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Teach Your Dog Lie Down with Hand Signals: Easy Step-by-Step
Published on January 24th, 2023
Updated on October 15th, 2025
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Training your puppy to lie down is a great follow-up to teaching them to sit, as they can build on skills they’ve already learned.
What you’ll need:
- Training treat bag
- Training treats your puppy likes (stinky ones usually work best)
How to teach a puppy to lie down (with hand signals)
- Hold a stinky treat near your puppy’s nose and cue them into a sit.
- When they reach sit, turn your hand so your palm faces the ground. Lower the treat straight down, luring your puppy to the floor.
- When their elbows touch ground, say “yes” and reward with a treat.
- Before your puppy has the chance to finish their treat and get up on their own, raise your fist until they are once again sitting.
- When your puppy has done this several times, say “down” and begin to use a hand signal without a treat.Extend your right hand with your fingers together and palm facing your puppy, then motion so your palm faces down and is parallel with the floor.
- Repeat until your dog readily offers the behavior
- As you practice, remove the treat as a lure and only reward them with the treat when they fully lie down as cued.
Training tips:
- If your puppy seems unsure about performing this behavior, try a different surface or lure your puppy under a chair or your bent legs. Remember to mark and treat when their elbows touch the ground.
- If your puppy merely bows instead of lying all the way down, start saying “yes” for any more movement toward the floor
- Practice, practice, practice! You will always need to practice behaviors to reinforce them.
- As your puppy progresses, layer in added duration (how long they stay down before getting their reward) and distractions (practicing in different settings with different things going on).
For more training tips, take a look at our YouTube channel. If you’re a member or alumni of Petco Positive Dog Training classes, you can get additional support on our Facebook group.
Health & Wellbeing
i'm teaching linda how to lay but she only does it when i lower her with the treat how can i get her to lay without a treat
Combine the treat with a hand signal, such as pointing at the floor, and a command ("Linda, down!") Praise her if she starts to, even if she doesn't get all the way down, so she gets the idea that this is what you want. Gradually phase out the treat to every other attempt, then every third, etc. until you do away with it altogether and she drops just on your command and hand signal alone.
Updated on September 24th, 2025
Health & Wellbeing
How do you teach lay without having to “lure” them. Bella will just sit there when I try to get her to follow the treat.
There are 2 commonly used methods for training. The first is luring where you lure them into the desired posture and the second is that you wait for them to naturally do the desired behavior, then instantly reward them when they do the behavior. The second way of training is generally more difficult and requires more patience and perfect timing for rewarding, so the luring technique is the one that is more commonly used. If you want to use the second technique, then I would work on clicker training Bella since that will be the best way to immediately reinforce the behavior you want. If you want to continue to try the luring technique, I would recommend a VERY high value treat (like fresh chicken or cheese) to get her to follow the treat more reliably. Good luck! I hope that was helpful. Thanks for using Boop by Petco.
Updated on September 24th, 2025
New Pet
I’m trying to teach my puppy how to lie down. He knows how to sit so I get him into a sit position and then try to bring the treat down infront of him but every time he stands up and just puts his head down to the treat. Considering this what is an e
You are teaching him the correct way, it is just going to take time and maybe a little maturity to help with attention span and focus. I would try a different trick like stay to help work on the focus. You could also catch him in the act of laying down and sa the command and govehim a treat and with time he will start to connect the two. Just stay patient. You are doing a good job! https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/training/teach-your-puppy-these-5-basic-commands/
Updated on September 24th, 2025
Health & Wellbeing
I need advice. Any time I try to teach Sara lay she ALWAYS rolls on her side and she doesn't understand transitioning to lay from sit. How do I stop this? My dads dog permanently confused rollover for lay down because of a similar issue. Sara knows s
A good way to teach dogs interested in standing again or rolling over when laying down is to practice the "army crawl" this involves luring her under your legs (if she's small enough) or a chair to force her to lay down without being able to flop over or stand back up again. You can also place the chair against a wall to sort of "box her in" as well. If she isn't interested in treats, you may want to see if she likes people food such as boiled chicken, hotdog or even a little cheese as a "jackpot" or super high value reward, which can then be given when she finally does what you want to really ensure she knows she did the right thing.
