July 26, 2024 • 13 mins
The Down Command is one of the most challenging commands to figure out with your dog. The Dog Professor, Robb Lust from the Edgefield Animal Care Center, takes time in this podcast to teach you how to get your dog to comply.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
In studio with me today is thedog professor Rob Lufs from the Edgefield to
Animal Care Center and Rob, todaywe're going to talk a little bit about
the down command, one of thosethings that are tough for dog owners to
conquer. Oh, it's one ofthe toughest commands, and the problem is
is because people skip steps before theyget to that command. So before you
(00:21):
even think about doing this with yourdog, you need to go back to
our past episode and work on theheel, which is what we talk about.
So when we train a dog,the process the steps in the commands
are we teach a heel, thenwe teach an automatic sit and somewhat of
a sit stay, and then wego to the down. The reason being
(00:45):
in the dog world that when adog lays down at the feet of what
they consider to be another dog,it's usually a signal that they're submissive to
that other dog that's still standing atthat point in time. So long story
short, if your dog figures they'restill running the house and they're dominant over
you, then they're not going todo the down command for you because everyone
(01:10):
in the room will see that theyare telling you that you're the leader of
the house, and they are notto that point yet probably, So that's
why it's important when we use theheel and the automatic sit, that is
where we start to and establish thatlook, I'm taking over this leadership role.
So the down is basically the lastditch effort, that is the last
(01:33):
if you want to call it ahypothetical dog fight, that's what it is.
Right in their world when they fightfor dominance, they fight for dominance.
Okay. Now, there's a lotof body language stuff that goes back
and forth and here and there totry to keep from fighting for control of
the pack. But at the endof the day, there's always some sort
of fight, all right, Andthe down command is what I consider to
(01:53):
be a low key dog fight betweenyou and your dog for control. That's
why you'll see dogs lay down whenthey're puppies. A lot of people do
the old down command with the treat. You know, they take the treat
and they take it in their handand they take it to the floor and
they tell the dog to lay down, and miraculously the dog lays down.
(02:14):
Okay, that's all well and gooduntil they get to about four to five
months of age or they start toget closer to a year of age.
Then it's not about parlor tricks anymore. For the dog. It's about I'll
down for you when you show methat I need to down for you.
Okay. So this is where actually, if you're dealing with a really dominant
(02:35):
dog that has shown you some aggressionand things before, you don't do this
without professional help because this can turnout badly a lot of times. Okay,
that's how important this command is toyour dog. Okay, now that's
one percent of the thousands of dogs. But my point is is to reiterate
(02:57):
to you that this command needs tobe as important to you as it is
the dog. Why Because people gettired they tell a dog down, down,
down, down, down. Thedog doesn't lay down, They just
leave and go do something else.Okay, so it's important to do this
command. So how we do thiscommand? One, my dog is healing
very well with me. One mydog is sitting and learning to sit and
(03:20):
stay in a seated position for morethan a couple minutes. Now I'm start
to ready to learn to down command. Now again, just like with the
heel command, it's not the wordthat you're teaching the dog. Your body
language is actually teaching the dog thiscommand. So in a heel position,
which is on my left hand side, that's where my dog will be when
I get ready to do this command. The leasha's on the leash is in
(03:42):
my hand. I'm gonna turn towardsthe dog. Okay, their heads still
lined up with my left leg.So what that does is when if I
do a ninety degree turn towards mydog, when they're on my left hand
side. Now, when I bendover at the waist, it's almost like
my torso becomes the ceiling over topof your dog's head. Okay, if
(04:04):
your dog sees open sky above you, above them, they're not going to
do the down command. You haveto basically become the ceiling over your dog's
head. And what we'll do.And also to add to that, to
help with that, and you'll seethat. You'll see that naturally occur in
your dog when you bend over topof them. A lot of times,
(04:25):
what happens, their head naturally startsto go towards the ground. Why because
it's the same thing that happens whenyou walk into a room with a low
ceiling. You don't go, well, I wonder if I should duck,
You just naturally duck and lower yourhead. So that's where we're using this
body language to teach your dog whatwe're talking about when we say down.
(04:46):
Okay, So I turn towards thedog. I bend at the waist.
My torso is directly above the dog'shead. What I will do in this
case is I'll take my left armand I will take my left forearm and
rest at right on the dog's headbetween their eyes, with my hand out
in front of their eyes. Soagain I'm adding a visual here. Now.
