Teach Your Dog to DOWN: 3 BEST Methods and Troubleshooting Tips!

[@hilarymarcus]

Thank you!! I've been struggling with down for weeks with my Havanese puppy - the bridge worked!!!

[@DoggyU]

Yay!! So glad it was helpful! Sometimes you just have to try a different strategy! :)

[@hilarymarcus]

@@DoggyU Yes! I cannot believe she did it. I am not sure how long it will take to do it without going under my leg but she's no longer getting frustrated and she is doing it!! :-)

[@DoggyU]

@@hilarymarcus Yay! Just take it slow and work on it for a minute at a time :)

[@suedemaio3443]

Wow, OSA is really a great student. I can’t believe you’ve only had her three weeks!

[@LifeofSuddy]

9:52 seconds you said bulldog now I’m getting a Patreon subscription You are absolutely phenomenal before I start asking more questions. I’m just gonna watch the videos.

[@joyfulinhope1210]

7:30 I could not get my St. Berdoodle pup to put her elbows down. I can lure her head down, but that’s as far as she ever gets. I need the down for SD training and DPT. The Bridge technique worked!! Thank you!

[@DoggyU]

use the "under your legs" or under object method.

[@greetingsinbraille.]

Great video 🎉🎉

[@DoggyU]

Thank you

[@natashadunning8371]

Oh and thank you for the very informative videos!!!

[@kavitadeva]

Hi thank you so much for your videos. What concerns me about most dog trainer creators on KZbin is they do not show the dog breaking the command. For instance this dog you're working with does the down perfectly every time. what I want to know is what to do when the dog doesn't do it perfectly. Also when do you start giving the command? When do you add in the word sit or down or whatever it is you're asking of your dog. I was a dog trainer for 20 years and all of this new positive reinforcement training was not the way people trained back then. So I'm trying to learn what you are teaching and other people on KZbin however it gets really difficult when nobody shows a dog who makes a mistake or who pops out of the down or whatever. Please could you show in your content your dogs not doing things perfectly. That way it's easier to learn what to do when it's not being carried out efficiently by the dog. I have to train a new service dog who will be my service dog and I really want to learn but I can't learn if it's always done correctly. Thank you very much have a great day

[@The_Woof_Pack]

I think in some of her other videos it shows the progression of the puppy learning with mistakes. You should definitely join her patreon and her Instagram! I was in the same boat as you about a year ago. It's definitely a whole new world!

[@DoggyU]

Hi Kavita - welcome to the channel! I totally understand your feedback here. Many of us who do KZbin have already well-trained dogs but still want to show how to train certain things. We don't have unlimited access to fresh dogs. Keeping that in mind, I purposefully used a puppy for teaching this skill to try to show it with a fresh dog (only just 12 weeks old), but this girl has not made mistakes in the down, besides very very occasionally popping up, where I will simply just signal her back into the down and then reward after a few seconds of maintaining the behavior. But I want to talk about the broader point here: I set her up for success so that the learning is nearly errorless. So I taught her first how to follow a lure around when she was just a baby, that she would be rewarded following my hand wherever it went. Then I lured her into the down. (If she were not able to follow the lure into the down, I would split that behavior down into tiny behaviors like: looks down, head moves one in down, elbows bend, elbows bend more etc. so that she can't fail. Splitting behavior until you can get the full picture is really helpful!) I immediately start feeding in position so there's literally no chance for her to pop up. As she gets better I slow down the feeding in position until I can space it quite a bit out. She knows the food will be delivered to her, so no need to get up. If she were to pop up I would just signal the behavior again. If it happened more than once I know that I either progressed too quickly or have been running my training session too long. I will do a shorter, easier down where she can be successful and finish the session knowing that I need to change my training plan if she is making more than one error on that particular behavior (I typically only do 3-12 reps of anything before moving on to another skill). If my dog is making lots of errors, that tells me I haven't trained the behavior to fluency and have over-faced the ability of the dog. The dog tells me everything I need to know about my own training plan and where I need to do better. Like @the woof pack mentioned, I do have a patreon that shows more long-form training sessions where errors occur and training plans change so that might be a helpful option for you. As far as adding a cue, please watch the video that was mentioned in the card on the video. You can find it here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/kKqmhWRtpa99eqM We only add a cue to the behavior once we're sure the dog knows the behavior and can do it in a behavior loop. Hope that helps! Best, Laura

