Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Starting the down

Parker pretty much has the sit down well. He even does it when I’m flat on my back on the floor. So we started the ‘down’ command.

Back in the day, the down was taught by exerting muscle -- pulling on the leash until the dog had no choice but to lie down. This won’t work with Parker. Not only is he much too strong, but he’s already saved my bacon several times by standing steady while I use his strength to get up off the floor. I absolutely don’t want him to learn that pressure on his shoulders means lie down.

New age training uses a lure, which would be great if there were anything Parker really wanted that badly. So far, I haven’t figured out what that might be. He will work for cheese for a little while, so we started with that.

First I ask him to sit, for which he gets a click and a taste of cheese. Then I lure him down with a big piece of cheese. This works after a fashion for a while. He doesn’t really like going all the way down, so he gets clicks for sliding his front paws out a bit. Several times his feet slipped all the way and for that he got a jackpot of cheese.

It’s going to be slow going as his attention tends to wander.

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