In Exercise 5.2 we're going to look at teaching Sit and Down, these are pre-requisites for teaching stays.
The first thing we're going to do is establish Sit (from a Stand and from a Down) to a hand gesture first, even if you've already trained sit on a verbal cue. This is really important and a step that a lot of people miss out.
I like to practice this exercise on a mat or towel which we’re going to need for the stay exercises so use we can introduce it in this exercise.
To teach sit with a hand gesture (dog standing up):
To go from a Sit to a Down:
Once he does go right down be ready to reward with several treats fed on the floor and while he’s chewing the last one say “Okay” and then present a hand target to get him on his feet. “Okay” in this context is called a ‘release cue’ – it’s a special word that tells your dog it’s OK to get up.
Practice a little bit every day and your goal is to be able to easily move your dog from a Sit to a Down and back up again into a Sit which is what we call a Puppy PushUp!