(05:06):
My point of doing this is Iwant to start to get the dog's
head to go towards the ground sothe body will follow. Okay, So
I'll bend over top. I'll laythe arm right on the forehead between the
eyes, hand out in front ofthe dog's face. My right hand is
holding onto the leash, and whenI bend at the waist, I slightly
(05:28):
press on the arm and get thedog's head moving and I'll tell them down.
Now. Two things occur. Assoon as you put pressure on a
dog like this one, they instantlystiffen up their body and say, screw
you, I'm not doing that.Which happens ninety five percent of the time
okay. The other five percent ofthe time the dog says, okay,
cool, I'll lay down, noworries. You're the boss. They lay
(05:49):
down, okay. But what happensin this case, all right, this
is where we have to add in. Well, we've more than likely already
added in a correction at this point, but this is where we have to
add some correction. And this iswhere we will snap the leash, make
a quick snap of the leash,and and know the moment we feel the
dog tends up their body. Whybecause we want them to know that the
(06:12):
decision they made at that moment tofight against this command was the wrong decision.
Just go with it. Easiest thingyou can do is just go with
me as I'm pressing you towards theground. Once. If I do feel
that they start to go towards theground, I'll actually stop where I am
at that moment. I will notstand back up. I'll still be bent
at the waist, My arm willstill be over top of them, my
(06:35):
torso is still over top of them. I'm not going to open the sky
back up to them, because whyif I open the sky back up,
what's the dog going to do.They're going to come right back up into
that opening, Okay. But Ialso want them to know that if they
choose to go down the rest ofthe way on their own, that is
exactly what I want them to doat that moment. So that's where I'll
(06:55):
start to praise them and tell themgood, very good, so they know,
okay, this is what we're doinghere. So all that body language
over the top, all the armon the head, all the press with
the head, all the slight startlecorrection when the dog goes back up,
is to tell the show the dog, there's one path to follow here,
the easiest path. But we're notgetting out of doing this until you do
(07:19):
this command. And that's the otherthing. Dogs do a lot here.
You'll have I've had dogs over theyears that they'll go down very easily and
stop within two inches of the groundand hold it like a plank. Okay,
even while I'm pressing. Okay,why because that last two inches is
(07:40):
mine. That last two inches iswhat they consider to be theirs. I'll
go down far enough for you todrop a treat, but I'm not gonna
go the whole way, because thenthat shows you that you're in charge of
me. Wow, okay, Andyou'll see it all the time, or
you'll see dogs tighten up so muchthat you're pressing on their head and their
back in comes off the grid.I look at teeter totter. Okay.
(08:01):
So at the moment you get thattype of argument from your dog, they're
telling you you are in no positionto give me this command right now.
So you, as the handler cango, well, this is really hard.
I think I'm gonna quit, oryou can go all right, it's
go time. Let's go and fightit out, all right now. The
easiest way to fight that out Andthe reason we use startle correction here,
(08:22):
which is that quick snap of theleash and a startleding no is because if
it startles the dog, their legsinstantly go to jelly for a second,
okay, just like ours do.And then that allows my momentum and my
body language over top of the dogto get them to head towards the ground.
Right. If I don't use thatstartle correction, if I just keep
(08:43):
pleading with them to lay down,they'll just stiffen out their body and say
I can do this all day.You're the one bending over it. The
way it's not me, okay.So that tells you how important this down
command is. So once I feelthem start to go, I start to
praise. Now, a lot ofdogs, the moment they get some praise,
they think the command is done,and they just come right back up,
all right. They're not down untiltheir front elbows are on the ground,
(09:07):
all right. What some dogs willdo in this case too, to
win this argument is they'll lay downon the ground real quick while you're doing
the command. They'll roll over ontheir side and show their belly and go,
oh, look, you know,everything's cool. I'll do it.
And then the moment you stand backup, they stand right back okay.
So again they did the down commandby their choice, not by your choice.
(09:30):
So it's important this command on thelevel of getting your dog to come
to you when you call them,getting your dog to listen to you without
the leash on. Everything that peoplewant as their goal in dog training hinges
on you winning this last command righthere, okay. So that's why it's
(09:50):
one of the last commands we teach, because we build up a certain amount
of respect for the dog in theirmind, and that's why it's one of
the hardest, So don't just jumpto it. Don't think because your puppy
did it at six weeks because youwanted to show your friends that your dog
knows the down, that they're goingto do it in four months from now,
right, okay, or do itwhen it really counts. So that
(10:13):
down is key, and it's allabout positioning and body language and everything else.
