Sit, Stay, and Lie Down

[aly]

My dogs know several tricks but my favorites are Lolly's 'high five' and 'high ten', and Reece's 'circus dance' and 'prayers'. Here's a bad pic of Reece saying his prayers. I took it when I was standing up so it looks weird.

[mary_jsn]

That is SO cute!

[Chris J]

Holly is able to do 7 of the 10 listed in the poll.....

[slleipnir]

Aly, thats so adorable!!! Your dog looks kind of like my grandmothers dog

[Rottie]

Originally posted by Cincy'sMom
Rottie, How did you teach Carl to drop down when coming? Ralph and I were just talking last week that we wanted to teach something like that to Sadie and Cincy.

(Assuming your dog reliably knows sit, stay, down, come, & heel. If not, then work on these first before you start this)

Put your dog in a sit stay and go out about 6 feet. Tell him "down" while you sweep your arm up and over your head and then back down, grabbing the leash on your way down. If the dog is already laying down before your hand gets to the leash, praise - good dog! If he's not yet down, then give him a quick pop towards the floor with the leash. This is to teach him to lay down when you say down, not in a couple seconds or in when he feels like it. This is extremely important!!! (how long does it take for a car going 60 MPH to zip by???)

Keep working on this until you can get out to about 15-20 feet (go slowly in small increments). Don't let him creep forward at all, he has to stay in the same spot!

At the same time you're teaching this part, you can also do this: While you're heeling, suddenly run backwards and call your dog to you, once he's turned around and coming towards you, tell him "down".

Finally, when he is doing well in both of the exercises above, you can do a "formal" drop on recall. Put him on a sit stay and go out no more than 15 feet. Call him and about half way through tell him down. If he doesn't drop immediatly bring him back to the spot where you told him down and pop him into a down position.

You may need someone to stand behind the dog and hold a long line (attached to the dog of course). Then call the dog, and when you tell him down, if dog does not do it, the 2nd handler stops the line from going further and braces himself so the dog can NOT go any farther (because of course, dog is attached to the line.)

If you're not planning on showing him then NEVER call him again after you drop him. Otherwise he'll learn to anticipate that as soon as he drops, you're going to call him again, so he won't wait for you to call him, he'll just get right up after the drop.

Yes, this takes a lot of time and effort, and heck you may never need it. But I think it's worth it.