the down – clicker style!

the dog has to be charged to a marker ie a clicker to free shape fast – so assuming the clicker is charged and the rules are in place there is 2 ways to get the down
so clicker and treats in left hand

work silently – no cues added until the behaviour is happeneing – the visual first followed by verbal later then whistle

1) lure

the visual cue is index finger of right hand pointing to floor – put a treat between thumb and middle finger and slowly lure the nose down to floor – when the dog goes down – click and reward
do it until fluent – then do just the cue no lure – when fluent add verbal cue – new cue old cue is the rule – so verbal ‘down’ or whatever your cue is followed by the finger pointing down – when fluent – test the verbal without the visual – if fluent add whistle the same way as adding verbal – 2 blasts is the standard – when fluent your dog with drop down to all 3 cues
mine do different drops – front paws first, back legs first belly flop downs, sit first front legs down etc all on different cues

2) free shaping

the dog has to know what free shaping is about hence the frisbee exercise

hold up a treat and wait for the dog to offer the desired beahviour – minpin has just told me she got the belly crawl yesterday bless…click when it happens and reward – the dog will keep offering the behaviour until he knows that he is getting it right – then will test it by doing something else which is ignored by you – then he will resume the correct one – when that happens start to add cue – i always cue visual first then add the sound cues

the vid of snoozy – sadie had learnt the down the previous day  this vid shows her extending it to a mat – she is not going to bed – that is a different behaviour – she is going to lie down on a mat.
so she had to work out that what was wanted was to go to mat and then lie on it – lots of different behaviours in there – bless her – bright pup -wanted to earn her treats and have fun at the same time – 5 minutes start to finish