# Teaching the "Down" Command??



## xkadajx (Apr 9, 2012)

Hello all,

I am new to this forum and had my maltese for about 1 month now. His name is Oliver and is 13 weeks old. So far, I have been crate training him and he has been good with it- with little whines here and there when left alone. 

He is also on his way to being potty trained. I have a closed balcony for him and recently he has been letting us know he needs to go out by scratching the screen door. 

The basic tricks I taught him so far is the "Sit" command that he does on cue without treats now. My recent obstacle now is teaching the "Down" Command. He can do it if I lure the treat from his nose to his legs- he will usually slide into the down, but he will not do it on cue without a treat at all. I have been trying for about 1.5 weeks now.

Any suggestions on how to make this easier? I tried to capture it but he usually never goes down on his own.


----------



## mostlytina (Jan 3, 2009)

It takes time for any new thing you introduced to your dog. My recommendation is to practice a couple sessions a day, but keep each session short. Meal time is always a good training opportunity. Also, you might want to do it without treat from time to time. Hold your hand like you have a treat and he will think you have one. Once he goes down, praise him like crazy. Soon he will associate the "down" command and you can wean the treat part.


----------



## LJSquishy (Feb 27, 2008)

Practice, practice, practice!

Since he will do it with a lure visible (the treat), the next step is to have the treat in your same hand but palm facing downward or between two fingers so it is more hidden from his sight but allows him to still smell it. Usually the visual cue for 'down' is a flat palm facing downward and moving the arm downward. The easiest way to hold the treat so it is still hidden is to put it between your palm and thumb. Allow him to sniff it so he knows it is still there.

After he masters that, you should be able to cue him to 'down', and treat with the other hand.


----------



## wildcard (Jan 5, 2009)

I train my dogs for obedience and agility competition and I also teach some classes and private lessons, mostly for toy dogs since they are all whole other world compared to a golden or a lab and most of the instructors at our club only have experience with the big dogs.

My favorite way to teach a toy dog puppy to do a down is to make it into a big game-- so many of the little ones are resistant to being lured into a down from a sit or being placed in a down with your hands. It is a vulnerable posture for them. So I start with a puppy limbo game and get great results. 

Sit on the floor with your legs spread into a "V" with a yummy treat and your puppy on a leash. Then take of our your legs and bend it at the knee so your knee is pointing at the ceiling. This will make a little "tunnel" between the floor and your, for lack of a better word, "knee pit" lol. At first make the area pretty big, and have your puppy follow the treat underneath it. Gradually you can make the area smaller by making the bend in your knee less extreme until your puppy is literally crawling through this tunnel to get the treat. Then start adding the cue "Down" as his chest hits the ground and he crawls. After several sessions he will feel much more comfortable about laying down, and you can try to teach the down without the limbo.

After they can do that, I like to teach the down to a puppy who is moving around a little-- not sitting or standing still. With my puppy on a leash and me sitting on the ground (you are less intimidating sitting with him than standing looming over him) I have the puppy follow the treat in my hand back and forth a little bit (I like string cheese or slices of chicken breast so he can nibble on it without me having to get new treats constantly), then I drop my hand and the treat to the ground- the puppy, who has been following this lure, will usually drop his head and chest to the ground to continue to nibble on the treat. I can then use my other hand to gently push his rear to the ground where he gets praise in the form of "good down" and a nearly immediate release, whereupon we repeat the game of following the lure back and forth then into a down. Pretty soon you have a puppy who LOVES to do the down because it is part of a game.

I started teaching my own dogs to do their downs while moving because I knew that later in their careers they would be doing things like the drop on recall and signal drops and I wanted them to have nice, quick, happy downs. I found that even if you don't have competition obedience as a goal, this method still works great with the smaller dogs who so often are difficult to teach the down to...

