A small brag

Good job. How are you teaching  her I am having such a hard time with Trixie, and she trys so  hard and usually learns very quickly. But for some reason what I'm doing she's not understanding, I've tried the treat between the paws thing the going over to  her when she's laying down and nada.

That's great!! I think the "smaller" successes can be the most worthwhile and impressive! I am glad you are seeing improvements and I hope you see more soon!

Way to go Gaia!! I think sometimes the small accomplishments seem to be the most meaningful. Keep up the good work![]

deb,
 
I am using the "Sit, Down" method.  It works best on a tiled or wood floor.  The treat between the legs and no reward until her chest touches the floor.  My hand signal for down is two fingers thumb curled back, pointing at the floor.  So this is the motion that I make when trying to teach it. 
 
If she stands up during the procedure, I turn around and ignore her for 10-20 seconds.  Also I use Xerxes as a model.  (He'll do anything for food.)  Pharaoh hounds are good teachers and even better learners-but each one needs a different approach.
 
So keep at it.

Thanks I'll try it, yeah Brando has a great down, and I do make him do it when I'm training her, but she's just having such a problem, no I'm having the problem, I will keep working on it.

ORIGINAL: Xerxes

Everyone knows that I've had Gaia about 7 weeks now. 
 

 
Actually i didnt know []

ORIGINAL: espencer

ORIGINAL: Xerxes

Everyone knows that I've had Gaia about 7 weeks now. 

Actually i didnt know []

 
Well now ya do!  And knowing is half the battle!  [sm=wink2.gif]

Ah, good to hear she's coming around! []

ORIGINAL: debv53

Good job. How are you teaching  her I am having such a hard time with Trixie, and she trys so  hard and usually learns very quickly. But for some reason what I'm doing she's not understanding, I've tried the treat between the paws thing the going over to  her when she's laying down and nada.

I had troubles teaching Penny down because she has such short legs that it wasn't very hard for her to reach for the treat from a sitting position without needing to go down. At the training school, I was told to get her down by lifting her front legs out from underneath her. I thought it wasn't really getting across to her, so I employed some patience and started saying it when she lay down beside me for cuddles/belly rubs. Instead of pulling her legs out, I'd sit beside her and tap the ground in front of her nose with the back of my fingers. She learnt that that was an invitation for belly rubs and she'd lie down, then roll over. I started using that more and it worked fairly quickly. Nowadays, she'll go down with a command and hand signal for the most part, but if she's hesitant for some reason, tapping my knuckles on the ground usually works, and failing that, tapping the backs of her front legs usually reminds her. I was doing the latter back when we were in training school in the hopes that she'd go down without me needing to pull her legs out. But it wasn't until she learnt it in association with belly rubs that that signal started working more reliably.

Oh, and nice work, Gaia! You're a good dad, Ed. It's so nice when you start seeing results.[]

Good job Gaia! You'll be doing fancy tricks in no time!

Deb, if she's totally not getting what you want her to do, and you don't need her to do a perfect down, maybe you could try capturing it with a clicker. You might be able to get it more if you get her in the room with you and she's standing. Then be really boring, sort of ignore her. I'm hoping that would result in her laying down, and then you click and treat her for it. Then get her to get up again and try repeating the process. If that works, it'll give you a lot of oppurtunities to reward her for it, but you'll probably also get a lazy down. If it doesn't work, i've got no other ideas for you, as i've never trained a small dog.