Anybody have tips on down?
Hi ya’ll, I’ve been a dog trainer for three years. Ive worked with nonprofits, trained service dogs for veterans, reactivity training, and much more.
I’ve gotten every dog to lay down on command and with a hand signal except MY OWN. I have a collie super mutt, she has golden, German shepherd, husky, and a few others in her.
Let me say, she does know down. She will lay down if I guide with my hand about 80% of the time and with a treat 100%. We have done the phase out of treats with success, capturing, etc. she knows exactly what the command means.
But when I tell her down organically she straight up ignores me. She has no medical issue aside from EPI which is well treated. She is just a sassy girl who doesn’t like that command. I reward her every time with a marker word including high, medium, and low value treats but sometimes she just decides she doesn’t want to and just won’t. Does anyone else have this issue?
I’ve also tried not letting her break from training until she does the behavior but this girl is so stubborn she will sit there for however long it takes (once it was hours) and just ignore me. Otherwise she is fantastic and will do literally any other behavior, won’t jump up and throw tantrums, she just sits there in undeniable defiance.
I’m aware that some breeds think they know better than their parents and will try to do something else but why is it only down? 😭