I think this has probably been asked loads of times before but nothing came up when I put send away into the search box.
I want to teach vic the send away but am having a bit of a mental block about how to go about it. I tried one method from a book which involved putting his fave toy on a towel to get him to run down to it but it wasn't right for us really, he picked up running down really quick but it all fell to pieces when I started fading the toy and he would just stand looking at me. If I walked to the towel (toyless) and came back he would run down so obviously I've gone wrong somewhere as I think he feels me waking to the spot is the target rather than the towel (if you see what I mean?).
What methods do others use?

I used a cone,and treat with Jess.Take dog up to cone,show the treat(placed at base of cone),take dog back a couple of feet,release dog ,using your command word("away" or whatever)Hopefully dog will go for the treat,follow immediatly and tell the dog "down",give another treat.Once hes got it,you can increase distance.Good luck!Forgot-lots of praise.Just re read post,maybe you need to re inforce the down command-with a more reliable instant down,perhaps he d understand better and wouldnt run back?Good luck,its great when they get it right!

When you first start put the treat or toy under the cone..although I prefer a square of carpet...show the dog...take it a few feet away and when you have the dogs eyes locked on the treat area..release with your command...'away' or such. Go with the dog to the area and let him find the treat and give much praise...
repeat..

Giving the down command IMO can be mistaken for a reprimand in some dogs because of its harsh sound.
This can be introduced when the idea has 'clicked' in the dogs mind.

When they are rushing out consistantly and reliably...thats when I add the down command. That is also the time to remove the treat from the carpet and YOU go to the square with the treat and give in the down.

It is two processes and I feel it should be taught as such.

be careful about the sort of cone you use :-D
Guy teaching class of big dogs that Rott went to used a traffic cone.........................for ages after Rott tried to mug every traffic cone she met as it might just have a sweet under it.................OK on pavement but some were in the middle of the road

Not how I did it, but our trainer suggests using a small tuppaware-type box with treats in.  Place it (sealed) on the far side of your mat, it will give the dog incentive to run out to it, and only open it when you get the 'down'.  Wish I'd known about this when I was training it :-)

You can clicker train it beautifully by shaping :)

It's best, as with all training methods, to break it up as much as possible so that you train small bits. For example you may want to train "down" at the cone, and "run to", separately to start with.

When I taught this to my dog for working trials, IIRC, I taught her to touch the cone, then to run to it, then later taugh the "down". This sets up for success  - otherwise you get dogs running to the cone (good) and then being yelled "down" at, which can be unnerving for them and makes running to the cone, aversive. Sorry think I'm repeating what has been mentioned already.

If later they do runot the cone but are not sure about the down, and you want them to down, I tend to say "good" (for the right place) and then "down" in a happy voice.

Lindsay
x

Totally different but from when I got me pup I wanted to teach him to go to his bed. I would go to his bed from a little distance and call bed to him as a pup he was so interestd in what I was doing he would come up to me receive a treat. I then graduate to teaching him down and pupt the two together result a dog that goes to bed and will imediately lie down.
When we got to training he would happily do a send on a square of vet bed

There's two parts to a send away 1) sending them in a straight line in a direction away from you 2) controlling when/where they stop. 

I've used working trials and gundog training, and have to say the gundog way makes more sense to me. 

Taking the second bit first, the stop is trained to whistle at heel from being a young pup, one slow peeeep and dog sits to heel at your side, then it's a case of building up distance.

The second part is done using retrieves, initially from sending your dog out to retrieve something, to building up trust and sending your dog in long straight lines, using a wall/fence helps to keep them straight for training; the dog trusts that there will be something out there for them to retrieve, and if needs be, you tell them where it is with a hunt command. 

For working trials send aways, we used a grid of up to 9 cones, to lift dogs and send them on diagonals, as well as left, right, out and of course, back towards you.  That was initially trained using up to three cones in a line and food rewards, which were given to the dogs by people based at the cones without any interaction, until the dog had mastered directions, when it was moved onto a grid of six cones and eventually nine. 

We were taught to run with the dog to the bed and treat them there. Then I go to running with the dog and asking for the down, then gradually just pointing to the bed from a very short distance and so on. Some of the people at club use a treat on the mat, but although this gives a good run out, I noticed with most of their dogs that it just encouraged them to run out, grab the treat, then wander off or run back. If they then removed the treat, they got a good run out followed by wandering around the area sniffing for the treat.

Thank you for all the input everyone, I will let you know how it goes. Vic does an amazing fast down already and at a distance so I just need to master the running out in a straight line bit now, which hopefully I will :)