Hey there it's Duke Ferguson. Do you struggle with getting your dog to lay down?
Because some dogs can be pretty tricky to get to lay down. And if so, this video is for you.
And if you also struggle with mobility issues, or if you're in a wheelchair or
you're just kind of lazy and you don't want to do much, then this video is for you. I'm going
to teach you how to get my dog to lay down. And I'm super excited. I've waited over a whole year
to teach my dog to lay down for this video for you, because it's not really hard, but
the longer you wait and the longer they're doing other things. Yeah, it can be a little tricky.
Okay. So enjoy this video because it's a hands-off approach. Watch it start to finish because there's
a lot of information in there for you that's going to help. All right. Enjoy
Koal is a one-year-old black lab and he doesn't know how to lay down. He's never heard that word
‘DOWN’ ‘DOWN’ see they don't do it. And then here's the thing. A lot of people will repeat over and
over and over and over commands. Don't do that. We're going to start there's different phases.
I go through the very first thing is...don't speak. Number two, have a dog that's hungry, motivated,
and willing actually try and think that's all you need at the beginning. So Koal's never laid
down before. I mean, he laid down on his own. There's several different ways that you can teach
it. There's not just one way. So I don't know why everybody fights online about how to train a dog,
because there's just so many different creative ways that you can do it. Me, I have
a framework and a science nature based method. Love it works great. So we'll show you the first
thing I'm going to do. I get this little guy he knows to go to place and things like that. You
don't have to teach on a place. You can teach on the ground. Okay. You can teach elevated surfaces.
What I like to suggest is this, try and teach your dog to lay down first with
environments that they're comfortable being and where they're comfortable to lay down
it. So let's say you have a dog that's kind of sensitive to environments. Okay. They're kind of
soft right. And you're trying to get your dog to lay down outside and it's cold or on ceramic tile.
They might not want to do that there in the first time, find a place where they
will actually be comfortable. I teach a lot of things on targets and places.
It's guys like begging me to quiet. So I'm going to do that and then teach him lay down.
So the first thing I'm gonna do is grab just his meal, his food we're using Hurraw today.
All right. And I let him lick it and lick it and lick it. Okay. Now for,
for this guy, he's absolutely no idea what I want. Okay. He knows how to try. He's trying and begging
hard here now. This is what you really want to have. The more motivated your dog is the better it
is because I can talk to you like a teach in the camera and I can train a dog at the same time.
For this example, I'm going to use a clicker for the Mark. The Mark is a release Mark. So there,
when he goes to place, SIT good boy when he hears this "CLICK, CLICK, CLICK" he's free and he can have the money. No problem.
All right. Clear as a bell? So Koal is going to go to place. He's going to sit there and
he's going to pay attention. All right, first, couple of times with the down,
I'll actually just lure it. So I'm going to take the food to the dog's nose. All right. And they can be
in a standing position. It doesn't matter. I don't really care. So I'm going to just bring it to the
ground. As soon as his elbows touch, I'm going to mark and I'm going to throw the food. Why?
This is an active dog and we want to use the body.
We want to use the brain. And then you can also make them chase the food if your dog doesn't like
toys. And we can play with our food. I play with my food and I give you permission to do so too.
Dog trainers play with your food. And you're a dog trainer at this moment in time with your dog. So
again, that was one repetition. That's the first time he's ever had that experience. I'll do it a
couple of times and get him to think. And as soon as he drops, right, he doesn't know. As soon as
he drops, those elbows are down. I release and I throw food. You don't have to throw the food, but
this just makes it super exciting. Right? I'll do it again.
You don't have to use a clicker either. And what happens is if you have a target
boundary that the dog likes to go to, that you've taught the dog to go to. When you throw the food,
they're going to go back there because they know more food. So this is an easy, and I can sit in
a chair if I want it to. So teaching the dog how to down. It's simple that teaching dogs with
anything is simple. I'll just do this again, I'll lure. Okay. He's down, atta a good boy and I release.
Yeah. So the biggest thing I don't speak, but here's
what I want. That was actually pretty quick. You agree? Let your dog struggle now. Now's the time.
