I’m gonna discuss three different techniques for luring a puppy or dog into a down.
The first is to simply hold a piece of food down very low where your hand is touching the floor and the palm is up. With this technique, most adult dogs will go into a down to access the food. Some puppies will. This technique is simple and if it works is the easiest for the inexperienced trainer to use.
However, for most puppies, it doesn’t work. Compared to adults, puppies tend to have shorter legs compared to their body. A puppy’s legs must be sufficiently long compared to the length of his neck. If it isn’t, the puppy will have the option of getting to the food by stretching his neck down rather than by lying down.
Try the hold-the-food-low technique with your dog. If it works, great. Say “yes” and give your dog a piece of food.
For the puppies in these videos, the technique of food held low doesn’t initially work. Therefore, in these videos I’m going to be demonstrating two other techniques that may be a bit more difficult for inexperienced trainers to learn, but are very effective. I’ll show these techniques with several different puppies and give detailed instruction so that anyone can learn them.
The first technique is for the puppy who starts the process in a stand. The second technique works best for the puppy who starts the process in a sit. You need to know how to use both techniques because sometimes the standing puppy will sit before he downs and sometimes the sitting puppy will stand before downing. Therefore you may need to shift from one technique to the other. In addition, there might be times when you’ll need to apply both techniques at the same time in order to keep your puppy from incorrectly changing positions.
For both techniques, begin by holding the food palm up with the food placed at the base of and in between your first and second finger. Cover the food with your thumb. Put your hand with the food in it right up against your puppy’s mouth so that the puppy is inclined to drive into and push at your hand as he tries to get the food out of your hand. Keep the food covered so that the puppy cannot get it.
The Standing Puppy
If your puppy is standing, you are going to get your puppy into the down by having her fold down with her front legs going down first, followed by her rear. You will do this in steps. For the standing puppy, push into the puppy with the food while the puppy is pushing into your hand with their mouth. Try to push backwards and slightly down. Your goal should be to push the puppy into a bowed position. The puppy’s first step will likely be to bow down his front end in order to better be able to take the food. At the moment his front legs begin to move towards being down, say “yes”. Move your thumb so that the puppy can access the food. As you are moving your thumb, continue pushing back on your puppy so that hopefully his rear will go down as well and the puppy will end up in a complete down position.
This continued pushing in order to complete the down is a use of reward placement. Remember, that when using reward placement, the puppy gets a timely delivery of his food whether the reward placement is successful or not. You will not always be successful with reward placement. It doesn’t matter. Give the puppy his food either way.
If you are successful with reward placement, the puppy will have a better chance of offering a more complete behavior next time. However, the most important objective in all training is to keep the game fair by giving the reward to the puppy shortly after he is marked for correct behavior. Otherwise, the dog will lose motivation to work. Reward placement is a bonus and not a necessary part of training. Therefore, give the puppy his food after you have said “yes” whether you are able to get the puppy’s entire body manipulated into a down or not.
Do not continue trying reward placement for more than just a full second. With reward placement, if you aren’t able to quickly get the desired position, quit trying and just give the food.
The Sitting Puppy
For the sitting puppy, you will use a slightly different technique. The start will be the same as for the standing puppy. Offer the food held in between your first two fingers and covered with your thumb. Present it initially with the palm up and close to your puppy’s mouth.
If your puppy was standing, you’d push in with your hand, but we’re going to do something different with the sitting puppy. Pushing into a sitting puppy will usually not accomplish the desired result of having a puppy move from a sit to a down. With the sitting puppy, the dog needs to stretch his feet forward in order to access the food. In order to encourage this forward stretching out of the front feet, the trainer needs to rotate their hand as the puppy is driving into the hand. The trainer’s hand needs to go from a palm up position to a palm down position. This hand rotation will encourage the puppy to crawl forward with their front legs in order to get their head under your hand. The instant the puppy’s legs move towards stretching forward, say “yes” and continue rotating your hand to try to manipulate the puppy into completing the down.
Again, don’t forget to give your puppy his food whether he completes the down or not. This completion of the down is reward placement. Reward placement is a bonus and is not a necessary part of each reward event.
Where to Find Demonstration
The skills described in this lesson are demonstrated in our 3rd Day Video.
