Down on Recall

Down on recall had been my focus for the last week or so.

Previous to this, I was just concentrating on getting a fast down in heel position or in front position by command. If I added distance, he would go down in position, but once I added in the motion of the recall, he wanted to get as close to me as possible before actually going down.

So I tried putting a treat down in the middle of the path in the hopes I could down him at the treat and reward, but that didn't work because he knew to avoid the treat since he wasn't given permission to eat it, so he'd step gingerly around it and by that time, had forgotten what exercise we were doing. Fail.

So I stopped doing the treat thing and started stepping into him and pointing down as I said the command, and that seemed to help somewhat, but he was still taking more than a few steps and trying to get close before actually going down. I was making no progress.

Then I decided to do something different - use a hand signal only instead of the verbal - so he'd stop associating the verbal down with being close to me. Change it up completely.

So I started in the living room with him across the room. Put my right arm up and gave the down command, and when he downed, released and reward. Repeat 2 more times. On next attempt, I did hand signal only and he went down - success! End session for now. I repeated this later in the day, but only giving the command with the signal the first time, and the second time just the signal only, and he downed both times - success again! End session. Next time, added in the recall and used the hand signal and command, and he went down! Practiced this a bit and I'm quite happy with the results so far. Living room training going well!

Went to training this past Saturday, and I went further away than we had been doing in the living room. Gave the command and signal, didn't stop so stepped toward him and gave the command again and he went down. Tried it a second time and it was better - though he took extra steps.

Tried it again tonigh with some yummy extra-crispy leftover bacon from dinner. Went across the room, gave the signal only and he went down - yay bacon! Set him back up, went across the room, called for recall, gave the command and he hit the floor immediately!! woo hoo bacon! Ended on a super happy note and played for a bit.

Hopefully I can continue working him this way and he'll have it down.

Next have to work on the retrieve over jump... he'll go over the jump on the way to the dumbbell but wants to run around it on the way back...