Am I teaching the down wrong?

[armyboot]

I need some advice on teaching the down, my method does not seem to be working.

I've had my pup for two weeks, and he's got the sit understood. He'll do it unless he's distracted, as expected for a pup. Now, after I have him sit, I hold a treat and bring it straight down and say 'down.' As soon as he is in the down position I praise saying 'good down' and give him the treat. However, immediately after I do this he just goes straight back to the sit.

After seeing this happen, I had him hold the down position for a half second or so before treating and praising, and he still goes back into a sit right after. What am I doing wrong?

 

[buddy'smom]

It sounds to me like you are doing everything correct. Like you said, a puppy's attention span is very short, and I commend you on doing as well with your young puppy as you have thus far He is going down when you ask him to, and immediate reward for young puppies is important which you are doing. He goes down as you are asking so he is gaining some understanding of what the word down means for him. Continue reinforcing the word down until you know he is responding to the word, not just focusing on where that treat is.

His next "word" of training will be the stay "word" and once that is down pat, you can then begin incorporating the word stay after the down. Gosh my two even at the ages of 3 and 6 don't stay down unless I add the word stay after they are down. Perhaps in the beginning, praising the first "word" down with verbal praise and with the treat reward in full view as you ask him to stay. Once he is down, and does stay (because he is focused on getting the treat he sees) then after a short duration reward the stay lengthening the duration as time goes on.

I think you are on the right track, hopefully someone more "in the know" will respond with some more expert advice.

Jean

 

[zvinzonz]

I need some advice on teaching the down, my method does not seem to be working.

I've had my pup for two weeks, and he's got the sit understood. He'll do it unless he's distracted, as expected for a pup. Now, after I have him sit, I hold a treat and bring it straight down and say 'down.' As soon as he is in the down position I praise saying 'good down' and give him the treat. However, immediately after I do this he just goes straight back to the sit.

After seeing this happen, I had him hold the down position for a half second or so before treating and praising, and he still goes back into a sit right after. What am I doing wrong?

You only been training your puppy for two weeks and it's too much for you to expect them to learn the stay position right away. As far as doing something wrong i think you are on the right track. You are slowly getting your puppy to understand what you want when you gave the command "sit" or "down" so you are doing something right. Just a simple advise everytime you give them a command such as "sit" immediately follow it with a release command, i used "free" to let him know that the training is over. Also what i do is just used 5 - 10 minutes of training one command like "sit" and "free". As starter i use 2-3 second interval before i gave him the "free" command and just extend it as my training days go by. After 10 minutes i usually take a break and let him play for few minutes then i'll go back to training either "sit" or "down". Once your puppy understand the word "free" it would be easier to teach them stay. I normally don't used the word stay since Nitro won't move until he hears the word "free". I usually used "stay" if im moving away from him. I also used "no" if Nitro move before i release him from any command i used. This helped him understand that if i said "no" that he's doing something wrong or bad. Also i don't used "good boy" or "good girl" instead i'll used "good sit" or "good down". During the time im training this is normally what you'll hear " Nitro sit, good sit, then free" that is if he listen. If he decided that he won't listen then it will be "Nitro sit then no".

 

[armyboot]

Thanks for the great advice.

I should clarify that I don't expect him to 'stay' in that position for a long length of time, maybe 1 or 2 seconds instead of immediately popping up immediately. I thought this meant he might not be understanding.

I've also been trying to incorporate a release word. I've been using ok, but I think that's far too common, and will probably adopt adopt 'free'. <-- Great word choice BTW.

 

[Jan]

It sounds like what you really want to teach is the down stay. You really want a release word that is not okay. Personally, I use "all done" but free is fine. I would use a treat and let her nibble on it for a couple of seconds and then you can release her. You only need to use the food, untill she gets the idea that she is to stay there until released.