And that one definitely helps to havean outside eye because it is so
important in the relationship between you andyour dog, and the outside eye you
guys can give them at the EdgefieldAnimal Animal Care Center. You cannot only
train the dog, which you alsotrain the owner and you work the two
(10:35):
together. Yeah, a good storyin the case where that outside eye helps.
You know, back when I becamea trainer, I had to do
the same thing that we teach ourclients every day, is to train their
dog and work with their dog.And my dog played that game with me
while I was a trainer, youknow, and me in my mind,
I'm a big bruising guy, youknow, and I'm like, well,
if I correcting like I'm supposed to, I'm going to end up hurting it.
(10:58):
You know. That's just like everyowner thinks all right. I was
there, I understand, and thetrainer who was teaching me was probably four
eleven, you know, ninety fivepounds soaking wet, okay, And she
comes up and she goes, he'sjust playing with you. He's learned the
line that you'll stop at and hehe can take he can deal with that,
(11:22):
and he'll he'll, he'll, you'lldo this all day long if you
If you don't say so, shewent up, grabbed the leash, gave
a good correction, harder than whatI was doing, okay, but not
necessarily physically harder, but more startling, and he if he could have saluted
her, he would have saluted her. He laid right down. And that's
that, okay. But what itshowed me is it showed me I put
(11:45):
limits on what I would do.And as soon as you put limits on
what you're gonna do, the dogknows those limits. Don't think they don't,
okay. So I needed that outsideI because I was actually it was
actually morerimental between me and the dog. Well I was doing continuing to fight
because I wasn't in it to winthe argument I was in. It's a
(12:07):
hope that he was going to dothe command. Okay. So in the
long run, it's easier on thedog, it's easier on you. And
in cases like that, a lotof times, just like that, we
need that outside eye and to dothat, you get hold of us at
the Edgefield Animal Care Center. Youcan find out all our information about everything
we do, training, veterinary,hospital, boarding, grooming, all of
(12:28):
that. You go to our websiteEdgefield Animalcare dot com and you'll find out
all that information. To get holdof us Edgefield Animalcare dot com. Great
stuff. Hope it's not going toget it done. There is in my
dog training, Yoda. There isno hope in dog training. No,
there's only do or do not.He says it all the time. Hope
(12:48):
is not going to get it done. He is a dog professor. You're
catching the podcast if you're new toit, make sure you hit follow wherever
you're getting it so that you'll geta notification right there on your phone that
a new one is available.
In studio with me today is thedog professor Rob Lufs from the Edgefield to
Animal Care Center and Rob, todaywe're going to talk a little bit about
the down command, one of thosethings that are tough for dog owners to
conquer. Oh, it's one ofthe toughest commands, and the problem is
is because people skip steps before theyget to that command. So before you
(00:21):
even think about doing this with yourdog, you need to go back to
our past episode and work on theheel, which is what we talk about.
So when we train a dog,the process the steps in the commands
are we teach a heel, thenwe teach an automatic sit and somewhat of
a sit stay, and then wego to the down. The reason being
(00:45):
in the dog world that when adog lays down at the feet of what
they consider to be another dog,it's usually a signal that they're submissive to
that other dog that's still standing atthat point in time. So long story
short, if your dog figures they'restill running the house and they're dominant over
you, then they're not going todo the down command for you because everyone
(01:10):
in the room will see that theyare telling you that you're the leader of
the house, and they are notto that point yet probably, So that's
why it's important when we use theheel and the automatic sit, that is
where we start to and establish thatlook, I'm taking over this leadership role.
So the down is basically the lastditch effort, that is the last
(01:33):
if you want to call it ahypothetical dog fight, that's what it is.
Right in their world when they fightfor dominance, they fight for dominance.
Okay. Now, there's a lotof body language stuff that goes back
and forth and here and there totry to keep from fighting for control of
the pack. But at the endof the day, there's always some sort
of fight, all right, Andthe down command is what I consider to
(01:53):
be a low key dog fight betweenyou and your dog for control. That's
why you'll see dogs lay down whenthey're puppies. A lot of people do
the old down command with the treat. You know, they take the treat
and they take it in their handand they take it to the floor and
they tell the dog to lay down, and miraculously the dog lays down.
(02:14):
Okay, that's all well and gooduntil they get to about four to five
months of age or they start toget closer to a year of age.
Then it's not about parlor tricks anymore. For the dog. It's about I'll
down for you when you show methat I need to down for you.
