A professional dog training tip that quickly covers teaching the behavior of having your dog drop into a down on a verbal cue from a moving heel position. This is a fun obedience game that will impress your friends and get people interested in training their dogs. It’s not a hard behavior to teach! Give it a try! If your dog can’t go into a sit or down because of injury or age, you can do stand instead which is actually more impressive to some people.
Happy Training!
-Emily Larlham AKA Kikopup
#dogtraining #professionaldogtraining #dogobedience
Hello everyone and welcome to kiko pups Dog training tip of the day for today Today i’m going to be showing you guys How to train drop at heel using a mat It’s a super impressive behavior to show Your friends and get people excited About training their dogs so i hope you Give this exercise a try it’s a great Way to build Fun reliability and your communication System with your dog so treats don’t Have to happen or reinforcement doesn’t Have to happen near you it can happen Away from you and you can build that Confidence of being away from you with This exercise so a good idea is to first Teach your dog to enjoy going to a mat And laying down or sitting or choosing a Position you want your dog to stay in It’s if you’re going to be doing lots of Advanced work you can teach your dog to Do different positions on the mat Depending on on what cue you give so for This game we’re going to teach the dog To down on the mat so what i’m going to Do Is throw a treat back here for her to Get And then i’m going to cue her to down Every time she gets to the mat And reinforce her And then practice walking away from her So she’s getting used to being left on The mat and you can see that she doesn’t
Yet Get that she’s supposed to stay there Down Good and now i’m going to release her Free Good so you might say instead of a Release to your front you might say Your heel cue mine is called tight so That’s my cue for the left heel free And so the end result which we haven’t Worked on this yet with her she’s like i Should go to the mat and sit Is that you’re going to cure your dog to Heal with you Tight when you get to the mat they’re Going to down and then you’re going to Leave them but the next step is walking To the mat with the dog Asking them to down marking and Reinforcing the down and then either Saying let’s go and moving together or Heel or whatever cue you want or you Down the dog and you leave the dog Good So i’m just going to practice that And see if we can get Epic My little chihuahua of one year old to Do a drop on down In the heel position Free good girl here we go so what i’m Using is some deli meat that i got from A uh A store called barons
And they make their own deli meat and It’s actually cheaper than buying Dog treats Something of those expensive dog treats And it doesn’t have it has like lemon And like ingredients that don’t have Preservatives so i like to go there to Buy um if i use deli meat because the Other deli meat has lots of salt and Lots of added stuff anyway she really Likes this deli meat so she’s really you Know on top of her game right now Sometimes she can be a little Disinterested in treats because she’s so Small and she can fill up easily so i Make sure to um not give you know Measure out how many treats i’m going to Give per training session and make sure That i don’t overfeed her every day are You ready let’s do this and stop talking Sorry Okay here we go so i’m going to say Tight Down Mark and reinforce her For being down like this And then take a step away mark and Reinforce her for staying there and i Might practice that Again and again I actually think because of her fear of Being stood on because she’s been stood On by people That this is easy for her
But me coming back to her is the part That i really need to work on and that’s Going to build her confidence with Trusting that when i’ve sat down i’m not Going to then stand on her So i’m easing myself into the position Much slower than i naturally would go to Build her confidence slowly Good job Tight Awesome So that wasn’t as fast as i wanted her To get off of the mat but there is a um A wall right here so she’s not thinking To run straight into the heel position So i could play games if i wanted her to Speed up To to reach me by using more space so She’s further away i stay tight and she Runs And i run away from her to build that Speed okay come epic let’s give it a try Now I don’t know if she’ll be able to do it But let’s try are you ready Tight Down So she I wasn’t fast enough with my click she Got up and moved forwards but i just Want her to make sure that she Understands the reinforcement zone is The mat so i’m not going to tell her no I just want to make that the reinforcing
Place to be When i move away when i’ve sit down Free Good girl let’s try that again let’s see If you can get it Ready Tight Down Awesome and she got it Good girl Free Tight Nice Ready let’s go this direction Down Awesome Free Now when i went this direction i’m not Sure if you could see it but she looked Down at the mat So At first when they approach something They might look down at it because they Don’t want to trip so a game you can Work on is simply walking over the mat And marking them for looking up at you And you can even take turns and move Around like this And then gradually get rid of uh the Treat in your hand so they’re getting Used to Walking over the mat sitting on the mat Without having to look down at it ready Happy
And she’s new to heel work so um she’s Doing amazing ready I forgot her cute tight Down So she sat instead of downing so i’m Just going to lure her into the down Mark and reinforce and then try again Free Good girl Ready Tight Down There we go That’s nice Okay well i’m running out of treats here So i’m going to have to end this Training session with her I really thought she did really well This is the first time we’ve done this Exercise but what we have worked on Is go to the mat Comfortable uh being near me in the heel Position a little bit of heel work set At my side which you don’t really need To do and then uh building the release Cue free Free or or go to my um heel position so Those are the um things i’ve worked on Before and it’s just a matter of adding Skills together so it’s a pretty fun Game i hope you guys try it see you Later Stand Good
That was a good start Good job Good job Good Good Good Good Good boy Good Free Get it good boy Stand Yes that’s it you got it you got it free Good boy Down Good boy Good boy Down Yes Free Oh he’s not done eating Good boy here we go oops sorry Here we go ready tight Down Yes good boy Free Awesome now i’m going to try without any Hand signal Ready tight Tight Touch Down Good boy