[@kavitadeva]

@@DoggyU hi laura. I wanted say thank you so very much for your amazing reply. You answered my question completely. I think I get it now. What I notice is that you start with little increments and you move up as the dog gets the first tiniest little action toward what you're asking it to do you treat the dog and you keep giving the treats and saying yes as you deliver the treat for each accomplished move toward the full command. I don't know if I said it right but I fully understand what you said. And thank you for letting me know when you actually give the verbal I don't know what you call it commands or I really don't know because this is all pretty new to me even though I trained dogs for so long but it was long ago. I just want to again thank you for taking the time an energy to answer me in such a perfect way, to enable me to understand how I can move into this kind of training in the near future when I get my new dog. I'm going to be rescuing a dog and then training it to be a service dog. I trained my first service dog but he needs to retire he's a 25lb terrier and he's been amazing for me but I just know the next time I train I would like to use the techniques that you use. By the way I stopped watching most of all the other dog training channels because they're really not that good they're not very productive or helpful. I really truly do not only enjoy but respect what you're doing, how you do it, and I want to thank you for breaking it all down for me. By the way I live in Los Angeles and I would really like to train with a trainer to help me. Do you know any trainers that work with training service dogs? And by the way where do you have your dog training place? I would love to train with someone like you but I don't know anyone near the Los Angeles area. Have a great day.

[@DoggyU]

@@kavitadeva Hi Kavita! I'm so glad that was helpful for you! I don't do in-person training anymore as I travel for a living placing guide dogs across the country. I would recommend checking out Atlas service dogs to see if there is a person in your area (they train trainers across the country). But unfortunately, i don't know a place specifically in LA. If you're looking for a community of people who are interested in this type of training, with a service dog lean, extra videos and posts as well as a monthly Q&A for just a few bucks a month, check out my patreon page at patreon.com/doggyu. Happy Training!

[@yelortiz]

Thank you!

[@DoggyU]

You're welcome!

[@RagenXRavenTheTherianTwins]

Where did you get the placework. Beautiful puppy. Just subscribed 😊❤

[@DoggyU]

Welcome Emily! Those are KLIMBs. You can find them here: amzn.to/3Q67XEa

[@captaincompany568]

Great video again. Are you using the dogs daily food allowance for the reward? And love the wee dig. Or I should say, big dog in the making 😃

[@KellyLS716]

I can lure my puppy down but I can't seem to switch to just the hand signal. I would like to use just a flat hand signal down like you do. I have even put a treat between my fingers on the flat hand so he gets used to the flat hand, and he will do down if I do that, but he still won't go down for just a treatless flat hand signal. I feel like I've been trying this for awhile so I must be doing something wrong..

[@DoggyU]

Good morning! The mechanics on the human end can be tricky sometimes and very dog-dependent. If you're interested in having me review your training, check out the top fan level on Patreon at Patreon.com/doggyu where i can review your 3 minute training video and give you specific feedback for your dog.

[@KathgoKat]

Wow! OSA s doing GREAT!!! She's growing like a weed too!! Im training a Bouvier pup..who's now 8 months old. I started training indoors over the winter...in my kitchen ..she does sit down.come around .place. touch etc.but I didnt teach her a release word.!!...she won't stay in position...How do I fix this?? Now I see why she pops back up !! I handed her her treats !! Shes almost 75 lbs already and has high drive ... Also where do you buy your place boards? Love your videos!!

