Teaching your husky to do into the “down” position can be a difficult thing to do at first. But, it is something that is worthwhile and this post will give you a number of ways that you can try to do it.
There are five different ways to teach your husky “down” that I will mention in this post. The first way will be to lure your husky into a down position using a treat. The second will be to lure it into a down in two stages. The third will be to lure it down in even smaller stages. The fourth method will be to sit in a room with your husky until it lays down and then to build up from there. The fourth method will be to use something for it to crawl under to get it to go down.
The first method will be to simply use a treat to lure it into a down position.
To do this do as follows:
- Get a treat that your husky likes
- Stand or kneel in front of your husky that is either standing or sitting
- Say “down” and get it to go down by luring it down by holding the treat on the floor below where its head is. Your husky should naturally go into the “down” position by trying to get the treat out of your hand.
- If your husky goes into the down position reward it with a treat.
- Repeat the above until your husky naturally goes into the down position when you lower the treat
- Start getting your husky to go down without lowering the treat. Do this by saying “down” and gradually raising the height that you lower the treat down to.
- Stop lowering the treat an get it to go down simply by saying “down”
Related: How to teach your husky to play fetch.
Watch the video below to see how to do it
The second method is to lure it part of the way into a down position before getting it to go all of the way down.
To do this do as follows:
- Get a treat that your husky likes
- Stand or kneel in front of your husky that is either standing or sitting
- Say “down” and get it to go down by luring it down by holding the treat on the floor below where its head is. You’ll find that your husky will often go part of the way down by just lowering the front of its body to the floor.
- If your husky goes into the down position or the front of its body does reward it with a treat.
- Continue rewarding it if it goes part of the way into the down position and then gradually require it to go a bit further down each time until it goes all the way down.
- Repeat the above until your husky naturally goes into the down position every time when you lower the treat.
- Start getting your husky to go down without lowering the treat. Do this by saying “down” and gradually raising the height that you lower the treat down to.
- Stop lowering the treat an get it to go down simply by saying “down”
Related: How to teach a husky to come on command.
If your husky won’t even go halfway into the down position then you can try teaching it to go into the down position by easing it into it in smaller steps.
To do this do as follows:
- Get a treat that your husky likes
- Stand or kneel in front of your husky that is either standing or sitting
- Say “down” and get it to go part of the way down by luring it down by holding the treat on the floor below where its head is.
- Reward your husky for going part of the way into the down position. So, if it just lowers its head when you lower the treat then reward it.
- Continue to repeat the above each time requiring it to go a bit further down until you can get it to go all the way down.
- Repeat the above until your husky naturally goes into the down position when you lower the treat.
- Start getting your husky to go down without lowering the treat. Do this by saying “down” and gradually raising the height that you lower the treat down to.
- Stop lowering the treat an get it to go down simply by saying “down”
If you can’t get your husky to go into the down position by doing that then try going into a room with it and then waiting for it to lay down naturally. When it does it reward it with a treat and make a fuss of it and make sure that it stands or sits up again. Then when it lays down again reward it again. Eventually your husky will realize that laying down will get it a treat. When this is the case try doing the first strategy again. It should go into the down position more naturally this time.
If that doesn’t work you can try making it go into the down position by making it have to crawl under a chair to get the treat. By crawling under the chair it will have to go into the down position. Once you’re able to get your husky to go into the down position by crawling under the chair then go back to the first strategy and try again.
Watch the video below to see how to do the five strategies
Why teach your husky to go down
Teaching your husky to go down when you tell it to will have a number of benefits.
The first benefit being that by spending time teaching it things you will get it to be more used to your command and you will make it more responsive to you. This will help you to control it when it is misbehaving such as when the door opens and it tries to run away.
The next benefit of teaching your husky to teaching your husky down is that you’ll be able to build up into teaching it more difficult things such as teaching it not to run when the door opens or to teach it to stay on your command.
The next benefit is that the actual process of teaching your husky the “down” command will expend its energy and help it to be more well behaved. Taking the time to regularly train your husky will help to keep it regularly stimulated and to prevent attention seeking behavior.
Things to keep in mind
When you’re teaching your husky to go into the down position there are some things that you should keep in mind that I’ll mention below.
Avoid physical measures
When you’re teaching your husky to go into the down position it might be tempting to force it to go into the down position using your free hand. It’s not recommended that you do this since it will make your husky less responsive to you. Instead, it’s better to coax it into doing it using hand gestures and to lure it with the treat.
Be patient
It might be the case that you need to teach your husky how to go down on multiple occasions and that it won’t get it straight away. If this is the case then don’t worry or get frustrated by it just try a different technique the next day.
Be consistent
Once you have been able to teach your husky to go down when you say so it will be necessary for you to continue to get it to go down on your command regularly. If you stop teaching it to go down when you say then it could forget to do it and it might not do it when you want it to.
Related Questions
How to teach my husky to sit? You can teach your husky to sit be getting a treat that it likes then telling it to “sit” and encouraging it to sit by raising the treat slighty behind its head so that it sits naturally. Once you’re able to get it to sit straight away when you lure it with the treat start getting it to sit without luring the treat so far until it’s not necessary for you to lure it with the treat at all.