Down to Stand & Building a routine- Dog Training

DOWN TO STAND

Once your dog is in a down,
keep the treat close to her
nose and slowly move it away
at a slightly upward angle. If
you lose her interest, you’ve
probably moved the treat away
too far and too fast

Keep slowly moving forward
and upward …

… until she comes up into a
stand. Say, “Stand,” but ONLY
ONCE, and release the treat.

DON’T DO THIS: If you raise
the treat too far above the
level of your dog’s nose, she’ll
be likely to sit rather than
stand.

BUILDING A ROUTINE

Once you’ve practiced the first six exercises individually and your dog understands sit, down, and stand as
cues, it’s time to run them together and create your
foundational training routine. In essence, you want to move between all the positions interchangeably and
establish a smooth rhythm between any and all combinations. This is the foundation for hand signals, and you should NOT move on to those until your dog can cruise through any configuration of this routine with ease.

In addition, you want to start asking for more performances of an ever-increasing number of behaviors
before delivering a treat. And you want to vary the order. For instance, in the first sequence shown here, you
would go through a sit-down-sit-stand sequence before delivering the treat. Once this is established, practice
a stand-down-stand routine, as in the second sequence, and so on.

Keep varying and extending the sequence of behaviors, and do not move on to hand signals until you can get your dog to give you ten performances in any order for a single treat.

Notice in this sequence that the command is said at the same time as the hand movement. At this point, you no longer have to
wait to say the command until your dog commits to the behavior. The word itself should start to cue your dog to what’s wanted,
along with your hand movement.