Teaching a stellar "Down" with a verbal or visual cue

Every dog already knows how to lie down -- your dog lies down all the time! The trick to training a "down" is to teach your dog to do it when you ask for it. That involves adding a cue. In this episode, Annie addresses the difference between a "cue" and a "command," and talks about some of the pitfalls people tend to fall into when attempting to cue a dog -- is the dog responding to your words? Or your body language? Or both? Or neither?! Annie goes over how to teach a "down" using two methods: Capturing, and luring. For the former, she describes how to use a verbal cue. For the latter, she explains how to morph a lured down into a down that is a response to a clear and subtle visual cue. The result is a dog who will understand what you want in as little as just one training session. Also make sure to see our recent episode on training "Sit." http://anniegrossman.com/2018/08/podcast/podcast-episode-19-train-dog-sit-scratch/9711/ Are you enjoying this podcast? Please leave it a 5-star rating and write a review on iTunes! If you have a training question you'd like answered, submit it at http://AnnieGrossman.com/ask School: http://schoolforthedogs.com Shop: http://storeforthedogs.com Instagram: http://instagram.com/schoolforthedogs Facebook Group: http://facebook.com/groups/schoolforthedogs Partial Transcript: Annie: Hello humans, thank you for tuning in to School for the Dogs podcast. As some of you know, I had a baby almost a month ago. I've been trying to find the perfect time to record this podcast all day and waiting for her to take a nap or at least be quiet for a while and finally decided I needed to do it while feeding her bottle so if you hear adorable little sucking and gurgling noises, that is my daughter who is a foot away from the microphone guzzling down some milk. So sorry sorry that the extra noise, maybe we can just pretend that baby Magnolia here is my co host. Listen to these adorable sounds, you can't make this kinda stuff up… and that was my dog snorting. Anyway, if you enjoy this podcast, just want to remind you that you can help me out by sharing it with your dog-loving friends. You can do this in multiple ways, you can take a picture of your podcast player and share it on social media, on your stories or your feed. Let other dog lovers know that this is out there. If you tag School for the Dogs, we will go ahead and share in our stories too. Also leave us a rating and review on iTunes- very much appreciated. I love reading your iTunes reviews, it really helps me figure out what you find interesting and what I can offer more of and if you have a question you can send a direct message on Instagram, you can also go to Annie Grossman.com/ask and I will do my best to respond. Today I wanted to go over how to teach your dog to lie down and as I mentioned in the episode I did a few months ago on teaching the dog to sit - obviously lying down is something your dog already knows how to do good, your dog lies down all the time-the trick is of course to teach your dog to lie down when you ask him or her to do it. So it's really just about adding a cue to a behavior your dog already knows and, like many dog trainers, use the word cue instead of the word command although if you want to say command instead of cue that's okay with me. Full transcript available at SchoolForTheDogs.com/Podcast Get full access to Don't Be a Dick to Your Dog at dogtraining.substack.com/subscribe