Okay. So this is where actually, if you're dealing with a really dominant
(02:35):
dog that has shown you some aggressionand things before, you don't do this
without professional help because this can turnout badly a lot of times. Okay,
that's how important this command is toyour dog. Okay, now that's
one percent of the thousands of dogs. But my point is is to reiterate
(02:57):
to you that this command needs tobe as important to you as it is
the dog. Why Because people gettired they tell a dog down, down,
down, down, down. Thedog doesn't lay down, They just
leave and go do something else.Okay, so it's important to do this
command. So how we do thiscommand? One, my dog is healing
very well with me. One mydog is sitting and learning to sit and
(03:20):
stay in a seated position for morethan a couple minutes. Now I'm start
to ready to learn to down command. Now again, just like with the
heel command, it's not the wordthat you're teaching the dog. Your body
language is actually teaching the dog thiscommand. So in a heel position,
which is on my left hand side, that's where my dog will be when
I get ready to do this command. The leasha's on the leash is in
(03:42):
my hand. I'm gonna turn towardsthe dog. Okay, their heads still
lined up with my left leg.So what that does is when if I
do a ninety degree turn towards mydog, when they're on my left hand
side. Now, when I bendover at the waist, it's almost like
my torso becomes the ceiling over topof your dog's head. Okay, if
(04:04):
your dog sees open sky above you, above them, they're not going to
do the down command. You haveto basically become the ceiling over your dog's
head. And what we'll do.And also to add to that, to
help with that, and you'll seethat. You'll see that naturally occur in
your dog when you bend over topof them. A lot of times,
(04:25):
what happens, their head naturally startsto go towards the ground. Why because
it's the same thing that happens whenyou walk into a room with a low
ceiling. You don't go, well, I wonder if I should duck,
You just naturally duck and lower yourhead. So that's where we're using this
body language to teach your dog whatwe're talking about when we say down.
(04:46):
Okay, So I turn towards thedog. I bend at the waist.
My torso is directly above the dog'shead. What I will do in this
case is I'll take my left armand I will take my left forearm and
rest at right on the dog's headbetween their eyes, with my hand out
in front of their eyes. Soagain I'm adding a visual here. Now.
(05:06):
My point of doing this is Iwant to start to get the dog's
head to go towards the ground sothe body will follow. Okay, So
I'll bend over top. I'll laythe arm right on the forehead between the
eyes, hand out in front ofthe dog's face. My right hand is
holding onto the leash, and whenI bend at the waist, I slightly
(05:28):
press on the arm and get thedog's head moving and I'll tell them down.
Now. Two things occur. Assoon as you put pressure on a
dog like this one, they instantlystiffen up their body and say, screw
you, I'm not doing that.Which happens ninety five percent of the time
okay. The other five percent ofthe time the dog says, okay,
cool, I'll lay down, noworries. You're the boss. They lay
(05:49):
down, okay. But what happensin this case, all right, this
is where we have to add in. Well, we've more than likely already
added in a correction at this point, but this is where we have to
add some correction. And this iswhere we will snap the leash, make
a quick snap of the leash,and and know the moment we feel the
dog tends up their body. Whybecause we want them to know that the
(06:12):
decision they made at that moment tofight against this command was the wrong decision.
Just go with it. Easiest thingyou can do is just go with
me as I'm pressing you towards theground. Once. If I do feel
that they start to go towards theground, I'll actually stop where I am
at that moment. I will notstand back up. I'll still be bent
at the waist, My arm willstill be over top of them, my
(06:35):
torso is still over top of them. I'm not going to open the sky
back up to them, because whyif I open the sky back up,
what's the dog going to do.They're going to come right back up into
that opening, Okay. But Ialso want them to know that if they
choose to go down the rest ofthe way on their own, that is
exactly what I want them to doat that moment. So that's where I'll
(06:55):
start to praise them and tell themgood, very good, so they know,
okay, this is what we're doinghere. So all that body language
over the top, all the armon the head, all the press with
the head, all the slight startlecorrection when the dog goes back up,
is to tell the show the dog, there's one path to follow here,
the easiest path. But we're notgetting out of doing this until you do
(07:19):
this command. And that's the otherthing. Dogs do a lot here.
You'll have I've had dogs over theyears that they'll go down very easily and
stop within two inches of the groundand hold it like a plank. Okay,
even while I'm pressing. Okay,why because that last two inches is
(07:40):
mine. That last two inches iswhat they consider to be theirs. I'll
go down far enough for you todrop a treat, but I'm not gonna
go the whole way, because thenthat shows you that you're in charge of
me. Wow, okay, Andyou'll see it all the time, or
you'll see dogs tighten up so muchthat you're pressing on their head and their
back in comes off the grid.I look at teeter totter. Okay.
