Turbo is a 1.5 year old Jack Russell Terrier. He is a companion. I like to take him places with me, so I would like him to be pretty obedient. We have just recently started basic obedience. Most of the time He can sit, stay, down and come. He is doing very well, but shows me every now and then that he doesn't understand what I want. He isn't deliberatly disobeying, but he might give the wrong action, and that is why I was wondering about this. It is sit and down that he confuses and I didn't know if this is because I taught them both relatively close together. I would also like to add that in the beginning when I first got him, I was too stern with him. When I finally really started researching training I saw my mistakes and backed off and worked on our groundwork more. I'm pretty sure that we are past my mistakes now, but I wanted to bring that up in case it might affect something now. Also, I didn't know about selecting a dog when I got him and am afraid he might be a product of bad genetics.(I don't know enough about dogs to really tell) He's not the softest I have seen, but a firm "NO" is enough to stop most misbehavior.(probably a result of my screw ups) Anyways, Ed's Basic Obedience video is on the way. I just wish I knew about this website a long time ago. Thanks everyone.

I've had this happen relatively often. It's just a matter of teaching him a second time around what you REALLY want him to be doing when you say "Sit" or "Down", in other words you start teaching him that you want a combination of behaviours. Often I do this by shuffling the dog's front feet if he downs when I ask him to sit. If he sits when I ask him to down I jerk the prong quickly and then down and release and praise. A few exercises alternating this and he should understand fast enough.