hi guys welcome or welcome back it's one of my favourite Bryt diaries today so let's get stuck in
if you've not watched Bryt diaries before please go ahead and watch the first episode first because
that will explain how I train the dogs which is really important to know but today we're doing one
of my favourite behaviours which is a flat down a flat down just really means that their head
is on the floor as well as all of their body so they look like what I like to call a carpet slug
or a floor slug because they're just flat on the floor and I really think it's adorable it works
amazing in all sorts of different situations for photographs and it's one of the easiest behaviours
to train just bear in mind that once you've trained it it becomes a favourite of most dogs
so you will struggle to get a normal down out of them because they want to be in a flat down
all of the time if you haven't already please do press the subscribe button and hit the bell icon
the bell icon will help you actually gives you a notification every single time I upload a video I
upload every week and sometimes more than that if I feel like it although in December we're doing a
lot more than that so without further ado let's go ahead and look at how to train a flat down
so basically the normal method that I train this uses an object
so we're not going to use an object with Bryt but the object method works for
every of the dog that I've worked with so I'm going to include the object method at the end
but it was really clear at this stage that all she was going to do was climb on it so instead
I've reverted to a different method which essentially is about capturing so she really
doesn't know what I want from her so she's trying all sorts of different things including backing up
rolling over having an absolute party doing sits downs all sorts because she doesn't know
what gets the snacks so what the aim of this is doing basically is I've set criteria in
the criteria's that the bottom of their chin is on the floor and that is the criteria that
I'm going to capture with the click so all I'm doing at this stage realistically is just waiting
for the bottom of her chin to hit the floor in a way that she understands that that's what I want
so I don't want biting I don't want jumping up on me I don't want her on her side but I just need
the head on the floor so it's literally a case of just waiting for that behaviour to be offered
and to be honest it didn't take too long
so she paused there and that was the point of the reward so yeah she did have an absolute party but
pretty quickly she did get the idea and it's really important that you do it when their head
is on the floor because they'll hold it super close but you have to be really aware of where
the floor is and what you're looking for is just a little bit of contact and a little bit of hold
so when you've kind of got that they should begin to offer that behaviour much quicker so they might
still be having a party they might still hang off of your arm bite your hands just ignore it
or reposition until that head is on the floor you need to have them flat on the floor
and as best as you can ignore biting because as puppies the teeth are really out
so she's just getting distracted that's fine you just redirect and then wait for the behaviour
to be offered and she offered a perfect one there so we jackpot that with multiple rewards
so you can tell she's really starting to get a handle of what I want her to do because she's
putting her head down much more frequently she's getting the clicks more frequently
she is really working out and that is perfect this is why I love dog training so much because
you just have this partnership with the dog and it's great so you just need to keep repositioning
and really high value rewards really high frequency and when you've got that to a stage
where you both know what's going on the criteria is being met the behaviours are being offered
like this then you can really start to remove any handlers remove any directing from you
and you just literally sit in silence and wait for that behaviour to be offered and you'll find that
it starts to be offered quicker and quicker and that's a sign that you've got solid understanding
of course it doesn't always work like that there are always going to be bits where actually the
puppy would rather have a party and that is fine because they're puppies and they're adorable so
at this stage I know she still doesn't have it so I'm not going to start adding a verbal cue because
she's not repeatedly offering me the behaviour in quick succession so I just need to hang on
and keep doing some more repetitions before I add the verbal cue and then at that stage the verbal
has a meaning so for me with bright the verbal is going to be flat for Alfie and Pippi it's down
again after a down which is not useful really so with her it's going to be flat I have taught rest
as well and settle so pick a word any word that you want that you think is going to be useful so
for me flat is what we've gone for here so I've got the verbal in the back of my mind I already
know what I'm going to start to ask her to do but I need to have 100% understanding before
I add that and at the moment she she knows what I want she put her heads down she goes oh okay
and down to the side is fine I don't mind that as long as that chin is in contact with
the floor we have a standoff at numerous times and you just have to wait just be super patient
and eventually they will offer it so she sniffed then and I didn't reward that I'm literally just
waiting for it to go oh okay fine I'm gonna put my head down to get the snack
and it's an immediate click and reward so at this stage this is a different session now
she knows what I want her to do she's getting it really quickly now we're getting to a point where
we don't have more than five seconds without a reward and at that stage you know there is solid
understanding there so you can at this stage add the verbal like I've just said for me that is flat
so a different day different session so just checking understanding and the understanding
is absolutely fine I'm just using the verbal and she's offering it very very quickly so I
can actually say flat from her stood up and she will drop into it now so that shows a really
good understanding of the verbal behaviour so I'm moving her away and then asking her for it and she
nails it which is perfect so you can tell that she really knows what I want her to do now and
this means basically we can start differentiating so first of all we'll start to change positions
change directions but then it doesn't take too long before we actually change objects so I lift
her up and lifting the puppy up is a decision that you guys need to make really carefully for me I
know I can catch her before she hits the floor if she were to fall if you're not confident that you
