Dog obedience and training > Information > Dog Training - Teaching Your Dog to Lie Down

Dog Training - Teaching Your Dog to Lie Down

By Ty Brown

For the ‘lie down’ command, start out with your dog on leash. He should be outfitted with a dog training collar, preferably a pinch collar.

With one hand apply downward tension with the leash as your other hand applies downward pressure just behind his shoulder blades. There is a spot directly behind the shoulder blades that if you apply pressure will make him feel a little uncomfortable. It will make his body try to adjust and should help him go down toward the ground. As he begins to lie down give him the command ‘lie down’. Remember to give the command in a calm, even voice. If he struggles, just keep applying pressure. If you let him win by struggling he will know that he can always struggle and he won’t have to do what he doesn’t want to do. Obedience training is about teaching your dog that he must submit his will to yours.

Repeat this process over and over. You will soon notice that as you give the training command ‘lie down’ that he goes down without a struggle. When he is at this stage you can go to the next step.

The next step is to take out the helping elements. Up until this point you have been helping your dog by using leash tension and pressure on his shoulders. Now, we need to take those training pieces out so that your dog will lie down of his own volition, and not your helping hand.

Start out just as you did before, with your dog on a loose leash. Tell your dog to ‘lie down’. If he does, give him immediate praise. If he doesn’t, give the leash a quick, strong jerk toward the ground (called a correction). If he goes down with the correction give him immediate praise. If he doesn’t go down right away, keep persisting. Keep giving downward corrections as you repeat the command ‘lie down’. When he does finally go down, give him lots of praise. If you do this properly, the ‘lie down’ behavior will be very black and white. Lying down is pleasurable because of the praise and not lying down is not pleasurable because there are corrections and a lack of praise.

It is important to follow the following formula. The dog always receives a ‘free command’ (A free command is a command with no correction. This command gives your dog the option to obey or not.) Compliance with the free command always merits praise. Non-compliance always merits a correction until compliance is achieved. Once compliance is achieved, regardless of the amount of corrections it took to get there, praise is always given.