Stacy (Quinn, Juju, and Dillin the Maltese) and Lex the yorkie, and a Gaggle of Papillons


----------



## wildcard (Jan 5, 2009)

Next step is to fade away the lure, which seems to be where you are at. I do this in several steps. First, we have a visible lure like you have- he can see it and smell it. Then I go to an invisible but present lure by hiding the treat in my hand. Then I go to a "fake" lure, where I have the treat in my other hand, and I use my usual hand without a treat to lure the puppy to the ground, then immediately reward from the other hand. I spend a lot of time reinforcing at that step. Then I start to only treat every other time they do it, then every third time, etc. Finally, I move the treat into a pocket, then off my body onto a table or something, and reward periodically. The dog needs to start thinking of you as a slot machine- if he pulls the handle (downs), he may or may not get rewarded, but the possibility is enough for him to keep pulling the handle ha ha!

Stacy and Quinn, Juju, and Dillin the maltese, Lex the yorkie, and a Gaggle of Papillons


----------



## Snowbody (Jan 3, 2009)

wildcard said:


> I train my dogs for obedience and agility competition and I also teach some classes and private lessons, mostly for toy dogs since they are all whole other world compared to a golden or a lab and most of the instructors at our club only have experience with the big dogs.
> 
> My favorite way to teach a toy dog puppy to do a down is to make it into a big game-- so many of the little ones are resistant to being lured into a down from a sit or being placed in a down with your hands. It is a vulnerable posture for them. So I start with a puppy limbo game and get great results.
> 
> ...





wildcard said:


> Next step is to fade away the lure, which seems to be where you are at. I do this in several steps. First, we have a visible lure like you have- he can see it and smell it. Then I go to an invisible but present lure by hiding the treat in my hand. Then I go to a "fake" lure, where I have the treat in my other hand, and I use my usual hand without a treat to lure the puppy to the ground, then immediately reward from the other hand. I spend a lot of time reinforcing at that step. Then I start to only treat every other time they do it, then every third time, etc. Finally, I move the treat into a pocket, then off my body onto a table or something, and reward periodically. * The dog needs to start thinking of you as a slot machine- if he pulls the handle (downs), he may or may not get rewarded, but the possibility is enough for him to keep pulling the handle ha ha!
> *
> Stacy and Quinn, Juju, and Dillin the maltese, Lex the yorkie, and a Gaggle of Papillons


:goodpost::goodpost: Great tips!! I love the slot machine analogy too. :aktion033:


----------



## xkadajx (Apr 9, 2012)

Thanks alot for the tips everyone! I will update my progress in a few days.


----------



## Grace'sMom (Feb 22, 2012)

wildcard had great tips 

Down is a hard command for little dogs to learn. They are already so close to the floor LOL

I like doing it the way wildcard suggested. But I use a clicker or marker word with Grace. Did the same with Gus.

I find having them trained to recognize a clicker or marker word makes training so much easier and faster. Because if you are having difficulty getting a behavior you want when you are trying to lure it, it can be marked when they do it naturally.

So whenever Grace lays down I mark it, treat her. And we work up to giving it a name, etc.

It's a great way to get cute "trick" behaviors as well.


----------



## shellbeme (Mar 1, 2011)

Somehow I managed to get Rocky confused between 'sit' and 'down' and now he wants to 'down' for everything  haha


----------



## xkadajx (Apr 9, 2012)

Hello everyone, Oliver finally got Down command down. I had the same problem as shellbame with Oliver confusing Down and Sit. What I did was after that happen to do another separate Sit training- it worked out pretty well. Now he does Sit and Down on command. Thanks for the advice everyone!!

What should I teach him next?? Roll Over? Stay?


----------



## mostlytina (Jan 3, 2009)

That depends on what you try to achieve. Roll over is fun to teach. Stay is practical and sometimes critical skill to have. You can also consider "come when call", "heel without pulling", "watch me" (paying attention to you)...etc. There are so many things you can train your dog. Most of all, Good Job!!! and happy training~~~


----------

