As has been discussed, we start the process of teaching the down/stay by reinforcing staying down for less than a second. Initially, the trainer should remain close to the puppy without movement and the work should be in an environment with virtually no distractions. When the puppy can remain in the down without popping up consistently for at least 8-10 reward events in a row, it’s time to increase criteria.
There are three aspects of any stay exercise where criteria needs to be gradually and systematically increased in order to move a puppy forward in training. These aspects are time, distance, and distractions.
There are a few guidelines that should be adhered to when increasing criteria.
1. Criteria should be increased in only one aspect at a time.
2. It should be increased at a rate that is slow enough to keep the puppy successful. Your goal should be a 100% success rate, but realize that this is impossible. Your puppy will make mistakes. You will make mistakes by asking too much.
3. Criteria should be increased gradually without sudden large increases in criteria, even if the puppy appears to be successful.
3. Criteria should be decreased when the puppy fails.
4. Criteria should sometimes be reduced for one aspect when increasing the criteria in another aspect that is especially difficult for a particular puppy.
We start increasing the time almost at the very start of training the down/stay, though it is very subtle and gradual. We will often go from using our Rapid Rewards technique to waiting a full second before marking in the same training session.
We begin increasing the distance in our Day #5 of training. The first step in increasing distance is for the trainer to move their feet taking very small steps back and forth. Gradually you’ll turn that slight movement of your feet into a single full step back from the puppy and then immediately taking a full step back to your puppy. Pause for a second. Mark and reward as long as the puppy remains in the down.
If the puppy gets up when first learning the down stay, signal your puppy to get into the down again. Mark and reward for getting in the down and then try moving your feet without backing away so far. Mark and reward success.
How to Handle Errors in the Down/Stay After a Puppy Fully Understands the Down with a Verbal
When a dog is proficient at getting into the down and fully understands the “down” cue, you need to handle errors differently. If a puppy fails on the stay portion of the down/stay, he needs to repeat the stay portion before getting his reward. Otherwise, puppies that don’t like to stay still will tend to pop up, just to go back down for their reward.
When a puppy gets up when you back away from them, take them back to the place where they should have stayed. Tell them to “down”. Do not reward this. Instead, back away one small step and return. Then mark and reward if the puppy stays in the down. The puppy needs to repeat the portion of the exercise that he failed before getting his reward. In this case, he failed the stay portion of the down/stay.
