tips on training to "lay"

Hello. I'm trying to train my 13wk pup to lay... she has got "sit" down perfect but i cant get her to lay or not sure how i should be positioning her when i command her.

Any tips or tricks you guys use?

use a piece of a food treat to lure her towards the floor and give the command at the same time. most puppies respond very well to this.

What do you want her to lay? That's a trick. You mean like lay a book on the table or lay the blanket out? Oh....you must mean you want to teach her to lie down. Ah-ha. Well, in that case, follow Mordy's advice. LOL. I'm playing wicha. English 101 lesson 1 is over.

Agree with mordy, using a treat and working that way is the best way from what I have tried. It took my siberian a long time to lay down, I would pat the floor and get down on all fours if needed but she soon did it.

Here is what you do.

1) use the word DOWN. Words that start with a hard syllable seem to get a better reaction from dogs.

2) cut up a hotdog or a log of string cheese into tiny pieces.

3) help the puppy to sit. Kneel beside her with her on your left. Put your left hand on her rear, and gently hold her in the sit. With your right hand, take a piece of the food, and hold it between your fingers so she can smell it but not get it. Put it right on the end of her nose and let her get interested in it. Then move the treat straight down in front of her chest to the floor. Her nose will almost certainly follow it. Be patient. Be quiet. It may take several tries and restarts to keep her attention, but eventually puppies will lie down to try to get the treat. The SECOND she lies down, say DOWN, open your fingers to let her get the treat, and praise her.

An alternative method is to kneel by the puppies left side, with her in a sit. Reach over her with your left hand, and take her left front leg between the elbow and the wrist with your left hand, and do the same with your right hand and her right leg. Lift her up in a "sitting up" position, and then lay her right down in a smooth motion. Say DOWN as she get to the down position, and then food reward.

I prefer the first method, even tho it sometimes requires a bit more time and patience to acheive.

Once the puppy learns to lie down when you move your hand to the floor, you can start weaning her off of some of the body language you are using to accomplish this, working towards a goal of having the puppy briskly down on the verbal command only.

Once you have the down behavior, you can add a hand signal to it easily. The classic down signal is your right arm straight up, with your hand flat, like a police officer stopping traffic, and then back down to your side. Up, down, and as your hand comes down the puppy should down. Use this with the verbal command once the puppy learns that, and she will quickly pick up the hand signal as well.

Thanks ReddyRott .... some very good detailed information.

A neat little tip I picked up for teaching the down comand is to simply rest your left hand on the left shoulder of the dog while luring its head down and then away with a treat in your right hand. First, get the dog to sit on your left, in the position it should be in when under a heal command. Kneel down, and simply rest your left hand on its left shoulder. There is something magic about this act of resting your hand on the dogs shoulder that keeps the dog in place as you lower the treat in your right hand down to the floor and then stretch your arm out away in front. Keep your left hand resting on its shoulder the whole time. The dog won't get up and follow, it will simply lay down. It works like a charm. Obviously, give the "Down" command, lower the treat to the ground, stretch your arm out, and when the dogs belly hits the floor, give the treat and praise.

The magic is that all you have to do is rest your left hand-- no force is necessary.

I tried what you guys said and it took me a whopping 5 min to teach her the command ........ she is doing great with her sit and lay now....

Thanks a lot. What should her next command be?

That's easy, train her to get back up on command. The sequence goes: Sit, down, or lay, then stand.

John, the logical next step is to teach the puppy to stand on command.

I usually do this from the SIT position.

With the puppy on your left, in a sit, put the food on her nose as you did teaching the down.

Let her lick it. With your left hand, tickle her gently right in front of her hind leg. You might need to help lift her a bit. The idea is for her to stand up, WITHOUT moving her front feet. As she stands, say STAND, and let her have the treat. Help her stand there for a second as you praise her.

Another great thing to work on at this time is attention. You want the pup to learn to look at your face when you say her name. Do this using tiny pieces of hotdogs. Cut some up, and put the little pieces in your mouth. Yep, in your mouth. You will take all treats from your mouth to feed the pup when you are teaching attention. This teaches her to look at your face.

So, first, get the pup's attention, take a piece of food out of your mouth, and let her sniff it, then take it directly back up near your face, as you say her name. Say YES! and feed her the treat.

You are going to use the word YES as your "marker". This works like a clicker or other noise maker. It lets the puppy know that what she JUST did is what you wanted, and what the reward is for. SHe will catch on fast that you have food in your mouth. ONce she figures this out, and is looking at your face when you say her name, then you change the rules.

Take food in each hand. Show her that you ahve food in each hand, and then stand quietly. Say nothing. Wait for her to look at your face. It usually does not take long, and as SOON as she does, say YES YES YES!! and praise her and feed her several pieces of food. Once she learns to look at your face for a reward, you can shape the attention in many directions. Shape for longer looks. Shape for looking from your left side.

Then I would recommend you start on the RECALL GAME (the post is on here in the training section) and work on getting her to RUN to you when you call her.



Next lesson is to begin teaching the stay. Let me know when you are ready for that one.

Thanks again... how long should I stick with the "lay/down" command? I don't want to overwhelm my 13 week old pup Though she seems really smart... must be the poodle in her.

Should I teach the commands 1 command per week?

the best advice is to let the puppy tell you.

Keep training happy and upbeat. Move from one thing to the other to keep it interesting.

I find you can teach a puppy a multitude of things at once if you keep it simple and reward based.

At this time, I would ask the puppy to stay in the down for 15 to 30 seconds. You will build time teaching the stay in the sit position, and then move to down and stand later.

Also, lots of short training sessions are better than a few really long ones.

Feeding time is a great reinforcer as well. Have him sit, then let him eat. Once he learns the stay command, have him sit, tell him to stay, then release him to his food.

Also, when you take him out, have him sit before you open the door.

If he wants you to pet him, have him sit first.

I still can't get my beagles to sit down. I rescued them a month ago. Their sense of smell is so strong that they go nuts when they smell food. I try to sit them down by gently pushing down on their rear, but then they immediately jump all over me.

It's very funny, but does anyone have any advice?

I would not use "lay". You may start having troubles once you start with "stay" if you are not careful enough with your words.

Always try to pick commands that do not sound similar to others. It definitely helps.