and set down, mark this way of behaving and reward them.
When your little guy has the hang of this, attempt without the treat in your grasp. Make sure to in any case stamp and award when they lie on the floor.
At the point when your little guy is dependably setting down, you can present your verbal prompt. Say “down”, then, at that point, utilize your hand motion. Mark when they set down and award them.
After some time your little guy will start to set down when they hear the word.
On the off chance that they don’t normally set down, you can check and reward them for simply moving towards the floor, bowing down, or bringing their head down to start with. Then, at that point, begin to compensate them for getting increasingly close to the floor. Rehash this until your canine is following the treat right down.