# The emergency "down?"



## PatchonGSD (Jun 27, 2012)

Exactly, what is the emergency down? How does it differ from the regular down, and how would one teach it?


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## Stosh (Jun 26, 2010)

In some situations it's hard for a dog to lie down- for 'emergencies' I use "woah" which simply means stop moving forward. If Stosh were to chase a squirrel towards the road and a garbage truck is coming for instance, I don't care if he lies down or not, I just want him to stop immediately.


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## BackwoodsBBQ (Feb 18, 2011)

For an emergency down you want them to "hit the deck" so to speak. They should instantly go down and remain there until you physically get them. Once you've started on this work on it in increasingly higher distraction situations and increasing distances. I also associate a hand signal with this. I find the easiest way to teach this is with clicker training using the standard "down" as a base. But the basic idea is for them to stop what they are doing no matter what. I use the word freeze for this since it is not close to the word down at all. I use the word stop when i want her to cease movement without laying down.


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## cliffson1 (Sep 2, 2006)

I have never heard of an emergency down, but if you teach the dog down and build up to the dog staying down for 5 to 10 minutes with you 30 to 40 feet away, then you have the foundation to say down to the dog away from you and it will drop and wait until you release him.
Most Sch trained dogs have emergency downs(so to speak), because they train the dog to down for long periods, they train the dog to down nwhile in drive or motion, and they train the dog to stay down while distractions are in front of the dog....so you have all the ingredients for a dog to be downed away from you in an emergency and stay there.
Actually the send away exercise is a form of emergency down.


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## Gretchen (Jan 20, 2011)

cliffson1 said:


> I have never heard of an emergency down, but if you teach the dog down and build up to the dog staying down for 5 to 10 minutes with you 30 to 40 feet away, then you have the foundation to say down to the dog away from you and it will drop and wait until you release him.
> Most Sch trained dogs have emergency downs(so to speak), because they train the dog to down for long periods, they train the dog to down nwhile in drive or motion, and they train the dog to stay down while distractions are in front of the dog....so you have all the ingredients for a dog to be downed away from you in an emergency and stay there.
> Actually the send away exercise is a form of emergency down.


Good advice. Down is down. I have not heard of an emergency down. 
How to train? Besides lots of practice, you'll want to have your dog go down in the middle of a recall to you, go down as you walk and heel. And what cliffson1 wrote above.

Our trainer offered a special class just for "down". We had a trainer working one to one with us. The trainer would take our dog down the field and we would coordinate verbal commands and hand signals, the timing had to be good.


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## pfitzpa1 (Apr 26, 2011)

I would train it the same as the Voraus (Send out). If your dog can do a perfect Voraus you get the emergency down for free.


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## NancyJ (Jun 15, 2003)

A lot of sar folks call it that...because basically you are working dogs offlead and there are times you need to freeze or drop them where they are .... I start mine with normal downs..then at a distance and in motion.....i have used in real life....but that is all.....basically if you cam do a drop on recall you can do emergency down


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## pfitzpa1 (Apr 26, 2011)

pfitzpa1 said:


> I would train it the same as the Voraus (Send out). If your dog can do a perfect Voraus you get the emergency down for free.


Here's a video of a Schutzhund Voraus. Send out the dog and while at full speed command the down. The dog is a bit slow to respond in this video and ideally should do a 180 turn to face the handler, but you'll get the idea.


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## PatchonGSD (Jun 27, 2012)

Thanks everyone, I didnt realize thats all it was. Thanks for the video Pfitzpa1-thats what I was thinking it looked like but I wasnt sure.


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