The instructor at class explained and demonstrated to put the dog at sit and then place hands on the dog's elbows and gently stretch the legs out to put the dog in a down while saying down and then praise. This isn't working too well during our training at home. Did I or am I missing something?

Barbara,

When I was teaching my GSD the down command I found the best way was to get him to "sit" and then hold a biscuit or toy (whichever your dog prefers) under it's nose then slowly lower the treat repeating the command "Down" My dog learnt it in a day.
Best of luck
Gwen

There are probley a million ways to train the dog to go down. that is one of them.. not too effective I think, as you can tell. It is supost to be dog training not Dog Kung Foo... (Instructor) "And sweep the dogs legs, Hiiii Ya! now he is in the down position!" "Class Dismissed"

I prefer to have the dog in a sit, have him smell the treat in my closed hand command "down" while moving my hand with the treat inside to the ground. The dog will naturally lie down to access the food, when he gets down, open your hand and feed, in between his legs. Praise while he munches the treat... if he just won't go down, digs at your hand etc, you can apply some pressure to his shoulders down, and to the side to help him. You will have a hard time pushing him stright down, because he will lock his legs up. I try to teach the command in it's most natural way... so don't use force if you don't need to.

As he gets better at this, which should take about a day or two, you can start to drop the treat in between his legs from 5 inches from the ground 10 etc etc.. until he masters the command.

Hope that helps!

Barbara,

For this puppy I taught the positions a little different. It is a modification of a technique in the tape "Compition Obedience". I put the puppy up on a little plastic table, just big enough for her to stand on, and used treats for the position. Down below the edge of the table for down, up over her head for sit, and out and up a little for stand. The biggest advantage with this is that you can teach the positions independantly. So the dog doesn't have to go from sit to sown, you can teach down from a stand, Stand from sit, sit from down, whatever combination. Now the dog doesn't believe that down only follows sit. Later in training the dog will go straight in to the down without doing the sit first. It has worked well.

Richard...Hey..that makes a lot of sense. My only hesitation is the "table" as I'm trying to teach her to stay off of my coffee table. So.. I'm going to improvise and use the porch or deck; same basic principal and won't be confusing to Dallas.

Thanks to all for your suggestions.

Barbara,

The table I used was a very small plastic out door table. She never attempted to climb on any other furnature. The table was always outside. She would go out the back door and try to climb on the table and look at me to see if we were going to train. She very clearly understood which was the proper table and what to do with it. Since we never trained in side on the table she never has climed on any furnature in the house.

Richard...Out of the blue..Dallas recently has been leaping upon my coffee table <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" /> The first time she did it; I almost had to laugh because it was so unexpected but I realized that type of response nonproductive to the inappropriate behavior. Since the majority of our education time is spent outdoors; the deck is easily used because I can stand on the ground with Dallas on the deck and thus can achieve the same result without breaking my back picking her up..she's 18 weeks old now and getting to be a bit too much for me to lift.
Thanks again for your input..it's much appreciated. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

i taught my dog the down in a couple short sessions using this method: On a linoleum floor (preferred), take a treat and hold it in your closed hand. hold it palm down on the floor in front of the dog and encourage the dog to get the treat. he'll probably try all kinds of digging and so on, but eventually he will lay down. as soon as he's in a decent down, say 'good down' and give treats while repeating the name of the command. continue to give treats and repeat 'down' until the dog gets up or you run out.

at first, wait until the dog is in the down position before saying the command, to make a stronger connection between the word and the action.

I got this method from "purely positive training" and it works incredibly well.

I was taught the same way. Treat in hand, drop hand to floor, dog follows and eventually lays dows. This was from the "Sirius Dog Training Method" by Dr. Ian Dunbar. We learned the sit and stand in the same way. In this manner the hand signals were taught to the puppy first. Only when the dog would down with the hand signal were the verbal commands introduced.

I agree with L Swanston in that dog training is both an art and a science, although primarily an art. You can teach many people the "formula" but some never really have the "knack" or develop the "artsy" side of dog training. Not that they're bad people, ju st that they never really seem to "connect" the commands with the "feelings" you get from your dog and use that "bond" to help that dog develop to his/her potential.

I don't know how else to describe it. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I trained my first dog using physical manipulation (gently pulling the front legs forward for the down, pushing down on the rump while pulling up on the collar for the sit, praising for compliance, etc.), and while he did learn his commands, I have found that getting the pup/dog to voluntarily perform the physical movement (using treats, toys, praise, etc.) is so much better. I believe that the dog learns the command faster, and retains the information better that way, AND the bond and trust level between dog and handler are much stronger, too. I had an incredibly strong bond with my first dog, but I think it could have been better had I used different training methods. He was like my "learning dog", I guess. In my mind, the difference between compulsion and induction is like the difference between learning something by reading about it in a book and learning something by doing it. When the dog voluntarily performs the physical movement associated with the command, I think s/he learns it more effectively than when you physically manipulate him or her into it.