I have an 11 week old golden retriever puppy. She has been to 3 puppy training sessions in which we use clicker training to teach basic 'obedience'. She grasped 'sit' amazingly quickly, almost before we started the classes at 9 weeks. However 'down' just isn't getting through. She will follow a food lure (she is very food orientated) and as soon as she drops down i click and say down, but after 3 weeks of this she hasn't grasped what it means at all. She is learning 'come,' and basic heelwork, and loves the target stick which only took one session (about 5 mins) to learn, so she is quite bright. She is still very young so i know it should all be fun and i shouldn't expect too much, but i keep worrying that i'm doing something wrong or am expecting too much. I don't want her to get bored so should i try a different tactic or continue with the food lure?

Patience petal patience ;)

Some dogs hate down, as they see it as a position of vunerability. Two of my boys took weeks to get it.

Click and treat is a very good method of training (IMO!) but some things can still take time. When she goes down, say down, but leave it a few seconds before clicking, to reinforce that the down is what she is being rewarded for, not just dropping to the floor.

If you don't fancy that, just leave it altogether for a couple fof weeks and come back to it.

best of luck

Julia & Hooligans.

Thanks for replying so quickly, yeah i know patience is not one of my best virtues!! ;-)
I think on reflection that i am just worried unneccessarily. My other dog who is 17 months now, didn't start training classes until 6 months and was a very difficult dog to train, so i am very anxious to do it right this time, by starting early. But I was unsure what to expect, as i didn't really train my other dog to lay down at this age as i was a 'trainee' owner, but my puppy is still a baby really! (Infact she is growing to fast, why can't they stay puppies for just that little bit longer?!) :-)

Hi,
I have a 10 month old spaniel x. Lucy and I have just completed a training course (intermediate). It took all sorts to get her to go down and stay. As soon as she had had her tit bit she'd bounce straight back up again. The training that we did was all positive rewarded but the trainer told me to take a different approach with this comand as I was getting no where. It may sound a bit harsh but honestly Lucy was soon down on comand. Hold lead as walking to heel, handle in right hand, loose lead in left hand, on down comand drop lead from left hand, step on lead with left foot, pull lead up with right hand, puppy should now be down, if not gently push to ground with a stern down comand. Keep left foot on lead, release slowly. If puppy moves, sharp NO and repeat until puppy stays on the ground. Walk on spot, puppy stays down of own acord. It took 3 days of doing this with Lucy and then she would go down and stay on comand, we are now training down, stay, out of sight. Believe me if I thought that any type of training would hurt or frighten Lucy, then I would never attempt it but this way of acheiving a down is by far the best and won't hurt your puppy at all.

Good luck

Meryl and Lucy

I had a similar problem with my Border Terrier. It took me several weeks to get a reliable down. The method that worked best for me was sitting on the floor with one knee up and just low enough that he'd have to "down" to follow the lure which I would pull through. The moment he was in position, I would click and treat. It took a lot of repetition before he would down with no luring. Hang in there, she'll get it.

Is the problem that she wont lie down, or that she will follow the lure but doesn't respond to the word?
If it's that she doesn't respond to the command but does lie down, then
it might help to teach her a hand signal first (it's much easier for dogs to learn that) before you use a voice command.
Try reducing the movements of the lure, a tiny bit at a time until you only need to move your had a small amount for her to lie right down. It's sometimes helpful, while you're doing this to make her think you have a treat in one hand when it's really in the other, lure her with the empty hand and then reward her with the other one. That shows her that she's not following the treat but your hand.
when she's grasped the signal, give the command just before you give the signal, before long she will twig that when she hears the word 'down' that you're going to do a handsignal, she's going to lie down and you're going to give her a treat. She'll shorthand all that to get to the treat, and lie down before the hand signal.

Are you going taking her to training clases? It would be really helpful for you if you had somebody actually showing you what to do, as well as the socialisation aspect.

Jo

She will follow the lure but not respond to the word as you say. I will try what you suggest. She started puppy classes at 8 weeks old, as i have another dog that attends and i wanted her to start as early as possible. The funny thing is that i only taught my other dog last year and yet i can't remember how i taught her anything. I probably shouldn't be panicking really, she is doing quite well at puppy school. Thanks for the advice. :-)