My dog knows the down command but how do I make her hold it, like when I walk away she gets up. I think is that I reward her to quickly but what should I do.

Get Ed's Video "Basic Dog Obedience" and watch.

Also you could try using hot dogs or chicken and when you give the DOWN stand still and keep throwing little bits of treat between your dogs front legs and keep praising "GOOD DOWN".

Gradually walk backwards and increase your distance contuing to treat and praise.

What age is your dog?

John

5 months

Well in that case try not to walk away TOO much as that then becomes a DOWN STAY yes?

Just let the pup know that it's good to stay down when told by treating for a continued DOWN and the general advice, I believe, is not to teach the stay until after 6 months or so as it can stress the pup. Splitting hairs maybe :-)

John

 Quote:

Well in that case try not to walk away TOO much as that then becomes a DOWN STAY yes?

IMO “Down” and Down/Stay” are the same command. I want the down to be the most reliable command in my toolbox. Down is down…no matter what. I want my dog to know that you never ever break a down. That’s the standard I want in my obedience and it transfers into other areas as well. Some tidbits I like to adhere to…..

1) If I leave my dog in a down and I want to walk away without my dog, I ALWAYS lead with my right foot. Heel always leads with the left foot…. I don’t want to send any mixed body language to my dog, and making a differentiation between which foot you step off with goes a long way.

2) I will only release my dog from a down at a distance 1 time out of every 100 times. I will return to my dog 99% of the time and stand next to him at the heel position before releasing him. Upon return I will also leave my dog once or twice before I release him from the down. I don’t want him to anticipate that he will be free every time I walk back to him or I end up encouraging him to come out of the down.

Just a couple of things I use to help reinforce the down. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Good pointers Matt, I think I'll use them myself.

The mistake I've been making is I almost always call my dog from sit/stay down/stay and now I'm getting problems (my own fault) with his sit/stay.

I'll get it back but it was a stoopid n00bie mistake :-/

John