Lucy and Down

[jennyplain]

I was convinced my dog was a genius and could do anything, except lie down on command. At twelve weeks, she is sitting, watching me, walking on a loose leash, going outside through the dog flap on her own, and has learned the first part of "It's Yer Choice".

Down, however? Hoo boy. I was convinced she just couldn't do it.

At her puppy class, the trainer showed us how to put the treat between their paws to get them to go down. This worked for a while, but when we started to raise the treat up after about a week (so we wouldn't have to bend down to her level every time we wanted her to lie down), she cocked her head to the side and looked at us like we were nuts before starting to jump like a goober for our hands (which got an "ah-ah!" followed by the removal of the treat). This continued. She would sit, lean her head to the side inquisitively, then jump. The treat went away. On and on and on, with very few successes.

Then, two days ago, it was like the lightbulb went on. She went from a sit to a graceful 'down' on the floor. I clicked, handed her the treat, and all was well. She now responds to my hand signal for down without a second thought (though sometimes she tries to outsmart me and does 'sit and down' in one fell swoop - I always make her go back to a sit and wait for my signal before she goes down).

I resisted every temptation I had to push on her shoulders or try to force her into a down. I waited it out, treat and clicker in hand, and it worked. I am a total positive training preacher, and ready to move on to roll over!

[dontpugme]

That's great! Good luck on roll over. My pug has a hard time rolling over, so i decided to teach crawl after he mastered down. He's doing pretty well after only two sessions of crawl.