We've been working on teaching Pickles to lay down on command. We started with a treat touched to his nose to get him interested then you move the treat down slowly to the ground and towards his front paws and he will lay down to get it. The next step was removing the treat and just touching the ground. When he laid down, he then got a treat from the other hand. This is the point where we got stuck. We had to touch the ground every time to get him to lay down. At puppy class on Wednesday, the trainer, Gigi, showed us to say Down then start moving our hand slowly downwards and as soon as he looked like he was going to lay down stop moving and wait for him. He always waited until our hand was all the way on the ground to lay down. So next she told us to just move our hand down until it was a couple feet off the ground and then wait. After a good minute of waiting he laid down tada! The key was just giving him enough time to figure it out on his own without touching a hand all the way to the ground. After a day of this, I tried holding my hand at my waist and pointing down but not moving my hand at all. Just standing there and saying down, pointing, and waiting. Pickles stared at me for a good 30 seconds then he barked, jumped up to bite my hand, pawed at it, whined a little and then laid down. It was very fun to watch. He knows exactly what Down means, he just does not want to lay down and has a little temper tantrum, but still really wants a treat so he lays down eventually. Since this first time, we have progressed to only a couple barks and whining before laying down. I no longer use any hand signal at all, I just wait him out and he always lays down. Interestingly, when I revert back to touching the ground, he lays down immediately without any fuss. Maybe he just doesn't like laying down by himself and wants a hand to accompany him. This video is after considerable progress.
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