If they're hungry and they're just hungry and they don't know down or any behavior help just a little
bit. I used to tell people, if you do that 200 times, your dog will know it and you'll phase away the
lures. I'm going to phase away the lures quick. A lot of people don't realize how little I lure and I just
Let the dog think. Let the dog problem
solve. Let, let the dog struggle. How do I get this? You're not helping me. So
The less you help the dog, the more they have to think the harder they have to try. That creates a
tired dog. Mentally, physically satisfies their needs. It's simple, dogs aren't the problems
that we create today. It's us. We create our problems. Koal. So now I'm not going to use the
food. I'm not going to lure, but I am going to still help with my body language a little bit.
So I'm going to get in that position and I'm just going to just be right here. Okay.
And he's trying all these goofy things. He might stare intently at me in a minute. He's just exploring
his options. I do work with a lot of attention work. You see, he's looking at me right there.
Right. So I don't do this. There's a lot of it. So he's thinking now that's not getting him
paid. He's waiting to get that click. All right. So you can see now this is not
bribery. He's thinking, he's sitting there. And if he just sat there and did nothing
for five minutes, I would close the restaurant, bring them back out tomorrow.
I might lure once or twice or bring him back to later. But you know what? He's going to drop.
He's thinking, he's trying. He's still here. Okay.
And normally, if you have an environment that the dog's going to walk around and get away from you
just to have a leash on your dog, okay. I'm going to sit down because sometimes it's a waiting game.
He's, he's actually a little bit difficult, you know, to, to get to lay down. And the reason is
I have waited a year, he's never heard it. And he literally would go to a place and sit there and I
just do my thing and he'll get bored and lay down. So one of the things, if I want to start training
him down and I don't want to be, I want to be completely hands-off, is every time he's
just down. I have to watch him throughout the day. But he goes to place. If I sat here for
long as it takes, as soon as he drops, I Mark and I throw a jackpot (food) he'll learn right quick.
Hey, every time I go down, I make Duke pay me. So he thinks he's in control, but really
that's one way to do it. But really he's not going to eat unless he tries because I don't get paid
unless at work. So to get the beginning stages going a little quicker, just to help prime the
pumps so that he can kind of like process instead of waiting and just go a hundred percent deep. I'll
lure a few times. I'm going to get him to go in this position and I'm going to release
that. So he's going to go back there and I'm going to do it again. So we're gonna just do
repetition, repetition. I'll probably do, let's do seven that's two,
But down is a bit different. So that's three times. Plus the few lures I did before, that's
more five, six. We won't count them because of the duration. I just need them to see this picture,
you know? And he's coming back or pattern a little picture here to create success. That was
actually a pretty good one. I'll do that one more time. And then I'm going to force him to think
yeah. Force. Oh my gosh. Listen. There's no such thing as force-free. If you're a
clicker training and feeding a hungry dog, he's hungry. What is hunger? discomfort in your
belly? What is food? removing discomfort. Okay. Force-free. If he doesn't do anything,
he doesn't get the treat. So there he's, if he wants it, he's kinda nature. His body, his brain
internal force, not an external, it forces him to wake up and try just like he's doing
Okay. No lure this time
I'm going to help with where they gesture body language. But from phasing away, this food stuff,
I'm just trying not to change the picture too much. Okay.
He paws a lot because of nail trim. I put them in a nail trim video since he was little.
It's actually one of the reasons I don't teach five in the beginning. And I did that
in the beginning because I had to produce a video of that. This is he's in the course
as a little puppy, that's why he's pawing me so much. And that's why I can do whatever I want with
his nails. Here's a little picture of my guy and his debut nail trim. And if you do struggle with
nail trims, I'll leave a link in the description box for you below. It's a great course. it will help you out. So
he's trying, he's exploring his options like, hey, does pawing work? Does anything work here?
And now I'm just going to stop talking and let him think.
And I won't look at him. I just look at the place board
and I get my distance for he's exploring. Obviously he can't scratch me, touch me or anything.
If he's a little a bit more focused, a little sharper.
Oh, almost he's thinking, he's thinking he's trying. No, you're not going to come to me. Go back there.
