Down without coming, down mid-come.

I want to teach my dog to down/sit from a distance, the problem is that the second I get her attention she comes to me (and her recall isn't usually 100%, but it's like she can't help but come to me the second I make any noise to get her attention). The only way I think (note: think) I'm getting through to her is when she starts to come to me, I back up and repeat the command. This usually causes her to slow down, then gradually stop, look around, look at me, and then she downs without approaching. There has to be an easier way, and the two problems I have with this method is that I used the same back up maneuver with a beckon to train her to come, and it requires me to repeat the command (something I don't really like to do).

Any ideas?

Now, if I were to tell her to sit stay, walk away, and then tell her to down she would do it with no problem.

My other question is any ideas on how to train her to down/sit mid-come. She used to be picking up on the idea, but then we stopped a lot of training. Now it seems she comes all the way to me before downing.

Thank you for any ideas, tips, etc,

For down on recall, I used a mat. I'd put Juno in a sit/stay, then I'd walk to the end of a hallway or whatever, lay the mat right in front of my feet, call her to come and then when she got to me I'd ask her to lie down on the mat. I repeated that a few times, and then I started stepping an inch further away from the mat each time. The mat then became a cue for laying down, and she started to anticipate that I would ask her to lie down midway through the recall. At that point I just ditched the mat and she transitioned just fine, probably because the exercise was fresh enough that she was anticipating it even without the visual of the mat.

No help on the distance cues as I've never worked on teaching that. I suppose a good place to begin would be to leash her up to something, that way she can't walk over to you. Start out close and slowly move further and further away.

I would do it the way Southpaw suggested.

Use a mat sitting next to you, and "charge" the mat as the place where, if a behaviour is performed there, good things happen. Then bit by bit you can begin adding more distance away from you. Eventually the dog will learn that dog means down from anywhere, not necessarily right beside you.

According to Garrett, you can also set the dog up in a crate, or an x-pen to limit movement that way. She says that a NRM (non-reward marker) could be used if the dog performs it inappropriately (sits instead of downs) as the walking back to correct it can be mildly reinforcing for the dog. Only say the cue once. If the dog messes up, go back to where they were supposed to lay down, and place them there -- no reward. Then try again and immediately follow the proper performance with a reward.

It seems to take a while to get a really nice down-in-motion. I've been working on it for the last 4-6 months, and now I have a really nifty, quick response regardless of the situation.

If it were me with the distance work I would work on her understanding that you don't have to say stay but rather that she holds whatever position until given a release or another command. I don't teach a "stay" but rather work really hard at them understanding that if I saw sit they stay sitting until I tell them to do something else.

I would work on that until her commands were solid and she won't break and then start adding a little bit of distance. If you don't think she's going to stay and down when you're two feet away just do one foot and slowly increase it.

If at all possible I prefer to avoid using props that I will later have to fade out, just my personal preference. For down in motion instead of starting it on the recall I started telling Traveler down randomly and suddenly (during actual training but also throughout the day or on walks. Did the same with stands and sits also). We would be walking and I would just say "Traveler DOWN".

At first you might have to sorta of body block and have more exaggerated hand motions for the command because they aren't used to it. But that really seemed to get Traveler to understand that a command could come at any time and used to obeying before he thought about it. Then I started running around with him next to me and giving him the command while he was moving faster to slowly fade out the run, slow down and then lay down response a lot of dogs seem to have with the down on recall. Wanted him used to downing while running and it's easier to reward and shape when they are next to you rather five feet away running at you.

Also, avoid slippery surfaces when you start out, they don't seem like they like going down fast on rhose

Here's a little video that might give you a tiny bit better idea of what I'm talking about. This was months ago but we had been doing the random command thing for a little while so he was pretty good at it. Do not use it as an example for what I said about each command not being broken until released :rofl1: I was terrible.

YouTube - ‪Positions‬‏

I think really working on the dog understanding the command at it's whole rather than it being situational would help in both of those a ton. When I'm training I lay on the ground and give positions, I stand on a table, I turn around and face away, from behind them etc. I want the dog to know that no matter what I'm doing the command still means do that behavior from where ever you are. I really think doing that makes them understand better than it being "Down is the command I do when she's standing in front of me looking at me" and they start get that it's what they are doing and not so much dependent on how you are positioned too.

Just the other day I saw how it's all kinda paid off with Traveler. I was working with him in the front yard and forgot something inside so I started to leave and he was following me so I just said without looking behind me or using any kind of hand motion to down. And he hit the ground. Didn't matter I was walking away, down means down.

Not sure if any of this made sense and kinda turned into a ramble. Sorry!

Also another thought for the long distance commands. Work on your focus. Make it so she understands she can focus on you without being next to you. That might help so you can have her attention while she is away from you without her thinking you need her to come to you.

Again, that's going to need to be done slowly and not taking giant steps away from her. Start by getting her to focus on you in different positions and with you also in different positions and then slowly add in distance and duration

I agree with Linds, that's a great explanation and pretty much the same way I think about it too.

I taught this to Luna a few years ago. We started pretty close together - probably about 10 feet apart - and I'd cue her down. If she started walking toward me, I'd move in toward her, which would stop her from coming forward. Then I'd back up and cue her to down again. She actually picked it up pretty quickly, but I think I got a little bit lucky with her.

^This^ exactly, including agreeing with Linds.

Thanks for this. It reminds me of a book I read, where a trainer went to the home of a rambunctious Dane puppy and asked the owner if the dog knew sit. The owner said of course. The trainer sat on the floor and cued the pup to sit, but he didn't do anything.

So I gave Cameron a pop quiz. Sit means sit if I'm standing, sitting, or laying down, but not if my back is turned,