If she isn't treat-driven, praising her on her progress or using a toy/petting her can be rewards as well. You can gradually work her up to the right action by praising her when she is close to it, then stopping the praise and "waiting" for her to figure out a different action that is more similar (looking up how to "shape" a behavior can give you a more
Updated on September 24th, 2025
Health & Wellbeing
I have taught my dog to sit, lay down, and come. The only thing is, everytime I say sit, she goes ahead and lays down. I think I caused this by everytime I said sit, the next command when I trained her, was down. How can I fix this? She loves the tre
Then next several weeks, anytime you give the sit command have her on a leash so she can’t down. If she tires to down, stand her and walk a few feet, then give the Sit command again. Keep working. Lots of praise. She will get it.
Updated on September 24th, 2025
Health & Wellbeing
i’m trying to teach my dog a few tricks but i’m finding it hard to put a verbal cue on it. for example, if i put one hand closed with a treat, and give him my other hand and say “paw” he gives me his paw, but he won’t do this unless he knows there’s
Try this. Let him see the treat. Then give him the command with no hand signals. He may move through all the tricks that he knows but as soon as he does the correct one, give him the reward and repeat the trick, something like ‘good sit’. Some dogs will not perform a command without a reward. Sometimes this is because they are young or easily distracted. This may change as they get older. Important thing is to remain positive and encourage the desired behavior. Best of luck.
Updated on September 24th, 2025
Health & Wellbeing
I tell benji to sit or laydown and i click the clicker and give him a treat. Chews and swallows the treat and then he thinks i’m releasing him from the command because i gave him the treat. I don’t know how to fix this. Also, how do i tell him to put
Great questions. When you’re building a command to include holding the position until you give a release it can be tricky getting them to wait after the reward. Next time you ask Benji to down. Click reward but keep your hand there with a few treats and feed him treats a few seconds apart. Release with your command word. Try it again. The extra treats will help keep him there and wait longer without getting up immediately. Start smell, 1-2 second to hold before release. Once he gets the idea more treats are coming he will begin to wait longer and you. Can build the time he waits according to how fast he progresses. If you want your down command to I
Updated on September 24th, 2025
New Pet
My puppy looks at hand signals more than verbal cues. He listens well if I do a hand signal command vs if I tell him to do something. Why is that and should I keep training him with hand cues or slowly stop it
Each dog learns differently, and it may just be that hand signals are easier for Noble to understand. I would continue training with both voice and hand signals as long as its help him to pick up the commands and work with you in training.
Updated on September 24th, 2025
New Pet
Hello! My family and I adopted our red heeler last December. Do our dismay, we found out he was abused both physically and verbally by his previous owners. He is shy,but amazingly sweet and loving. And SO smart. I have been able to teach him sit,down
Hello!
I'm so sorry to hear about Dax's past. I have a blue heeler myself, and even when they have had wonderful puppyhoods, they can still be very prone to anxiety due to their high energy and intelligence.
I always recommend training with only positive reinforcement and no punishment, as this can exacerbate anxious and fearful behavior. A couple of body language tricks may help ease his fear while training him to stay.
First, dogs see palms faced upwards are seen as more threatening than hands with palms faced downwards. When you extend your hand for the signal, try showing the top of your hand instead. I would also start training him by initially sitting or kneeling next to him, both of you facing the same direction. This is a less threatening position than directly facing and standing in front of and over him.
He may always be fearful of certain stimulus- like an open palm, loud noises, or some other "scary" thing. I would recommend looking into training him to touch his nose t
Updated on September 24th, 2025
Health & Wellbeing
Hello so i have a dog named Prince hes a golden retriever and collie with a little German shepherd mixed in, hes a very nice dog to be around but when its time to train as soon as i tell him to do something he just lays down and ignores me im trying
It can be tricking to work on behavior training a dog that is not particularly food motivated. You may need to find a treat that he really loves in order to motivate him: you could try freeze dried liver treats, cutting up pieces of refrigerated semi-soft dog food into small pieces, or very small pieces of cheese. Some dogs are more motivated by toys or play time, so you could also try giving him a favorite toy as a reward. You may also want to consider seeing a trainer for tips - puppy kindergarten and obedience classes can be very helpful!
Updated on September 24th, 2025
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