down command question...

[Mayasmydobe]

Maya and I are working on "Down" She has it pretty good and does it 99% of the time. The way we taught this to her was to sit in a chair of on the ground and start her off in a sit and then bring the treat down towards the ground and away from her nose a bit so that she followed it down. Now I have eliminated the need for the sit command, but I am still sitting in a chair or on the ground. Also I dont need to bring the treat all the way to the ground. I can have it about 3 inches above her head while she is standing with all 4 paws on the ground. I point my finger towards the ground and say "Down" and she instantly leans back into a down position. I think we are doing good. We raise the hight of the hand signal an inch to an inch and a half a day. my problem is that she will not do the command if I am standing up. I have the hand signal at the same hight as when I was seated. I dont want to lean down to give the signal becuase I know that it looks like an invitation to play.

What should I do? Is there some trick to getting her to obey the commands no matter what position I am in?

Also, we have worked on sit for EVER and she is good at it but if I dont have a treat it seems like she will only do it if she wants to... will she get better the more I work at it or do I need to do somethin different with that as well?

Thank you!

[adojrts]

I feel for you, been there done that..........and now I shape sits/downs etc by clicker training. As soon as you can fade food in your hand the better.
Its amazing how fast dogs take the attitude of 'produce it' before they do the desired behaviour. And trying to fake them out by making them 'think' you have food is guaranteed to bite you in the butt. Because basically you have lied to them and they know it lol. You maybe able to fake out a dog once, then when it really counts they don't buy it. Having Jrts, I have had to learn that one the hard way, boy oh boy they don't forget nor do they forgive you very quickly lol.
You can try these websites if your interested in clicker training.
www.clickersolutions.com and www.clickertraining.com

Good luck
Lynn

[Tazwell]

I've had the same problems with my dachshund before, since I sit on the floor to teach her most of her tricks :p

I've personally never found a 100% successful way to do this, So I'm interested in the other responses you'll get-- But there are two things that I've taken to doing--
The first is to stand up, and just keep giving her the command really excitabley, over and over, and she'll try a million things to get the reward-- and eventually she'll do the thing I want her to do. Sort of like when you first teach her the trick. That method doesn't really work with dogs that aren't pigs, though...
The second thing is to do exactly what you're doing, to slowly raise your body so that she does it no matter where you are. What I do, is I just move on to different things, and every day, I just continue to keep using the down signal at different heights, casually. Over the course of time, she'll learn it without direct teaching.

If you keep working with her, eventually she'll learn it, no matter what you do. She'll pick up on it, I think!

[Mayasmydobe]

I really hope so! We had two REALLY motivating training sessions today! I am feeling a new burst of "I can do it"-ness!
I really want her to learn this stuff and learn it good and solid. Eventually I want to get her the Canine Good Citizen title and maybe (depending on how well she takes to this obedience stuff) compete in obedience! But that all depends like I said, on how well i can get her trained. I am working with SizzleDog and Sada to help train her. Sizzle thinks that Maya and Sada's dog Jack should do the CGC test together sometime next year and at first I was feeling like "there is no way she will be ready for that" but now after these two training sessions I feel good about it. Basically Sizzle and Sada show me how to work with Maya on a certain command and Maya and I go home and work on it for a week or two and then go back and I see how to teach another command.
My main problem with Maya is walking politely on a leash. If I dont have the prong collar on Maya she about rips my arm off. And she gets distracted ALOT when on the prong and I am having to remind her to walk politely ALOT. But I am trying to remain confident that it will all pan out okay.