can do that don't do this until they're much much older so I'm just asking for the same behaviour
on the sofa so just on the sofa cushion there so it's nice and comfortable for her
and all I'm wanting her to do is just offer me that head down behaviour nice and carefully she's
already doing this in the presence of another dog because Finn's on the back of the sofa
so I know that that kind of works well for us so then on the next session I switch the object so
she's on the chair now which looks out into the room so it's a bit of a different one because she
can see a lot more from here so you can see the window behind me people going past that kind of
thing so we've increased the level of distractions as well as having her up on the object
and I'm still waiting for her to do that head down behaviour you can tell that she's quite quite you
can tell that she's quite tired in this particular setup and that's absolutely fine so when you're
happy that your dog understands the behaviour and is doing it happily on objects then you can
add a distraction so we've got a very distracting distraction here who is a Piper, Piper the ginger
who is very very busy she's a very busy collie she's very fast she's quite sharp and she will
want the snacks just as much as puppy does so what I've done is I've got a distraction that's piper
and I'm just asking bright for the behaviour and she's still offering it my main attention is on
bright but I also have to keep tabs on where Pip is to make sure that she's not causing a disaster
Pippi is very quick at shaping so what you'll find is if she was doing anything when I clicked
for bright I will have that repeated so I'm being hit in the face and the shoulder by pip with a leg
and that is because I clicked at the same time as she did that so that's normal just want to keep
the repetitions high keep watching where puppy is always keep eyes on the dog that's learning
not the dog that already knows so all you're wanting the other dog there for is a bit of a
distraction and Piper is an incredible distraction to use when you need one
so then it's a case of using that in a photography environment so we've got a different object
different set we've got a whole studio going on here bright has been in a studio before so this
is nothing new in terms of the setup but offering behaviours on a chair is quite different so Dan
is there for safety purposes he is there to make sure she doesn't fall backwards forwards or off
the sides and I then when she's happy begin to ask for the behaviour myself as the photographer
so she's done a perfect flat here she does do a move so I just asked for it
again to be honest with you I should have rewarded after that first one but you know
hey-ho she managed to pull it out the back for a second one and we got a beautiful photograph
so I said I would give you guys another method and this is the other method so these videos that I'm
about to show you are of two different dogs one is Alfie as a one-year-old I think and the other one
is of a dog called Pig who was in foster with us for a while so these are from 2015
I think and they show the behaviour from a different uh technique and the technique in
this case uses an object so I'm using a box and I'm clicking and rewarding for contact of the chin
on the box the height of the box should be comfortable height for the dog to reach over
a little bit and just have to make contact with the chin so this box is kind of the perfect size
for Alf he sat opposite it and every time he made contact with his chin on the box he got a click
and a reward and then pretty quickly start to ask for a little bit of duration and he starts
to offer the duration really nicely and then at this point you just change the distractions change
the object ask for other behaviours because you can also at this point ask for front so the front
feet up and the head down together so I've got this super quickly because basically he's used
to how I train and therefore it's easy so I'm asking him here for fronts along with a head down
so basically I'm pairing the tricks together which is something you can do when your dog is
100% confident of what you are asking so the other dog like I said is Pig so when she was with me she
was called Crazy because she was she's a very very busy collie and she was a rescue so she had very
little sort of basic training as a youngster and all of her training happened when she was older
which means that shaping is a little bit more difficult but is not impossible so she already
knows front so trying to get her to keep her front feet off was pretty tricky but again I'm trying to
lure her with the hand to make contact with her chin on the little box that we've got here
to be honest I could have done with a slightly taller box for her just so that the lean over
would have made contact but any contact of her chin with the box needs to have a reward
any other behaviours that are offered we just redirect reset and then put them back on and
when they go ahead and do perfect repetitions then you can start to add the verbal so you can
tell that Crazy's quite a quick dog she likes to have things super clear and she's very cute
it's fine to lure to get that head contact really all you want to do is find a method that gets the
dog to understand that chin down gets the snacks and then when you get that everything else is fine
so I've used raised beds to train this I've used putting the dog on a sofa and you sitting on the
floor because then you can lure them down easier I've done all of the different methods and to be
fair it doesn't matter which one you use as long as what you want is clear for the dog
so at this stage we're getting really clear and really consistent responses from the dog who
is really enjoying the training process and that means that I'm doing my job correctly so
she really wants to do fronts so we're doing well you can't have fronts we just want the head down
and I don't mind if she's stretching over it doesn't matter at all because she very quickly
understood this in a couple of sessions later we added a camera and we went outside and that was
absolutely fine so it's not a difficult behaviour to teach you just need that first little bit to
make sense and then everything else comes together just take your time make sure you guys have fun
make sure it's really really clear for the dog and everything else will be absolutely fine then
obviously you would add a wait into the mix and that's it the rest as they say is history
so guys that is the flat down how amazing is that behaviour I think it's beautiful and I hope that
you do too if you haven't already please do press the subscribe button and hit the bell
icon I'm here to help you out with all of your dog photography needs so if you've got any suggestions
hit them down in the comments below and if not I will see you all again really really really soon