Teaching Lie Down To Come Inside or Go Outside

How does your dog tell you that he wants to go out or come in when let outside?   Perhaps your dog is like Rico who would scratch at the door in order to signal he wanted to come inside.

Rico had learned all sorts of new stuff.  The previous week I taught him how to lie down.  This next session we were finally putting the behavior on a verbal cue- which I like to introduce only when the dog is lying down without me having to offer him a food lure. As I arrived to the session and to my surprise, Rico greeted me in his typical effusive manner, but shortly thereafter he did lie down! Some dogs really know how to turn the charm on!

Rico’s “mom” mentioned that she did not like Rico scratching at the screen door to let her know he wanted in.  So, I suggested we try having Rico lie down outside as his signal of wanting to come in. We set it up so that Rico was outside and I remained inside ready to pay him when he would lie down.  I was confident he would lie down in order to be let in.

The reason I thought this was because he had just been reinforced for lying down.  We have ample proof that whatever behavior gets reinforced, will be repeated.  You see, dogs are really smart.  They do what works and they abandon any behavior that is not reinforced in some way. Pretty brilliant, right?

It did not take long before Rico was lying down outside and next to the door. We practiced for a few trials and it took him less and less time with every trial to realize that lying down was the “correct” response to be let in.  I love it when I can find an acceptable behavior for both parties!

Here is how you can teach your dog to stop scratching at the door or even barking, and instead politely lie down to have the door open.

First, you need to make sure your dog has truly learned what lie down (or down) means. You can find out if your dog’s lie down is up to fluency if you ask your dog to lie down and he can comply with at least 85% or more correct answers.  Anything under this requires more practice in order to make the behavior fluent.  If your dog needs a refresher, read below for some tips in teaching him this very handy behavior.

Lure your dog into a down (from a sit) by:

1. Placing a treat in front of your dog’s front paws.
2. Treat for lowering the head/neck.
3. Bending the elbows.
4. Bending of the knees or at the hip.
5. Going all the way down.

Use of An Empty Hand Signal:

1. Remove the treat from your hand and with an EMPTY hand. 
2. Give your dog the EXACT same hand signal you did while holding food in your hand.  Your dog might hesitate at this point.  Be patient and give your dog time to process.  At this point you can pay your dog for a behavior that he has learned well (like a sit) to keep him interested in continuing working with you.
3. Reward your dog for lowering the elbows, knees or even the neck at this point. Pay for any of these approximations.
4. Once your dog is lowering his belly all the way to the ground and has done this consistently for 5 trials, it’s time to introduce the verbal cue lie down or down.

Introducing the Verbal Cue:
When using a verbal cue AND a hand signal it is CRUCIAL that you first give the dog the hand signal and then the verbal cue and not both at the same time.  Dogs will default to minding our body language over verbal cues so if you give both of them at the same time (hand signal and verbal cue) your dog will not learn the verbal cue.

• Once your dog is fluent in lying down when you ask him to do so, you can ask with abandonment.
• Practice in different locations inside your home, a café if this is a typical outing for your dog, etc.
• Occasionally pay your dog for lying down, otherwise the behavior will go into extinction.

Training for Success:
We ALWAYS want our dog to succeed so that we can reward them. Remember that whatever behavior gets rewarded you will see more of.  Please train/practice with the following guidelines below:

Practice each new behavior five times (five trials) in a row.  Depending on the success of your dog for that particular exercise you will…

• PUSH: If your dog is successful five out of five trials… push to the next step.
• STICK: If your dog is successful three out of five trials… keep practicing at this level until he/she improves.
• DROP: If your dog is successful two or one out of five trials…keep practicing at this level until he/she improves.

Now you are ready to generalize the behavior, which means teaching your dog that “lie down” (or down- pick your cue and stick to it) means putting the belly on the ground when you ask in the living room, outside, inside the car.  This is a skill that dogs find challenging so do not skip this step.

Teaching your dog to lie down to be let in:

Make sure you take your dog outside where you want him to eventually lie down and ask for the behavior. Pay handsomely. Repeat a few times.

You can stop here and practice a bit more another day or after a few trials outside, try leaving your dog outside while you go inside and wait for him to lie down on his own.  When he does, open the door immediately and let him in to cash in on the prize.  Repeat a few times making sure your dog gets paid for every correct response besides letting him come inside.  In your next session you can practice with having your dog inside next to you at the door.  It would be easier if you warm him up with a few trials of lying down before requesting the behavior at the door.

In time you can stop paying your dog for lying down when wanting “door services” and use the opening of the door as the reinforcement for him lying down first.

One of the indispensable behaviors your dog should learn

Teaching your dog to wait without dashing out the door or jumping off the car seat is really a must-train behavior for any dog. Not only can learning this save your dog’s life, but in the process your pup is also learning some self-control. I have seen time and time again, how dogs thrive when they are taught some simple manners. And wait is really one of my top ten things I want dogs to learn well.

The way I define wait means that the dog should not cross a threshold by moving forward without prior verbal release. I also like to implement another version of wait as part of my recall (come when called) training plan, but that is for another post.

I suggest you begin with a hungry dog and semi-high value treat. Perhaps some moist treats, but do not pull the meat or chicken for this.

I also suggest to practice with interior doors - not the front door or side door where your dog can just take off or run into traffic.

Follow these steps:

• Stand in front of your dog, your dog can be seated or standing, that is not important as far as I am concerned. 
• Make sure you are truly in front of your dog AND that you can use your body to block the door should your dog break the wait. 
• Unlock the door and have it just a tiny bit open, perhaps enough for a mouse to go thru but not your dog.
• Tell your dog:  Fido, wait!
• Show your dog seconds AFTER you have said wait, your hand with fingers straight up and palm facing your dog.
• Open the door a bit more, say 1/4 of the way to a full open door.
• Now release your dog to go through the door.
• Give your dog a treat by mouth once outside or for more “impact and fun” throw it in front of your dog so he has to find it.
• At this point your dog should only stay put between 1 to 2 seconds before you release him or her.  More than this and your dog will fail. 

The most difficult thing to teach in most behaviors is duration. Which means for how long the dog has to do the behavior, so adding time that your dog has to stay without moving forward will be added SLOWLY and only as your dog is successful for 5 trials (tries) out of 5 at the current time criteria of 1-2 seconds.  You will add seconds one at a time until your dog can stick it for 5 seconds before you open the door any wider.

Practice with your pup with lots of internal doors- not the front door just yet.
As you see that your dog has understood the game, begin to open the door more and more- which you guessed it, makes it more of a challenge for your dog.

• Go back to asking your dog to wait followed by your hand cue.
• Also, be ready to body block and reset again. 
• If you are positioned correctly, you should be able to not only body block your dog but also close the door.
• Do lower the amount of time (seconds) your dog must stay put once you begin to open the door more. We only want to increase the difficulty of the exercise by changing one criteria at the time.
• When you are both ready for the front door:  lots of successful reps where your dog can stay put for 5 seconds, you will repeat the steps above BUT with your dog on leash.

Wait from the car:
When practicing in the car, the steps will be the same. Please begin to practice with your dog on leash and in a traffic-free area.  Depending on the type of car you have how you will handle the opening of the car door.  Either way make sure you can block your dog with your body or by safely closing the door to avoid escape.

The video below illustrates the training plan.  Have fun.