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The 'down' command is a staple of training a dog, and is a must. This article will help you to get your dog underway with the 'down' command, and uses some of the technique adapted from 'Secrets to Dog Training', the top selling ebook on dog training. 

If your serious about getting your dog trained amazingly well, in the shortest and easiest way, then the ‘Secrets to Dog Training’ ebook by professional dog handler Daniel Stephens is a must have. You wont find another way to train that has so many benefits.

Check out ‘Secrets to Dog Training’ at this page now

‘Down Dog!’

This lesson is best taught outside, in a open area your dog trusts, free from ALL distractions. An empty park, your back yard, or a unclutterd room is ideal.

Start by calling your dog to attention with a favourite treat (cut up chicken, sausage or bologna). The idea is to get the dog to be positioned standing in front of you.. Now hold a little reward out in fron of his nose, and then place it towards the ground out in front of him. Keep it far enough away that he knows he cant hoave it yet though. Restrain him if need be. Use your selected 'down' command, voice and hand motion is best, and repeat it until he lays down for you.

After he lies down, let him have his treat by moving it to him, as he is lying down.

We dont want him to get the treat, until he has done the whole command. Dont offer him the treat for a half done job. Often, the dog wont know what to do first off. Coax him down by hand, and reward him when hes lying to satisfaction. Keep this up, you want to keep going until the dog learns that he is rewarded when he lies right down. It wont take long if he is mildly hungry!

Once your dog lays down with confidence, next hold the food a couple of inches off the ground away from him. What we hope is he will lie down in anticipation of the reward!

Chances are this might get him confused at first, but guide with your hand, pushing him down gently and giving the treat when he does well. 

After practise of this, start giving the ‘down’ command (hand motion and voice instruction) before you present the treat to lead the dog down.

Now gradually try to wean your dog of wanting the reward. You can get him to respond to a down sweep of the hand, and a 'down' command. Hold the treat at a fartehr distance each time, and place less emphasis on giving the reward with each repetition. Get your dog to now accept your praise as reward for following the hand and voice commands.

You can get to the rest of our great articles and read the end of this one, at my website www.dog-hobbyist.com

Also be sure to check out ‘Secrets to Dog Training‘ for a huge array of amazing dog training techniques, behaviour fixes and keeping/feeding/owning instructions. Available for only $39.00, Its the best investment you will make in yourself and your ability to raise a dog!

When you first set out to teach your pet dog or puppy to come, there are a few tips and tricks that Im going to share with you, to make it more successful!

I have adapted these free techniques from the outstanding ‘Secrets to Dog Training‘ by Daniel Stephens. Jump straight to it here, if you wish to read more.

“Come dog”

Firstly, and possibly the most crucial, is that you should never call your dog over if you are going to do something that he might class as ‘negative’ to him.. Some common examples are things such as tying him up, wetting him (if he doesnt like that!), telling him off, smacking, hitting or generally disciplining him..

Dont call over and discipline your dog for things such as running off, when he comes over. Your dog may learn that doing as his master commands, is a punishment.If your dog knows negative associations when you call 'come', such as he thinks it means 'run away!' or if he has started to ignore it, you might have to try a new command that means 'come' but sounds different. 

Forget your old come command and teach this exercise using a new, clear word. 'Here' 'Oi' or 'Hey' are popular alternatives, but its your choise to use any one that suits you.

Ideally, your dog should hear this new command, stop whatever hes doing and sit in front of you! For best results, you should master teaching this exercise as two seperate pieces.

The two processes can be taught seperate till the dog has them both mastered, when this happens you can bring them together.

“Come sit in front of me”

Start with putting your dog on a short ish leash. With a treat ready, get your pets attention and hold up the treat at nose neight while taking 4 steps backwards.

When your dog is positioned in front of you, the next step is to hold up a treat so that he is encouraged to sit and wait to get it.

Command him to sit, and when he sits to your satisfaction, give him the treat by lowing it to his mouth. Dont let him leap to get it!

Next time, do the process standing in place and holding your ground, instead of moving back. Try eliminating guiding with food and switch to simply reinforcing a correct ‘come in and sit” command. This will help your dog accept praise as a reward.

You can read part two of this article, for free, as my website (that has hundreds of other free dog training tips) here, at dog commands.

The biggest secret to training your dog is understanding the system of positive reinforcement. All that’s really required after that is patience and consistency. Most dog behavior problems stem from not understanding conditioning or from not using it consistently.

To use it consistently, you will need lots of patience. Don’t underestimate the time and effort needed to train a dog. You also need to appreciate that you need to be consistent every time you are with your dog, not just during training sessions. This means that you also need your family members and anyone who interacts with your dog to be consistent also.

Positive conditioning means that a positive reinforcement i.e. pleasing stimulus when your dog performs some behavior will encourage him to perform that particular action again. It’s unfortunate that a lot of owners positively reinforce unwanted behaviors in their dogs. For example, they give affection to their dog as it jumps up on them when they enter the house. Affection is a positive reinforcement and so the dog is being encouraged to jump up on people.

If you ever watch the Dog Whisperer on TV, you will see that even though the families have watched his program, maybe even read his books and know intellectually what they should do, they still reward all sorts of unwanted behavior without realising it. The Dog Whisperer doesn’t reinforce negative behaviors. He behaves consistently and only give any attention to the dog when it is calm and behaving in a well-mannered fashion. In virtually every case that he helps, the problems are with the owner and his inconsistency.

