PuppyLog

We got out some treats. She tries sitting for them since that is the only thing she's been trained to do so far. We lower the treat in front of her nose then drag it along the ground in front of her. She follows it with her head and ends up laying down. We say "down" as she does so then praise and treat. She learns this after a few tries but it takes several sessions to cement it in.

After a few days we try to go over several things she has learned, sit, down and paw. We are using the clicker by now. Doing three things in one session confuses her at this point even though there are no new behaviors being taught. We go back to doing one at a time, just reinforcing the things she already knows. 

Sept, 13, she is about 15 weeks old. We begin to teach her to lie down while walking. When she is following on a good heel we say "down". She really wants a click but I have to stop walking before she will start to lie down.

On the second session (the next day) she again wants to lie down on command but doesn't want to do it while I am walking away. She grabs my pant leg to stop me and tries to lie down. She can't do this of course since her grip on my pants holds her up. Very cute but not what we are after. It's hard not to laugh but I manage it and say uh uh. I stop walking and she lies down. I take a step away and click before she can get up.

She tries several more times to grab me and stop me from walking but eventually I am able to walk several steps away while she stays down. By the end of this second session I can keep walking  very very slowly and she will lie down.  We will keep working in this manner until I can continue walking normally and she lies down on command. 

S_ is beginning to work with her on "down" while Lila coming towards her.  This is a somewhat different action than lying down while we walk away. Once she has learned these, we will add a down while she is moving away from us.

"Down," along with the "through" command, in which she has to go away from me in order to go through the tunnel, will be the basis of future distance work.