[@DoggyU]

Hi Katherine - yes she is growing like a weed for sure! As far as your question goes, if you're looking for individualized review of your training, check out my patreon page at Patreon.com/doggyu and become an elite member which includes the video review and troubleshooting option. You can purchase the KLIMB platforms here: amzn.to/2PSDIUk or on their website. Hope that helps!

[@The_Woof_Pack]

Any advice for cleaning those puzzle mats? My puppy had an accident on mine. 😭 I'm hoping to get the scent out without destroying it.

[@DoggyU]

Which puzzle mats are you talking about? I usually just throw everything in the dishwasher...

[@pawsomfunandfrugal]

Hi, I’m new to your channel. I’ve been starting to watch your videos and I was watching this one. I noticed you don’t do any small dogs, but I wanted to share with you that while I was watching the video my new Chipin puppy he’s 10 months old, he started watching the TV and watching OSA. It was really funny and cute. He likes to watch everything. I think he’s gonna learn fast. I already have a seven-year-old Chiweenie, who was naturally alerting me, and helping me with my fainting episodes, so I started training her a couple of months ago and she’s picked up on it really quickly. I got a new dog to start training him since Circe, the Chiweenie is getting older, and I figured it would be good to train them together. I wanted to check with you also to see if it’s OK if I share my little video clip of him watching part of your video. I think it would be really cute for people to see that I wanted to be respectful and ask you first. Of course I will credit you.

[@DoggyU]

Welcome PawsomFun to the channel! Small dogs can definitely make excellent service dogs too! I just don't tend to have smaller dogs for myself or in program because many tasks do require a larger dog so medium to large dogs tend to be the norm. But I love small dogs, especially for scent work! You can absolutely share the clip of your dog watching my videos. I am very active on Instagram, so that might be the best spot. Please just tag me in it :) Thanks for subscribing and Happy Training!

[@captaincompany568]

Great video. Can I ask if your using the dogs daily food allowance for the food reward? Also, what would you do differently if the dog was motivated by praise or play rather than food when training the down command? Thanks

[@DoggyU]

I am training with her daily food allowance. Because i start from when the pup is very young with always working for their food in the form of training or puzzle toys it allows me to be able to use kibble. But, some dogs will need higher value rewards. If I had a dog that was motivated by praise or toys i would first build their food drive so that I could train these behaviors using food rewards and once they understand the behaviors, mix up the reinforcement with praise and toys (which is what I do for most dogs anyways - incorporate other rewards once they show a solid understanding of the behavior.) Hope that helps!

[@captaincompany568]

@@DoggyU yes makes sense. Can you actually train a dog to be motivated with a reward that that doesn’t really motivate them? And do you know any visually impaired GDMIs in your field of work? Also, how would an owner trained assistance dog go about acquiring an appropriate guide harness? As over here in the UK the design is patented. Many thanks and find the videos very helpful being a student of Diploma in Assistance Dog Trainer

[@DoggyU]

@@captaincompany568 I generally say, if your dog eats, it's motivated in some way by food, you just have to find the right food to motivate them. You can also play games like food tossing to help them get excited. I don't personally know any visually impaired GDMIs. I would check out Bold Lead Design as far as harnesses go. They make some quality gear. Bridgeport also makes some harnesses that are less of an investment. Hope that helps!

[@captaincompany568]

@@DoggyU yes very helpful. Many thanks!

[@d4ri495]

What can I do if my dog gets bored fast and just runs away when I want to learn him things?

[@DoggyU]

Shorter training sessions. Sometimes as short as 30 seconds is a good amount of time to train before giving your dog a break :)

[@LifeofSuddy]

My pup wants to only do down on a rug or a mat? why is that? Could it be he this that’s his place?

[@DoggyU]

It’s much more comfortable to lay on a carpet or rug than a hard floor. They also tend to be colder so if your dog is sensitive to temperature, they will prefer the rug. Slippery surfaces also present traction issues when getting up, which can affect dogs with injuries, older dogs, or dogs with surface concerns.

[@LifeofSuddy]

He has nailed the down an not only on the rug I’m staying consistent with the training and working on it