To train a dog to lie down, you first need to understand why they lie down in the first place. There are several reasons that dogs use their back yard for sleeping. You need to identify and train these reasons so that your dog can learn how to lay down when you tell him to. It will take some dog training tips to get your dog to understand these reasons and have the knowledge to use his back yard when lying down. Some of these dog training tips are listed below.
Basic Commands: Lay Down. Here is a quick dog training trick to train your dog to always lie down. This tip has been taken from the famous Dog Training Guide by Karen Pryor. The first step in this dog training trick is to instruct your dog that when you say “down,” he must lie down. Then give a firm “down” command followed by a pat and lots of praise. You can do this repeatedly until your dog understands that when you say “down,” he must lie down.
General Tips: Train your dog using basic commands… Stay on top of your dog. If you pull on his collar or drag his hindquarters while you walk by, he won’t be able to learn this behavior modification. If you are at a park, keep your dog on a leash and move around the park. This will confuse your dog and he won’t understand what is going on around him. Don’t forget that you should train your dog using the basic commands… Don’t use any dog training tricks here!
A dog’s instinct is to lie down when it feels threatened. You will need to reinforce this behavior with praise or treats. If your dog does not lie down, it will be more difficult to correct his misbehavior later on. If your dog does lie down, however, he should stay there until you give him a chance to lie back up. Otherwise he might jump up and start running around again.
Start With These Basic Dog Training Tricks: When your dog obeys your commands to lie down, then praise or treat him for his behavior. If you want, you can use a clicker or a physical touch as well. The idea is that your dog will connect the sound or touch with something positive that comes after he obeys your command. For example, if he obeys to touch the ground, then he might receive a treat or even be praised. If he doesn’t lie down, then you just simply have to wait until he does.
Teach Your Dog to Stay. Once you have worked on the basic commands, you can then move on to teaching your dog how to stay. To teach him to stay, you will want to make sure that he is positioned in a place that is out of danger, like on a leash. When he stays down, make sure that he is on his side and also has a source of comfort nearby like a bowl of water.
Pretend Your Dog Lied Down for More Than One Minute. If you have a dog lying down, but it seems like he couldn’t really lie down for too long, try this trick. You will need someone to hold him up and you will have to pretend that he is sleeping. Then, you simply give him praise or a treat and then have him stand up.
Teach Your Dog to Stay But Do This Once. One of the dog training tricks that you should remember is to make sure that you only teach your dog one command at a time. Each time you are going to try to teach him a new command, you should only do it once. That way, he will have gotten the idea that you can just go ahead and do it. After a couple of tries, you dog will start to understand that it’s okay to follow your command while you are teaching him a new skill or when you are trying to teach him something new.
