Training Riley help

[Elly_the_lost_penguin]

Riley was originally supposed to be my brother's dog. He is the cutest Maltese/bichon frise mix! When we adopted him in March my brother was supposed to be in charge of feeding him, walking him, and training him. Well after two weeks he began forgetting to feed him and my mom gave the job to me. He got frustrated when Riley didn't know how to sit after three days and the training went out the door. The other day my brother stayed at a friends house for the night and i decided to take the responsibility to walk Riley. i clipped on the leash for a walk and Riley acted as if he had never been on a leash in his life so I guess the walking didn't happen either.

Anyway my mom decided Riley needed to be trained and my brother won't follow through so I am now the appointed trainer. We breezed through sitting in five minutes. He is so eager to please! but now I am trying to get him to lay down and its not going so well. I've tried to lure him into the position and to physically put him in the position several different ways but he doesn't quite get it. Has anyone else had this problem and have any advice?  

[Gabrielle_AnimalLuver]

First of all your brother sounds a lot like mine. Cowboy was, believe it or not. My BROTHER'S dog. He bought him (from a pet store, though we were all in love with him) after his girlfriend dumped him. He was then very obssessive about him. The first 2-3 months he actually walked him all the time and got mad at me if I wanted too. He was totally clueless about training though. And the second the dog needed an emergency vet service, sudenlly he was the family dog (everyone in the family EXCEPT my brother pitched in for it)

Fast forward about a year after my brother got the dog he transitioned from his dog, to family dog, to my dog (though we never say it out loud) I buy the food, pay for vet stuff, toys, brushes, I groom him, I do ALL the training. My brother means well, but has no patience and is too much of a social guy to give up his time to do stuff with the dog.

Wow ANYWAY. SO a good trick for trainign lie down is to lure, using food or a toy if he's toy driven. Kneel down with one foot on the ground so your knee makes a 90degree angle and have the dog on one side and pull the treat down and under your leg. He should need to duck down to get it.

Also helps to start from a sit position when training lie down.

I also highly recommend clicker training.

Good luck  

[Elly_the_lost_penguin]

That's pretty much how it goes with every pet in my family. It starts out as someone else's and becomes mine. The turtles were my sisters. Ferris, my bombay, was original my mom's and caramel, mixed kitty, was my brothers. My brother is a Cancer so he tends to lose patience quickly especially with animals. They always start out with the best intentions but they never follow through. And now my mom is getting a puppy from her friend tomorrow. rolleyes
I already have my hands full with training Milo and trying to get him not to bully poor Riley.

Anyway thanks I'll try the trick and see how that works. I do use a clicker and it really is fantastic. Milo was impossible to train without it and he can now sit, lay down, wait for things, targeting on my hand, drop it, bring it, come, leave it, and walk on a loose leash. Once he gets older and has a better attention span and grows out of some of his hyperactivity I have great plans for him biggrin yesterday I did some puppy sitting for my mom's friend and I thought I would surprise her by teaching her two chihuahuas to sit and man it was so hard with out the clicker! By the end of the day they were so tired they slept on my chest for three hours. I had to take alot of benadryl from all the fur!!! xd