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My adult pittie is having trouble grasping the concept of the "down" command. I tell him to sit and move a treat from his nose straight down to the floor. He either stretches his neck to get it or ignores the treat. Have tried to "capture" the down position by praising him for "down" as he does it on his own. I don't want to push down on him because we think he has an old injury to his spine or rear end. Pulling downward on his collar doesn't seem to work either. Ideas please?
Our dog went through a spell of not doing her "down" command as directed and she KNEW the "down" command well. We thought she was being stubborn b/c the "down" is submissive and hard for strong headed dogs to submit to. Long story short, we figured out it was difficult and probably painful for her due to undiagnosed her acl tear. She has since had it repaired and is doing her "downs" just fine.
It's at least a possibility it could be the old injury holding your dog back.
What Viralmd said. I had one pup that I placed with her back against a couch and did that same thing, moved the treat back toward her and down. There was no where for her to go except down. A bit of peanut butter on the cookie helped a lot!
How about sitting on the floor with the dog in a sit on the side, bend your knee and hold the treat in front of you on the floor. He is suppose to go down under your leg to get the treat.
I saw that on 'Its me or the dog'.. worked for Victoria
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Just my personal preference, but make sure that you reward him for "SIT" independently of "DOWN", otherwise you get a dog who goes through his or her entire bag of tricks everytime you tell him "SIT". For example, the "SIT" command comes to mean "perform the sequence of sit, down, rollover and shake".
If holding the treat at the floor and commanding "DOWN" isn't intuitively resulting in the dog assuming the down position, you can try gently picking up his front paws to encourage him to drop to his elbows.
Good luck. Don't get frustrated. Repetition has a funny way of working about 10 minutes after you feel like you should have given up.
How about sitting on the floor with the dog in a sit on the side, bend your knee and hold the treat in front of you on the floor. He is suppose to go down under your leg to get the treat.
I saw that on 'Its me or the dog'.. worked for Victoria
One of my books suggests this. My dog either gets up and walks around or just refuses to go under the leg. Will try better treats next time--ie., wiener bits -- or his favorite! Kitty poo!!...not. If the treat fails, will have to pick up his paws to lower him into the down position-- tough because he's big!
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...not. If the treat fails, will have to pick up his paws to lower him into the down position-- tough because he's big!
