Hi my name is Georgie and I'm a canine behaviorist and training advisor at Battersea
Today I'm going to show you how to teach your dog a down
Teaching your dog to lie down on cue is a great behavior for them to learn because it's good for teaching your dog to stay and teaching them a settle
Because every dog is different we're going to teach you three different ways of how you might teach a down and it also might be useful to have something comfy for your dog to lie on like a blanket
So the first method that we will use is if your dog already knows a sit
Okay I'm going to pop the treat right on his nose like a magnet
Bring it all the way down to the ground and tuck it in between their front paws
If your dog is not going into a down easily then you might want to reward them if they're halfway there and then when they're a little bit further and keep going like that until they're all the way down to the floor
Once you've got your dog into a down successfully five times then you know they've got it and you can move on to the next stage
Next stage you've got your treat in both hands lower down with one hand and reward with the opposite hand right on the nose
[Yes]
and reward with the opposite hand
Once you've got that successfully five times then you're ready to move on again
So we're now going to move on to our hand signal so that's going to be where you were luring taking all the way down to the floor and rewarding with the other hand
Once your dog is doing this successfully, so a hundred percent every time, you can add in your voice cue ‘down’
[Yes]
Next stage is you're going to reduce your hand signal so you're going to put the hand down but don't take it all the way down to the floor and, once you've reduced your hand signal enough, you're then going to try just with your voice
Now another way to teach down is start from a standing position
[Feet to the nose, lure to the floor]
The next step is you're going to add in your hand signal rewarding from this hand, no treats in your hand signal hand
[Down]
Next stage is you're going to reduce your hand signal and add in your verbal cue
[Oakley, down]
Now if you're finding your dog is following the lure, but not quite getting it down then you might want to try our next method which is through the leg
If using this method make sure your dog is confident and comfortable being handled all over
So for this method you're going to need to get into a sitting position with the legs up so it's quite the ab workout, and you'll be luring the dog underneath your legs as your dog goes down on the floor under your legs
Then you're going to reward them so when you're doing this you're making sure you're not putting any pressure on the dog
Next stage is lift your legs higher, lower the dog under and reward every time they go into the down
Next stage you've got your treats in both hands lower with one hand reward from the opposite hand while sitting on the floor
You should now be able to encourage your dog into a down next to you without luring them through your legs
If your dog is successfully going in for down every time you can now use your hand signal all the way down to the ground
Use your voice command ‘Oakley, down’ and reward from the opposite hand you can start to phase out your hand signal so that your dog will go down on the voice signal only
Now so that was how to teach a down
If you’d like to learn more about how to teach your dog at The Battersea Way check out our website keep watching our videos
