Teaching Your Dog To Lie Down
Compared to the other four basic commands out there, ‘lie down’ is one of those that does have limited amount of uses, but is easy enough to teach and as such you might as well go ahead and do so. Who knows, there may come a day when you want your dog to lie down so that you can inspect it for fleas, or something of that like.
All that you need to train your dog to lie down is to have already trained it to sit. Yes, that really is all that it needs to know, as it is the only other command, in use before you can get your dog to lie down. Seeing as training your dog to sit is simple enough in its own right too, we’re going to assume that your dog already knows the ‘sit’ command.
Of course, you’re also going to want to have your usual supply of treats to use as rewards and incentives for your dog.
As such, while standing near your dog, tell it to sit. When it does, you could reward it with a treat if you like. Then, bend down and put your hand in front of your dog on the ground, while telling it to ‘lie down’.
Slowly but surely, your dog should get the point and lie down. When it does, reward it with a treat immediately.
Keep repeating this process every day until you are fairly certain that your dog knows the command. When you reach that stage, test it out by not putting your hand in front of your dog, but simply asking it to ‘sit’ and then ‘lie down’.
If it follows your instructions, congratulations. If it doesn’t then it’s time to try again!
Source: Teaching Your Dog To Lie Down