(08:01):
So at the moment you get thattype of argument from your dog, they're
telling you you are in no positionto give me this command right now.
So you, as the handler cango, well, this is really hard.
I think I'm gonna quit, oryou can go all right, it's
go time. Let's go and fightit out, all right now. The
easiest way to fight that out Andthe reason we use startle correction here,
(08:22):
which is that quick snap of theleash and a startleding no is because if
it startles the dog, their legsinstantly go to jelly for a second,
okay, just like ours do.And then that allows my momentum and my
body language over top of the dogto get them to head towards the ground.
Right. If I don't use thatstartle correction, if I just keep
(08:43):
pleading with them to lay down,they'll just stiffen out their body and say
I can do this all day.You're the one bending over it. The
way it's not me, okay.So that tells you how important this down
command is. So once I feelthem start to go, I start to
praise. Now, a lot ofdogs, the moment they get some praise,
they think the command is done,and they just come right back up,
all right. They're not down untiltheir front elbows are on the ground,
(09:07):
all right. What some dogs willdo in this case too, to
win this argument is they'll lay downon the ground real quick while you're doing
the command. They'll roll over ontheir side and show their belly and go,
oh, look, you know,everything's cool. I'll do it.
And then the moment you stand backup, they stand right back okay.
So again they did the down commandby their choice, not by your choice.
(09:30):
So it's important this command on thelevel of getting your dog to come
to you when you call them,getting your dog to listen to you without
the leash on. Everything that peoplewant as their goal in dog training hinges
on you winning this last command righthere, okay. So that's why it's
(09:50):
one of the last commands we teach, because we build up a certain amount
of respect for the dog in theirmind, and that's why it's one of
the hardest, So don't just jumpto it. Don't think because your puppy
did it at six weeks because youwanted to show your friends that your dog
knows the down, that they're goingto do it in four months from now,
right, okay, or do itwhen it really counts. So that
(10:13):
down is key, and it's allabout positioning and body language and everything else.
And that one definitely helps to havean outside eye because it is so
important in the relationship between you andyour dog, and the outside eye you
guys can give them at the EdgefieldAnimal Animal Care Center. You cannot only
train the dog, which you alsotrain the owner and you work the two
(10:35):
together. Yeah, a good storyin the case where that outside eye helps.
You know, back when I becamea trainer, I had to do
the same thing that we teach ourclients every day, is to train their
dog and work with their dog.And my dog played that game with me
while I was a trainer, youknow, and me in my mind,
I'm a big bruising guy, youknow, and I'm like, well,
if I correcting like I'm supposed to, I'm going to end up hurting it.
(10:58):
You know. That's just like everyowner thinks all right. I was
there, I understand, and thetrainer who was teaching me was probably four
eleven, you know, ninety fivepounds soaking wet, okay, And she
comes up and she goes, he'sjust playing with you. He's learned the
line that you'll stop at and hehe can take he can deal with that,
(11:22):
and he'll he'll, he'll, you'lldo this all day long if you
If you don't say so, shewent up, grabbed the leash, gave
a good correction, harder than whatI was doing, okay, but not
necessarily physically harder, but more startling, and he if he could have saluted
her, he would have saluted her. He laid right down. And that's
that, okay. But what itshowed me is it showed me I put
(11:45):
limits on what I would do.And as soon as you put limits on
what you're gonna do, the dogknows those limits. Don't think they don't,
okay. So I needed that outsideI because I was actually it was
actually morerimental between me and the dog. Well I was doing continuing to fight
because I wasn't in it to winthe argument I was in. It's a
(12:07):
hope that he was going to dothe command. Okay. So in the
long run, it's easier on thedog, it's easier on you. And
in cases like that, a lotof times, just like that, we
need that outside eye and to dothat, you get hold of us at
the Edgefield Animal Care Center. Youcan find out all our information about everything
we do, training, veterinary,hospital, boarding, grooming, all of
(12:28):
that. You go to our websiteEdgefield Animalcare dot com and you'll find out
all that information. To get holdof us Edgefield Animalcare dot com. Great
stuff. Hope it's not going toget it done. There is in my
dog training, Yoda. There isno hope in dog training. No,
there's only do or do not.He says it all the time. Hope
(12:48):
is not going to get it done. He is a dog professor. You're
catching the podcast if you're new toit, make sure you hit follow wherever
you're getting it so that you'll geta notification right there on your phone that
a new one is available.
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