Teaching Down?

fire I am waiting with you for the answer I have tried everything I know w/ Trixie even to going up to her when she's down and giving her a treat and saying good down, she just can't get it and she gets everything else. With brando I just did the easy one of when in a sit using a treat to lure him down then the hand signal of palm down hand open and he learned right away , I thought I was a super dooper trainer lol.

Stand with your dog on your left side, both of you facing the same direction.  Set up so the handle of the leash is in your right hand.  With your left hand, take up enough slack out of the leash so that it forms a loop, from the dogs' collar, that does not go all the way to the ground.  Command your dog.  With your left foot, step on the loop in the leash while pulling up slightly with your left hand.  This method will compel the dog to go down.

Thanks Billy
I will try it

Hopefully, others will give you some options too.  There are many people who don't subscribe to the notion of compelling a dog to perform a command.  It doesn't bother me in the slightest and I offer it only as one of several possibilities.

Here's another method that has worked for me every time. 

First, your dog must be reliable on the sit command. 

Tell the dog to sit, and reward that with a treat.  I sit on the floor next to the dog, it helps especially when the dog is small.  With the dog in a sit position, hold a treat in your right hand by the floor between it's front feet and give the command, "Down." With your left hand, apply a small amount of pressure on the dog's shoulders, while drawing the treat away from the dog with your right hand.  This should cause the dog to get into a crouch to get at the treat, and VOILA, he/she is DOWN.  Once the dog is truly "down,"  Give the treat, say GOOD DOWN.  Repeat this 4-5 times, about 3 times a day and you will see great results.  To turn this into a long down after the down is mastered, have a supply of tiny treats that you can feed bit by bit once the dog is down. 

There are many commands you can teach by leading with a treat instead of muscling the dog into where you want it.  Once you've taught down, then for fun you can teach "crawl" by continuing to drag the treat a ways.  When I taught Crawl to Misty, I used the word "limbo" instead of crawl.  Now when she's down and I say Limbo, she crawls across the floor, as if under something. 

I prefer teaching down with out the use of force.  I find using a foot loop and back pressure can cause resistance over time in you aren't careful.
 
Have you tried luring the dog into position?

I have tried it with a favorite treat and he still is very resitant in getting into the down position.  He is 2 years old.

Firestorm...explain to me how you are doing it.

At some point during the day he GETS into that position...so when he does praise him for the GOOD DOWN and maybe use a clicker or a treat.

Glenda is right...capture that behavior every chance you get!

I hope that my method isn't read as one uses force, as I would not train a dog that way.  The left hand on the shoulders it simply that, the left hand is on the shoulders, there's a very light pressure, not a push.  It's to guide, not to force.  

I tell him to sit first then I take the treat and put it down in front of him and pull it a lil further away to get him to lay down and he just crouches with his front end down and lifts up his hind end to standing.

Lure him into a sit, and then slowly lower your hand to floor directly towads the dogs paws.  Allow the dog hind end to slide back as opposed to walking the dog foward.
 
 

Ditto to what Mic said.  Also, once the hind end come up, start the exercise all over again.  "Sit" and on from there.  You repeat it enough times and the dog will get it, oh, she wants the bum down, too.