The second trick is, again a basic one that all dogs should know - "Down".
Kyra Sundance suggests teaching this trick through luring and, if your dog will follow a food lure, this is a good way to do it. Start with the treat in front of your dog's nose and slowly move it down to the floor. Your dog should follow it and, hopefully, lie down.
Small dogs and puppies have a harder time following the lure as they can easily reach the floor without lying down. For these dogs I reccomend capturing the down. Put your dog in a relatively boring place (either a playpen for smaller dogs or in the bathroom for larger ones) and wait. Don't interact with your dog at all (you may want to take a book). Eventually your dog will lie down. Mark the moment he does so with a click or a "yes!" and give the dog a treat. If you repeat in lots of short sessions your dog will soon learn that lying down earns him a treat and will do so more readily. At this point you can start to add your cue by sying "Down" as your dog lies down.
Here are Kota and Sparky and "Down":
Awesome! I'm inspired again to proof our Down and Sit in lots of different places :)
ReplyDeleteAwesome! I think it's great !I am rainystorm from the LJ dog training community. I think our blog is awesome and decided to link to it on mine! Keep up the good work! How did you get readers to check your blog?
ReplyDeleteWow! This is so cool! You rock! I love how you are offering alternate methods to teach the tricks (capturing, reward marker). Really great job with the first two tricks (moving sit, moving down, wow!) I can't wait to see what trick is next! (My vote is for "spin circles")
ReplyDelete--Kyra Sundance, author of "101 Dog Tricks" and "51 Puppy Tricks"
WOW! Hi Kyra!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you're impressed! I love your book and it's given me loads of new ideas. I hope you keep following.
I think we're just going to work through from start to finish, otherwise I'll forget which ones I've done and which ones I have't! And so next will be "Stay". I'm working on the video at the moment. Stay tuned!
Abigail
Hi Joe,
ReplyDeleteIf you go over to www.dogstardaily.com you can get two books, "Before you get your puppy" and "After you get your puppy" for free (PDFs). They're both amazing books by an amazing dog trainer and will have everything you need to know about house-training in them.
Good luck!