I would have to say that I don't have a definate goal time wise in mind and one of my concerns was she is/maybe being disobedient by doing it her way and one little way of gaining control. I want to make sure that she respects me and my leadership as she definately has the mastiff stubborn streak and sometimes on a basic sit she looks at me and I can almost see it processing in her eyes "she asked me to sit, do I want to....okay I will" LOL as it takes a good 15-30 secs for her to comply and sometimes doesn't so then I make her sit. My American Bulldog just sits - no thoughts nothing I say sit or snap my fingers and he sits.

I had kind of the same problem with my puppy (the one below). I was at the M. Ellis seminar in Dec. and had him help me out. It is real simple, after I could get her engaged. It is demonstrated in video if you watch closely.

Anyways, using his technique,
1. have him\her standing in front of you
2. have your food in your hand
3. standing fairly close to the dog (so he\she can’t slide forward),
4. slide your hand straight down between your legs, he should follow the food with his nose into the down.

Here is the important part, and what I was doing wrong during the teaching phase, which he pointed out. I was sliding my hand down off-center slightly causing my pup’s back legs to lie off to one side in a non-sphinx way (which is what I don’t want for a proper down).

His explanation, the dog’s butt will do the opposite of where his nose is going. It was fixed the next down, it was all my fault. It was very slight but made a BIG difference. Her downs are near perfect now after re-teaching the exercise. I backed up and re-taught the whole down from the very, very beginning, no verbal command until it was mechanically correct and on que…obviously marking the proper down. I am now adding duration after it was fixed. Now, I am very careful of where my hand is during any “luring” or any other phase of training with markers, especially heeling.

I hope this makes sense, sometimes I am not good at explaining things in words, this was for my puppy and it worked for me!!

 Quote: Scott Kapphahn

I hope this makes sense, sometimes I am not good at explaining things in words, this was for my puppy and it worked for me!!

I thought it was a great explanation - thanks for elaborating!
And what a great reminder about how much influence we have while we train - intended or not! Mindful reality checks about our own body language can often illuminate a LOT about a particular dogs training quirks...

~Natalya