# How do I Teach Emergency Down or Stay



## POWERSCOL (Jan 3, 2013)

I'm getting old and forgetful. I know the importance of this command first hand - it saved a previous Golden's, Amber's life.

We lived across from a park that had busy streets on 3 sides with no fencing. In the middle was a big field the kids played in. Amber loved to play with the neighborhood kids, especially kick ball - that had one of those red real bouncy balls. She would heard it by bouncing it off her chest and direct it with her nose. She loved the game. She would retiieve it for them or get in the middle of a keep away game. On one occasion the ball got away from the kids and headed for the street - with Amber chasing it. As she hit the sidewalk I realized she was not stopping and was able to yell down or stay (dont remember) and she stopped dead in her tracks while the ball went into the street and was hit by a car.

I vaguely remember (this was 35 years ago) training her by having her be in a long sit while I went across the yard, then calling her and shouting "Down or Stay" at some point in her recall. Is this still the proper method?

As I teach Emma I want to be working on an emergency down, or stay - something I can shout at a distance to have Emma stop dead in her tracks, no matter what she is doing.

She is just past 13 weeks now and really starting to pick up on the training. Still a lot of distractions, but starting to pay attention.

Any help or links would be appreciated.

Thanks - Keith


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## llombardo (Dec 11, 2011)

I have never taught an emergency down for any of my dogs. I have taught them an emergency word which is something other then come or front. It is taught using the highest value treats and should be practiced often so they don't forget the word. It is something that can be trained, all three of my dogs know the word, hopefully I'll never have to use it.


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## mego (Jan 27, 2013)

llombardo said:


> I have never taught an emergency down for any of my dogs. I have taught them an emergency word which is something other then come or front. It is taught using the highest value treats and should be practiced often so they don't forget the word. It is something that can be trained, all three of my dogs know the word, hopefully I'll never have to use it.


man reading this gave me a huge sense of anticipation and wondering, what is your secret word!!!?


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## doggiedad (Dec 2, 2007)

your dog is 13 weeks old. don't expect much. with steady
training you'll have control. when it comes to an emergency
stop my dog knows "no", "stop", "wait", "hey, get over here",
Loki, no", etc. it's not so much these commands are for an emergency.
my dog responds to these things. you have to have control of your
dog. your dog doesn't know an emergency responce from any other
responce. your dog needs to respond to his commands. once your dog knows 
some commands to stop him you should be alright. keep your dog leashed untill
you have control with him when he's off leash.


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## coulter (Oct 13, 2012)

Id be interested in learning this as well


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## POWERSCOL (Jan 3, 2013)

I know she is 13 weeks, but want to include this in her training. She is starting to show interest in the training sessions actually learning a few things - or has me fooled :crazy:- maybe it is the treats 

So if I am understanding correctly, her just knowing and working with the basic commands, Stay. Leave it, down. off, stop, etc, and buy working with her to have an instant response I should be good

The Boss Unit reminded me we had Amber trained by a trainer on the down command to stop whatever she was doing and drop to the ground - it came out of her having a jumping problem on people issue - she loved everybody and anything - would probably have licked a bugler to death.

llombardo - what do you dogs do on this emergency word? I'm curious.

I want to teach Emma a wrod that means drop dead in her tracks, and focus on me for the next command. I know this will take time. Maybe it should be STOP

Thoughts


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## Stevenzachsmom (Mar 3, 2008)

I didn't plan on this being an emergency word, but I use "Wait!" Wait means stop, do absolutely nothing until I tell you otherwise. My puppy is a hound mix, with an iffy recall. He follows his nose. We were in our fenced yard, so no danger of him escaping. He was on a cat trail and I knew he wouldn't come if I called him. I yelled, "Wait!" and held up one finger. (Our hand signal for wait.) He waited. Stopped in his tracks until I went over and got him.


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## llombardo (Dec 11, 2011)

mego said:


> man reading this gave me a huge sense of anticipation and wondering, what is your secret word!!!?


