My German Shepherd puppy is confused. I'm trying to use spatial pressure to teach her to back up and she lays down instead.

My 15 wk GSD is confused and I know I caused it. She takes the down as I am trying to use spatial pressure to push her into ‘back up’.

I don’t name it til I love it, so I have successfully Named/marked ‘Down’ with her .

It’s just the movement toward her that I think confuses her.

What or where should I ‘Go back’ and focus on to truly distinguish this for Her.

Leerburg's Answer

At 15 weeks I might simply take a break on working on back up for a bit. Sometimes simply taking a break from things like this and rethinking reward placement will help. Using spatial pressure on a really young pup often confuses them.

I've trained a few puppies to back by doing a couple of steps: I create a channel for the puppy so they have to move straight back. I then get down on their level and since my puppies already understand to move away from my closed hand that contains food the very moment they take a tiny shift back I mark it and toss the food with my other hand under them so they have to back up to get it. I think Ann Braue may demo something similar in the course you have. I haven't watched it in a while so it may not be exactly as I described but it might be worth reviewing.