Teaching a dog to lie down can help keep it out of trouble. ‘Down’ is also a calm and passive posture, you can use it to relax your dog or to help them settle down around new friends. Here are a few ways to teach down/stay.
Method 1: Starting from a ‘sit’ Using a treat or toy as a lure move the lure from in front of the dog’s nose to the ground and out from the dog in an “L” shape. Often this is enough to get a dog to lie down. Say ‘good down’ hold the treat or toy in front of their nose, say ‘good stay’ give the reward and then release. When you are pretty sure your dog will respond to the cue, say ‘down’, reward, say ‘stay’, reward, then release with a word like ‘okay’ or ‘all done’.
Method 2: Watch your dog closely, when your dog does the down behavior all on its own say ‘good down’. If your dog stays in place say ‘good stay’. In this method we are simply giving names to the behaviors our dog can naturally do. We can give treats, praise, pets, play etc. to encourage our dog. If you can see that your dog is about to lie down, you can say ‘down’ followed by a reward and the same goes for stay.
Method 3: Some dogs may need a little more help learning to lie down. Starting from a ‘sit’ and being as gentle as possible, slide the front legs forward by either sweeping them from behind or pulling them from the front. Say ‘down’ and when your dog does, reward it. Now say ‘stay’ and gently hold your dog in place, when it stays reward and then release. Use less and less pressure with each trial. You may also try luring under your leg.