Mine is more like two words....GiddyUp and I put emphasis on both words in a very happy voice, there is no way that my dogs will ever hear that anywhere they go ever, so I feel comfortable with it. I also say the word and it sounds like one word. Other people used danger, caution, stuff like that. It can be any word you want, but at least two syllables works well.


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## llombardo (Dec 11, 2011)

POWERSCOL said:


> llombardo - what do you dogs do on this emergency word? I'm curious.


They stop what they are doing and come to me immediately. Its way different then using here, come, front...all of the normal ones. There is no getting it wrong, its a life saving command and the teacher was very clear that this needed to be perfect Its trained using a very high value treat and the dogs remember that. I go into different rooms in my house and still practice it often. We tested it out in a class where all the dogs were involved in play and both my GSD and golden stopped immediately and left what they were doing..the teacher was very happy. My oldest learned it at home while I practice with the other two. Just now she(GSD) was chasing the cats and I had my son hide and say it...she went flying to him....that is real good, because those cats are very high value to her but that word means more


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## POWERSCOL (Jan 3, 2013)

Thanks much.
It appears your command has to effects "stop immediately and come to me immediately"

I was across the street when the event happened to Amber, so the second part, coming might would have been bad. I appreciate your thoughts on this, especially and immediate stop and come command as I can see that being very useful. Emma will go to her first training class in 3 weeks, so will ask.

Thanks again


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## Chicagocanine (Aug 7, 2008)

I like to teach my dogs the cue "Stop!" because I figure in an emergency situation that is something I am likely to yell out automatically first thing, so I might as well teach it. It means the dog should freeze and not move forward at all.

One thing you can teach for this, is teach "stop" like a drop on recall for obedience. So that way they will learn to lay down immediately when you give the cue, and stay there, even if they were running towards you at the time. If you want to teach it like that you could just google search drop on recall or down on recall, there are I'm sure a lot of sites that show how to train that since it's something that is used in obedience competition.

Here is a search for how to train an emergency stop:
dog training emergency stop - Google Search


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## POWERSCOL (Jan 3, 2013)

Thank you so much - that is what I was looking for.


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## RocketDog (Sep 25, 2011)

DoggieDad, I think that is the longest post I've ever seen from you! 


OP, I think there have been some good posts here-- just to share an experience I had recently--

Rocket's recall is pretty good, but a few weeks ago we had an injured deer in our backyard (unbeknownst to us). I let Rocket out in the am to go potty and he was just laying on the deck for a bit first but soon I heard this short, high-pitched funny bark; I look out and there's that deer out there trying to run on broken back legs, with Rocket running alongside it. I ran down there and yelled "come!!" just once, which of course he ignored-- I mean, he was touching this deer- BUT---- then I yelled "Down! and to my great relief, he did. I went and got him.

So just regular old commands will work, as doggiedad said, if they're practiced enough.


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## Alwaysaworkingdog (Feb 27, 2013)

POWERSCOL said:


> I'm getting old and forgetful. I know the importance of this command first hand - it saved a previous Golden's, Amber's life.
> 
> We lived across from a park that had busy streets on 3 sides with no fencing. In the middle was a big field the kids played in. Amber loved to play with the neighborhood kids, especially kick ball - that had one of those red real bouncy balls. She would heard it by bouncing it off her chest and direct it with her nose. She loved the game. She would retiieve it for them or get in the middle of a keep away game. On one occasion the ball got away from the kids and headed for the street - with Amber chasing it. As she hit the sidewalk I realized she was not stopping and was able to yell down or stay (dont remember) and she stopped dead in her tracks while the ball went into the street and was hit by a car.
> - Keith


two words. long. line. Fun for you and the dog, without the risk. And a very good way of proofing your recall if you don't use EC's and you're old school like me.

