I have seen in another post in this section that position does not cost the team any points as long as the dog downs quickly, but are there any advantages to training the dog to down in the direction of travel on a send away? And how is it done? My dog downs like a stone on a send away but she turns to face me while going down; pointers?

Ok, I'm having the opposite problem.

How did you get your dog to turn and face you before downing?

My pup will down but will do so while staring ahead at the target (or where he believes the target is).
As for your question, I'm not quite sure... my guess is that if the dog is driven enough for whatever is at the end of the line, that he'll want to keep looking at it (or in its direction).

Well, that's how it works in my dog's brain at least

Although I don't compete, I have just started this excersise recently with my dog. I am very interested to hear the responsonses to Brad's querry.

So far my dog downs really quick, but also does the "half turn" down so he kinda faces me. I think it looks great when the dog downs in the direction of travel, I wonder if I have just put so much emphasis on the dog watching me for commands (and using hand signals alot) that he thinks he has to be looking at me. After all, I have rewarded him for focusing on me in the rest of his obedience We also work a down on recall, and so he is obviously used to facing me for that one.

Cheers,

Jennifer C

Hi,
My dog has a fairly good speed when I do the Send Away. However, my problem is she won't down immediately when I give her the 'Down" command. She will run all the way to the target (ball) then down. She knows the down command well but she just doesn't do it immediately during Send Away. Any good suggestion ?

many thanks

It depends, what are you doing right now?

Since this topic has become active again I will give a bit of an update.

I pretty well restarted my training; right back to the basic 'down'. But this time I get the dog on a tree stump, large rock, or baseball diamond bench (the one for players not spectators - I prefer this tool BTW) just something that the dog cannot turn around on in order to lay down. I did this in front of the dog, to the side, then to the rear. Once behind progress slowed but just keep at it.

Then I put the dog back on the ground and started over same as above (but now obviously without the bench). Once behind progress slowed again and had to be backed up a couple of times.

In the mean time I also worked at training her to watch the ball no matter where it was on the ground. I started off slow, throw the ball a few feet away, tell her 'watch it' and orient her head toward it, then mark and release while she glanced at it. When I had her able to stare at the ball for a few seconds I threw in a down command. She downed straight but looked back at me; at some point she looked back at the ball to see if it was still there; when she did I marked and released and voila!

Then I got back to the voraus, at a shorter distance (about 15-20 feet) and I would give an immediate down after the varous command. It is better but still not quite where I want it to be. So by backing up my training I am trying to teach her to stay in visual contact with the ball but still obey my commands. Then when the ball is later taken away I (should) have a finished product because the dog will not know there is no ball.

Just try to teach the down on a designated spot first. You heel the dog to spot give the command down and reward immediately.
when done this numerous times the dog anticipates the reward from the spot in the down position. thats when you can start to send the dog from "heel" to the spot starting with little distance. that way the dog knows already the end of the exercise which saves you all the hassle with sniffing and digging.
All the best
Ulf