Pippin passed his Puppy Obedience class…

[thunderbird8588]

Congratulations to Pippin and Petra.
What is a relax down ?
You have done well getting him to roll over, there is no way Malaika will lie on her side or roll over.

[Basenjimamma]

Shelley, relax down according to my teacher is a down where both of the legs are somewhat out to one side, as supposed to down is sphinx position..
The relax down is something they are more prone to want to stay in as it is more comfortable..although Pippin lays in sphinx position on his own.. :)

[thunderbird8588]

Thanks Petra, do you mean the back legs ?
Malaika makes me laugh when she's asked to lie down and stay, if you look carefuly she isn't realy touching the floor as it's still too cold. The other people call her the princess :D
I just love that mortar board hat.

[Basenjimamma]

Thanks Petra, do you mean the back legs ?

Yes sorry, of course I mean the back legs.. :)

[thunderbird8588]

I'm not familiar with a relax down, don't know if we do it here ?
We just do down stays in class in the sphnx position. So do you draw the back legs out to the side once they are down then ?

[Basenjimamma]

Actually I have never heard of it either..our teacher is new to our area, from up north, maybe it is more common there..I like it though as it takes more for a dog to "break" the relax down as it is more relaxed.
It is easy to teach..in the down position move you treat closer to one side in a semicircle, towards their stomach/groin area, and the dog will naturally kick his/her legs out, like moving onto one side of their hip, to "reach/follow" the treat, does that make sense?
Do you clicker train?
If you clicker train, once the legs kick out, click and treat..I don't say relax down..I just named it relax.. that way he can differentiate easier between the two.

[thunderbird8588]

thanks for the explanation Petra, i will give it a go, we may eventualy be able to take the treat further round so she goes on her side.
We haven't used clicker training, just treats. Because we are doing the good citizenship training has to be done in a certain way and i don't think you can use a clicker.

[Patty]

Many congratulations to the oh so clever Pippin and of course to you as well.

Our collies and Kangal have always doine the relax down as you call it in obedience classes and it was just treated as a normal down. At the same time the Basenjis would do the 'sphinx' down and both were acceptable. I haven't experienced it as a separate exercise.

[tanza]

Yes, very clever for both of you!!! Congrats on your success!!!!

[MacPack]

Congratulations to you and Pippin. What a smart little boy!