There you go. When you're training like this, sit, relax. Listen to music,
Pull your phone out and start text messaging. Do your emails. Take a consult.
Heck, you could plant corn. Watch it grow. Just have patience. I'm not joking.
Cuz it seems kind of silly. And if you're a person who's not used to using food
I know what you're saying right now. So I'm just going to sit here.
All right. Let you figure
it out. It's going to try on his own
And this forces the dogs' brain to work without
external force. That's great. Right? Training dogs sitting down. Right. Anybody can do it.
Jackpot that...big time!! Yeah, buddy!! Good job. All right. Told you. And you thought, Oh, that Duke
guy is never going to get him to lay down. This is a dog that's the first time that I've been in you know the
situation where I'm focused to Mark that behavior. And it took a few
little lures. That's the first session. And if
He wants more food, he'll go back to the place and he'll lay down.
So I don't have a leash on him or a collar on him right now because
I know his drive for food. And then I know the dog well, but if you have a dog that's not quite
engaged quite as much. They don't want it as much. Have a leash on your dog and give them like
at least six feet to just explore around, let the dog come off and explore around. I'm not doing it
too much because I don't have the leash. I want them to stay here a little. That's my dolphin
tank right there. My little fish tank is the place board. Technically this whole room is. So if I let
them explore and think I might be here all day to get a DOWN, but I've kept it sort of small
and you'll see, sometimes they'll have a little breakthrough and they won't do it again that
session, that's okay. We literally five minutes. You set your time, lure a couple of times and
then wait. And if he does it once and you have to go to work jackpot his whole bloody meal right
there and go get dressed and ready for work or whatever you're going to do. And while he eats,
Talk like me and bore him to death to do it. So he lays down, good job Koal. Excellent. And that's how
you get a dog now we'll keep it going. That's how you get them to do it. That's the first,
that's the start...the very beginning. Now I just have a couple more. He's done.
We're not doing anymore. I'm going to put them away and I'm gonna let him think about that.
So when he thinks about it and he processes that information
sleeps on it, dreams on it and come back out of the kennel
half an hour, an hour, two hours, tomorrow. Whenever I'll take him out sooner than that, but
he'll be faster. All right. So a few
sessions later when I told you it was be faster, he's going to go there and he's just going to drop
"Break", I'm not using a clicker this time. So when you hear my mouth, it's the same exact release mark.
"Break" Now I'm really happy with this. This is where I start to name it. Right? So that's only been
was the first week it's been, it'd be five, five little sessions about two, two to five minutes
a week. So I haven't really worked really hard at it, but because the dogs do it,
they, they, they do it on their own "Break". And that's how you get that. Now I'll show you three weeks
"DOWN" Break "DOWN" Break "DOWN" Break, Atta good boy. Excellent job. Koal
"DOWN". Nice. She's deaf. And so is he actually, so we have two dogs that are not deaf
that listen and obey. These two are very obedient but completely deaf. I mean,
we've got what she's like 16. Wow. Yeah. Taea, I'll give her the ball break. Oh,
leave it to the mali Koal "DOWN". Good job Matrix "Break"
And that's how you get him to down. This is about three weeks into it after the initial lesson.
So what do you think? do you think you can handle that? I think you can, you can do it sitting down
pretty sure! So if you'd like that, try it, try out, shoot a video and post that link down below
to show everybody you were struggling and now your dog will just drop and you didn't have to
do a thing. I really hope you enjoyed this video as much as I enjoyed making it for you because
that whole year of just waiting, just to see? how hard it would be? I did that for you.
I'm so glad that I can get my dog to lay down now. So I want to see you do it too.
If you liked that video and you want some help, if you're struggling,
do you need a trainer or a coach or anything? Just drop us a line and go to dukeferguson.com
I have a free video series there. And as well as unleashedpotential.ca either one of those
websites, you can get access to that or coach or some training. So just reach out if you need help
and enjoy the videos. And as always, if you can give me a thumbs up, subscribe to my channel.
So when I drop a new video, you won't miss it. If you know somebody who can benefit from this video,
be sure to share it. And I can't wait to see you in the next video. Thanks
for watching. And I can't wait to see your video and your dog going down, have fun!