Events like these should not be taken as some glorified stunt, akin to Indiana Jones escaping the temple of doom or something. Nor is it a reminder that we must always have control over our dogs, as, according to your story, you sounded as if you did. It is a reminder that we should always do our best to control the environments to which we expose our dogs. Because the more variables you have in an evironment, the more dangerous it is to your dog. If you had never said "down", if you forgot, or were looking the other way, there might have been a very sad outcome to this story. A dog should never be off-leash in an unfenced area, unless there is a VERY good reason for it.

Additionally.

No one should be under the illusion that we teach recall or the down, so that we can go out into public and let our dog loose in unfenced areas next to highways, just because we "think" we have control over our dog nor do we do it to showboat in front of friends, as I am aware of this happening. Responsible dog owners train their dog/s in such a high level of obedience for emergencies - nothing else (well maybe sport is an exception). My prong collar fell off, he slipped his collar, he got startled by something etc. There's an old saying that I like to adapt to training dogs under distraction "if you think you've proofed your dog enough, you haven't proofed your dog enough" because this type of training never really ends. There are always bigger and badder distractions to expose your dog to.

My opinion may be seen as extreme (though I don't see why on earth it would seem that way) and that may alienate me one this one, but it is worth the thought. If you dog had a down that good, to responsd to you when faced with such a distraction, then I think you're on the right track with training. But I think these events should be a learning experience about choosing where we let our dogs off leash rather than just a "oh I need better obedience" epiphany. Otherwise, we may be seeing more situations like the one I unfortunately had to witness between a (unleashed and playing with his owners son out the front of a house) jack russell and a bus travelling at 60kmph, I can't imagine how traumatising it must have been for that 7 or 8 year old boy and his father, to watch his pet dog get turned into instant roadkill in front of his very eyes. That time, the owner had no emergency word for when his dog got a little over zealous playing fetch.


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## mycobraracr (Dec 4, 2011)

I don't see the readon for an emergency command. If you take the time and teach a reliable recall and down there should be no reason for anything else. 

I would not call my puppy from a sit stay to me then tell it down. It's not a bad excersize for a trained adult but by calling a puppy out of a stay you're teaching it to break it's stay command. Istead let the puppy get distracted then call it to you.


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## POWERSCOL (Jan 3, 2013)

Alwaysaworkingdog - I agree with a lot of what you had to say. Yep I am old school and do not believe in shock collars or prongs. A safe choke collar is about as far as I go. However as this is my first purebred GSD (had a mix in the past) I will see what the trainer will recommend. Its been hard for me to learn non physical training methods. Heck with my first dog 50 years ago, the rolled up newspaper was the norm in training.

I have learned a lot here - this is a fantastic place to learn

As for what happened - I was young and the kids in the neighborhood loved to play with Amber - there was a bunch of them and for some reason she was the only dog they liked. There was a K9 GSD, (King) but he was all work and handler would not let him play with the other kids, only his own. King was part of the reason I always wanted one. 

The kids taught Amber to actually play goalie. I was with them, but walked across the street for a moment when I saw the event unfolding. A long line would not have worked in that situation as it would have tripped up the kids. Fencing playgrounds was not the way at that time either - it is fully fenced now.

However speaking of long lines and as I am not as fast as I once was, are there any that could be recommend - especially flat roll up types. I am not a fan of the auto round roll up ones - too easy to tangle from past experience.

Emma already knows "Stop" somewhat as that is the command we use if she gets would up and plays too rough. her current response is to stop mid play and look at me - usually while she is chomping on my hand:laugh: Were working on her doing the same for the wife. Emma is young and a puppy so we are very forgiving at this stage. I am very please with her bite inhibition progress. No blood in the past few days The advice in those posts it spot on.

The rest of her training is starting to come together. I cant wait to get into a formal class to learn the correct way with her. She loves to please. Just this weekend her ball drive improved and Fetch is fun for a few minutes.

Thanks for the suggestions - now that I know what to look for there are a lot of training videos out there, and yes I can spot the bad ones.

Emma wants to play - just brought me her tug, so I need to go.:wub:


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