It requires a lot of self-discipline and awareness to restrain from giving your dog affection when he is doing an unwanted behavior. Any attention is better than no attention to a dog. This means that, unfortunately, shouting at your dog may positively reinforce the behavior even though your intention is the opposite of that. So, it may be best to respond to unwanted behaviors by ignoring them and turning away from your dog.

It’s more effective to focus on reinforcing positive behaviors rather than focusing on using negative reinforcement for unwanted behaviors. As the dog is encouraged more and more in positive behaviors, less time will be given by him to negative behaviors which go unrewarded.

Obviously, you may have to stop your dog doing unwanted behaviors For example, if he jumps on the food counter, you can just pull him off.

How do you positively reinforce actions you want to encourage? Possible rewards are tasty treats, affection or a toy to play with. Using small tasty treats is probably the most efficient method. The treat needs to be given as close in time to the action as possible. This is where using clicker training makes this process easier. The clicker sound is used to mark the behavior precisely as it happens and the treat comes immediately afterwards. I encourage you to look more into the whole subject of clicker training since it does streamline process of positive reinforcement.

Read more about the Secrets to Dog Training, about clicker training for dogs and about dealing with behavior problems in dogs in general.

Secrets to Dog Training (formerly named SitStayFetch) has been revamped and was officially launched on February 2, 2009. SitStayFetch has been used by over 64,000 dog owners all over the world, and has been the best selling dog training system for the past four years in a row. Having reviewed it in great detail, I can fully understand why it continues to hold the top spot in the dog training arena. Secrets to Dog Training is even better!

Secrets to Dog Training is authored by Daniel Stevens, the highly respected and renowned dog trainer, and it includes everything that needs to be known about dog ownership. This 261-page guide gives dog owners step-by-step and easy to follow instructions which will help them to understand and quickly solve their dog’s behavior problems. It also includes many excellent pictures!

Click Here to Get Your Instantly Downloadable Copy of Secrets to Dog Training

All of the training methods described in the book are tried and true, having been used by Daniel Stevens in his own life as a professional dog trainer.

What is Covered?

A 5-page table of contents lets you know from the beginning that this guide is jam-packed full of information. The book is much more than just another dog training guide, although I would buy it for that section alone. The first part is for owners of a new dog or puppy, covering subjects such as diet and nutrition, house training, how to puppy-proof your home, choosing a vet, grooming, general health, etc. These are just some of the subjects covered to give you an idea of the wide range of information.

The guide includes recommendations for a number of different training techniques such as clicker training, head collar training, and dog whispering, to mention just a few. Next, the more advanced dog behavior issues such as chewing, biting, aggression, digging, jumping, etc. are covered. Several informative and interesting case studies are included in this section. We all love a good story!

In addition, there is a chapter on how to understand your dog and the significance of the dog owner being perceived as the top dog. Doggy facial expressions, vocals and body language are also included in this section. The sections on obedience training are very clearly explained and are aided by photographs, which show the various commands and positions in great detail.

I’ve outlined just a fraction of what is covered but I’m sure you will agree that it is impressive.

What I Particularly Liked

I had already heard great things about this course before I actually took a look at it so had high expectations. I must tell you that Secrets to Dog Training definitely does not disappoint – I’m absolutely blown away by the amount and high standard of the information provided for such a low cost. It is being offered at the low price of only $39.95, which is tremendous value for such an excellent product.

The language used in this impressive guide is easy to comprehend. Also, the book is divided into small sections which enhanced my reading experience and made the course very easy to follow and understand. There’s nothing more overwhelming than being presented with a wall of text!

I was delighted to discover that Secrets to Dog Training includes obedience training for dogs of every age. So many dog trainers focus on puppies but training and behavior problems don’t necessarily end once a dog reaches adulthood.

I also like the fact that the Secrets to Dog Training team offers unlimited free consultations to anyone who buys the course. Just send the team an email and they will provide you with an individual answer for your specific dog behavior problem. You’ll be given a response that will be jam-packed with knowledgeable advice and practical tips.

There’s no way for you to lose with Secrets to Dog Training as they offer a 60-day full guarantee.

Free Bonuses

As I’ve previously mentioned, the Secrets of Dog Training course is outstanding value; however, there’s even more being offered!

When the guide is purchased, five more e-books on the topics of house training, dog aggression, dog grooming, security training, and becoming the alpha dog, and an audio book will also be provided.

A new and exciting bonus being included with Secrets of Dog Training is a 30-minute downloadable video, which shows effective methods to solve those annoying dog obedience issues. Dave Johnson, the very popular dog trainer presents the techniques and makes them seem very straight forward!

Secrets to Dog Training – My Conclusions

You’ve probably already gathered that I’m impressed. This guide made me very aware of just how little I understood dogs.

The material offered is comprehensive, detailed yet easy to understand, and highly effective. This guide is useful to all dog owners, not just those with a particular problem with their dog. Much of the information in the course would be of benefit to any dog owner wanting to have the best possible relationship with his dog.

If you currently own a dog or puppy, or are thinking about owning one, I strongly recommend that you get your hands on a copy of Secrets to Dog Training.

Click Here to Get Your Instantly Downloadable Copy of Secrets to Dog Training