Teach Your Dog Down Command

1. Bait your hand without letting your dog see you do so. Ask your dog to sit. Once they do, present your baited hand just below your pet’s nose and encourage them to touch your hand with their nose.

2. Once their nose is 'stuck' to your baited hand, begin to lure your dog by slowly moving your hand downwards into their chest towards their front paws. If your dog's nose falls away from your hand, or if their butt rises off of the ground, say your No Reward Marker (“Eh-eh!”) and stand straight up, taking the chance of a reward away. You're not punishing your dog for not lying down, but because they didn't follow the lure. Once you have lured your dog's nose all the way to the ground, begin slowly dragging your hand along the ground away from the dog. This shape will resemble an 'L'. When luring from a stand, present your baited hand to your dog's nose and slowly down into their chest and towards the ground at a diagonal, causing their rear half to fold backwards.

Your dog is considered “down” once their rear end and elbows are both on the ground.

3. The instant your dog is in the down position give your Reward Marker then place several treats on the ground between your dog’s front paws. Placing treats on the floor increases the association of lying down, and receiving treats from the ground instead of from your hand. By placing several treats between their paws, it gives you more time to stand up and step away before giving your dog their release cue.

If at any time should your dog get out of position before you give your marker, say your No Reward Marker, remove your lure hand and wait a moment, your dog should offer either the Sit or Down behavior again. Repeat these steps until your dog can hold their “Down” for longer and longer periods of time.

4. Continue to practice this until your dog will consistently follow your baited hand into the down position.

5. Immediately begin to fade your lure by rewarding your dog from the hand opposite you used to lure them into position. Your pet will start to associate that they follow one hand, but the rewards are coming from the floor between their paws.

6. Next, try having your dog follow your lure hand into position without a treat inside of it. Your pet will most likely be so use to following that hand they will gladly follow it anyways.

7. Next, we are ready to add the cue. Say the word “Down” before you begin to lure your dog into the position. Repeat this multiple times. Your dog will start to anticipate that the word Down means to lie down.

8. Increase the duration of down and add eye contact by placing several treats between your dog's paws and then stand straight up. Just before your dog finishes those treats, say your marker again and place several more treats down between their paws. After your dog finishes the second or third round of treats they will most likely look up at you as to say, “Hey! I'm still laying here, where are my treats?” This is awesome! Mark your dog for lying down while making eye contact, then place more treats in the same place as before. Slowly increase the time your dog holds down with eye contact by withholding your reward marker for a couple of seconds. Gradually increase the amount of time your dog will lay down and wait for that first marker.

9. Continue to fade your lure by starting to point to the ground (finger actually touching the ground) after saying your cue. After several repetitions of this you can begin pointing to the ground and inch above the ground. As long as your dog still follows your hand and responds to the Down cue you may continue to increase the distance between your hand and the ground. Since you have already added your cue, your dog will likely anticipate the desired behavior and you can eventually cue your pet to lie down on verbal cue and a hand signal.

Training Tips: Always end on a good each session on a good note! Sometimes, you may not be able to get your dog to lie down in one session and you may have to mark and reward small increments. You can also use Capturing to mark and reward anytime your pet lays down on their own.

Practice having your dog lie down while you're kneeling or sitting. Try to practice while you’re lying on your back. Practice with your pet on either side of you as well, not just in front of you. We want our pet to learn that “Down” means lie down no matter what position the handler may be in.

Practice on a wide variety of different surfaces and in plenty of different scenarios. Down can be especially difficult on hard or slippery surfaces and for very large or very small dogs. Always remember to go back to step one when making things more difficult and when introducing the Down around distractions.

You can also using your reward marker to ‘capture’ every time your pet lies down on their own accord. After you mark, reinforce by placing or tossing treats on the ground between their front paws.