Training down is not much different to training the ‘Sit’ as I described in my previous post. Your dog should now be more familiar with the clicker and able to recognise fairly quickly which behaviour it is that elicits a click.

To train ‘Down’:

Ask your dog to ‘Sit’ (or use hand signal if you are not using verbal cues yet)

Then, using treats or a toy, hold your hand close to your dog’s nose and bring it slowly down to the floor.

Your dog should start following your hand.

Once you get near the floor, keeping your hand low, pull out slightly away from the dog and he should naturally go into a ‘Down.’

Click the instant the dog has produced the behaviour and then treat.

Repeat LOTS and LOTS as this will reinforce the behaviour.

As before, don’t use a cue word until the dog is successfully producing the desired behaviour each time. Personally I use a downward finger point, even when I begin training the down with a lure, so that when I do add a cue my dogs end up with two signals – the word ‘Down’ and a finger pointing at the floor.

Some dogs take a little longer to get this and will half follow your hand down ending up in a stretched ‘Sit’ or standing in a ‘Play Bow’ position- You therefore need to ‘shape’ the behaviour you want by reinforcing the ‘bridging behaviour’ (the behaviour/s that will lead into the desired response).

For example, click when your dog has followed your hand so that the dog realises this is what you want him to do. Repeat this until he is consistently following your hand. The next step is to move your hand lower and don’t click unless the behaviour becomes more pronounced – so he moves a little closer to the floor. Repeat this and reinforce lots. Gradually you will be able to get lower and lower until he is lying on the floor. If he’s in the ‘Play Bow’ you might need to move the food further away from his nose to try to get his bum on the floor but even easier than that is to get him to pass under a chair or table to reach the food and he will naturally squat – giving you good bridging behaviour to click! But most dogs get ‘Down’ quickly enough! It’s the ‘Down – Stay’ that takes a little more time!

DO NOT force your dog into a down – putting pressure on your dog’s joints is NOT GOOD – especially for very young or very old dogs. And let’s face it, we don’t like being pushed and pulled about and neither will your dog!

They respond, as we do, with negative thigmotaxis – i.e. they pull away from an unwanted touch so please don’t try to manhandle your dog. It really won’t accomplish anything and won’t help them to understand what you are trying to get them to do.

I’m emphasising this as there are training centres who DO advocate the use of physical force in dog training but it is not acceptable.

Besides, having a dog CHOOSE to respond to you is so much more rewarding than FORCING a dog to do something you have asked.

No doubt about it, a clicker trained dog is a happy dog!