How to Teach a German Shepherd to Lie Down

Video Transcript

"Hi! I’m Melanie McLeroy with Taurus Training for Expert Village and we’re now going to work with German Shepherds and Sophie our German Shepherd is going to learn how to lie down. Now as we saw in the teaching a German Shepherd how to sit video Sophie already almost has a verbal response to commands. Now if your dog does not yet have this simply check out one of the other breed videos to learn how to use food or a toy or some other motivation to teach the command first. What I’m going to do with Sophie with a down is teach you how to get a German Shepherd just respondent to a visual signal fading the lure to get them to respond to a verbal signal. Sit, good. So Sophie is excellent if I use a hand signal, down and some body language. Good, okay, sit. So what I’m going to do is two things, one make my reinforcement more random so she’s not getting a treat every time. Giving a treat every time actually makes the behavior less likely to happen, remember you’re a good leader, you’re in control of resources, you’re not just a pest dispenser, it makes the reaction to the commands much more… So this time I’m going to try just a little body language. Sophie, good, down, good. Now notice how Sophie is on her haunches, this is a breed characteristic of German Shepherds. We prefer that they’re over on one hip. Sometimes you can use a treat or do even just a little help to get them over, that way it’s a lot harder for them to spring back up. Okay, Sophers, good, sit, what a good German Shepherd, down, good girl, excellent. Notice just a little bit of body language. Now I’m going to try just a verbal command. Okay, sit, good, down, good, excellent. Well little Ms. Sophie is breathing a little hard still. She’s still a little nervous, she’s much more attentive and more excited, good girl, okay, good girl, sit, good, down, good, perfect down over on one hip. So that’s how to teach a German Shepherd, not only to respond to commands but how to respond to just a verbal command. "