How To Teach Your Puppy To Lie Down

This video by eHowPets is a great and effective approach to teach your puppy to lie down the right way. Victoria, the trainer, starts the process by placing dog treats on her right hand. She closes her hand and immediately the puppy will try to get the treats from her hand. The trainer then leads to placing her hand on the ground and as soon as the puppy places its belly on the ground, she rewards it with the treats. Always make sure that when you do this, your dog should be comfortable in lying down. As you repeat this over, during your puppy’s action of lowering its stomach to the ground, the verbal command ‘down’ should be spoken in unison with the action. You can perform this starting from a standing position or even on a sitting position. Some puppies love to start with the standing position before lying down.

Keep in mind that once the puppy gets acquainted with the command, you should utilize the hand signal very clearly. You can utilize either of the verbal command or the hand signal to command your dog and you can even use them both in combination. The next step is to stand up while you give the command. You won’t have to bring your hand all the way to the ground just for your puppy to follow the command. As it improves, your puppy can rely on simpler hand gestures to lie down effectively.

For some dogs, this might take a while because some dogs really don’t like lying down on command. On the other hand, there are some dogs that can learn this very quickly. Whatever the case may be, you should always train your dog in a fun and enjoyable way. Even if you might take more patience and time than the usual, always think of the positive outcome that can benefit your puppy in the end. You need to establish a no-fail approach to make your puppy think that there’s something good that will come out of every correct action.

There will be times that your puppy might lose focus; it is your job as an owner/trainer to lead it back properly. Even in the first part of the training, during the step wherein you place the treat on your hand. Your puppy might have some trouble during this phase because it might just try to scratch your hand. Just never stray from the right process. Keep your hand closed until the proper time and until your puppy learns the right way.

Photo – www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zn_GEhid88Y