Week 1 Session 2

• Repeat Clicker Conditioning session

Teaching Down

There are three different demonstrations here to help your teach down, all dogs are a little different as to which way is easier for them! Don’t add a verbal cue until they are easily and quickly going down with your hand motions.

1) Shaping the down using only your low hand position with food in it. This one usually works best for very young puppies.

• kneel on ground

• place both hands together in front of you with treats all the way near the ground

• when puppy drops down for a better position to try and nose at treats, reward

• hold treats in your hands with your palm facing ground, this helps them drop lower to get under your hand

2) Luring them into a down from a sit. This one works well for puppies that already know sit and are more focused when you start from a sit

• help your puppy to sit

• from a sit, take a treat directly to their nose and slowly move treat towards the ground down and slightly in front of them

• move your hand SLOWLY, try to keep contact between your hand and their nose as you drop your hand

• you can even let them lick and nibble at the treat as you drop it

• once their elbows with the ground release treat and praise them

• if they stay in the down after you give one treat, offer another for them holding the position

3) Luring from a stand. It’s good to teach all dogs how to go into a down from a stand or a sit. This one is great for teaching fast downs!

• as above, except we start with the dog standing

• everything else is the same, except we move the treat down and towards them, instead of slightly away. So it is as if you were going to put the treat between their elbows

• wait until their bottoms touch the ground to reward as the elbows will hit first

Once your dog can sit & down,

work on doing a combo of: sit-down-sit

Repeat 3 times

Chasing and bringing back a toy