The most popular positions taught in basic obedience classes include a Sit and a Down. It is one of the first skills your dog probably learns when they are young! Both of these skills can be considered incompatible behaviours, and we can easily associate them with calmness. For example, if your dog is sitting at a crosswalk, they cannot pull you across the street and if they are laying down at your feet, your dog is likely nice and relaxed.
So what is an Auto down, and how is that different or better for your training?
An Auto Down is an automatic, fast behaviour. It is executed by the dog instantly after your cue, regardless of motion or distractions in the environment. It is more useful than your regular ‘down’ because it is fast and should be viewed more as an immediate ‘drop’ to the ground, rather than a slow relaxed position change to the ground.
For example, instead of the dog laying down relaxed at our feet (which is a great skill! just not the same as this one) the dog immediately ‘drop’s’ into position when cued verbally or with a hand signal, thus allowing you to manage your dog or avoid a problematic behaviour/encounter with a distraction. Need a visual? Check out the video below!
We teach this skill differently aswell. Most position changes in classes or lessons are taught primarily from a stationary position – you are either standing or sitting with your dog when teaching these skills. In an auto down, we prep the dog for movement right off the bat. We want the dog to enjoy this drill and we want to build a learning skill called drive, which is the dogs desrie to work with us and perform behaviours eagerly and accurately.
How does an Auto Down help your day to day life?
This is a skill that we have mastered from our competitive sport world, but we love it because it can easily crossover and benefit active pet owners (and makes your training fun too!).
In competition, our dogs must be able to ‘drop’ to the floor mid routine, the first time we cue it and with no immediate rewards…talk about pressure! They must also remain in this position until released or told otherwise by their handler. So if our dogs can perform it in highly distracting environments, yours can too!
If your dog is easily excitable, jumps, tends to run off or is easily stimulated during play, an automatic down can be very useful in interrupting behaviour from escalating. In addition, the fact that this skill is taught entirely with movement alows the dog to become prepared to easily perform it in comparison to stationary skills such as Sit. If you practice and your dog enjoys the skill, the chances of you succeeding in teaching them to perform goes up!
The Drill
• Lure your dog into a DOWN position, mark and reward and release your dog
• Play with them, allow them to run around and become distracted, and repeat the above steps. Release them to play/sniff/explore.
• As you practice this, and your dog improves, you will phase out a food lure and rely upon a hand signal for the position. You may even notice your dog begins to offer you this position more frequently, this is great and you want to reinforce it as much as possible.
Final Tips
Start in an easy location with your dog, and if they have trouble laying down due to age or sore joints don’t push them. You can teach this exact set up and create an ‘Auto SIT‘ instead.
Give it a shot and let us know how you like it,
Happy Training!