How the "DOWN" command progresses

STEP ONE - Lure the dog into the down - NO COMMAND - STEP One. All you want is the behavior.

1) Have the dog sitting in front of you. Hold the food in front of the dogs nose and move it down toward the ground between his feet and away from him. USE NO COMMAND at this point.

2) The INSTANT (not before or after) he lays down, C/T and Pet and Praise also. Timing is VERY IMPORTANT. If you click too soon or too late the click won’t mark the behavior properly.

3) From a stand position, hold the food in front of his nose and move it down between his feet and toward his chest. He should fold back into down to get the treat. Follow with (2) above. Going down from a stand is more difficult to teach, so you might want to practice the down from the sit until he understands the behavior.

STEP TWO - Lure the dog into down and add the cue word "DOWN" - Now you tell him what he is doing.

1) With the dog sitting or standing, lure him into a down as before - only this time have your palm down (beginning of the down hand signal).

2) As the dog lies down say "DOWN" (Say the word as he lies down -- not before or after, but as the butt and elbows goes down and just before they touch the ground) This is not a command, it is information for the dog. You are telling him what he is doing. He will make the connection between the behavior he is doing and the word you are saying to him.

3) The INSTANT he lays down, C/T and say GOOD DOWN. Pet and Praise.

STEP THREE - Begin to fade the lure . Have treats in your pocket this time - You want him to lie down with or without a treat in your hand.

1) Have the treat lure in your hand every other time you down your dog. Those times you don’t have a lure in your hand, let your dog see you take the treat from your pocket to give to him. Your are still treating EVERY time he goes down.

2) Hold your hand in the LURE POSITION, palm down, with or without the lure in it. Remember, this is the down hand signal..

3)As the dog lies down say "DOWN" (Say the word as he lies down -- not before or after, but as the butt and elbows goes down and just before they touch the ground) This is not a command, it is "information" for the dog. You are telling him what he is doing. He will make the connection between the behavior he is doing and the word you are saying to him.

4) The INSTANT he lies down, CLICK and either give him the TREAT in your hand or take a treat out of your pocket and give it to him and say GOOD DOWN. Pet and Praise.

If you have been practicing faithfully, by the end of Step Three the dog should be going down on the cue word DOWN.

STEP FOUR - No lure in your hand this time - only use Hand Signal - He should be going down on cue at this point.

1) With the dog sitting or standing, give him the hand signal (sweep hand down ) and say the cue word DOWN. The dog should be going down on the cue word and hand signal without you having to repeat the command more than once.

2) The INSTANT he lies down, Click and take a treat out of your pocket to give him and say GOOD DOWN. Pet and Praise.

STEP FIVE - 2’fers and 3’fers - Asking for more before the dog gets a treat.

1) With the dog standing, give him the hand signal (hand held with palm down) and say the cue word DOWN.

2) The INSTANT his elbows touch the ground, say GOOD DOWN. Pet and Praise. Ask for two or three behaviors in a row (a mix of the commands he has learned so far like SIT, DOWN or STAND, SIT, DOWN) before giving him a treat this time. He needs to learn to obey you even when no treat is coming. He will learn that eventually he will get a treat, he just might have to work a little harder to get it.

3) Puppy Push-UP are a great way to improve the down command. Have you dog sit, tell him DOWN, then tell him SIT, then DOWN, then SIT, and so on. Make it a real fun game and get excited with him. Don’t do so many at a time that he starts to hate them. Keep it FUN and use lots of treats.

By now the dog should be going down with the hand signal and cue word, with or without a treat in your hand. You can now eliminate the CLICKER and use only GOOD DOWN followed by Petting and Praise and an occasional treat.

You can also begin to ask the dog to go down from various distances. Your goal should be to have him go down on command no matter where you are in relationship to him, or what you or he are doing when you tell him DOWN. Training the down in this way will ensure that if you ever have to put your dog down in an emergency situation, he will go down for you without question.

You are now ready to go to Loose Lead Walking . Now you can finally teach your dog to stop pulling you everywhere. Yeah! You can use the page numbers below to move back and forth between the down pages if you want.