# Training the Send Away



## Nurse Bishop (Nov 20, 2016)

How do you train the dog to run away form you , then down?

" The dog is also asked to run in a straight direction from its handler on command and lie down on a second command. "


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## lhczth (Apr 5, 2000)

I teach a dog first to mark and go to a location using food. Then I move outside using a toy, show the the toy (usually a ball) on a small stand or a hanging tree, tell them mark and send them. As they learn the idea, I move farther away. Then I add in heeling, halts, before sending. Then I do blind send outs without the ball. Then I chain the send out with the retrieves. 

I do the down in two ways. First I will ask the dog to down when it gets the ball at times. I also work random downs away from the exercise using toys and either a long line or an e-collar if needed (some dogs are very compliant and will down despite the drive to chase the ball). 

Last thing I do is put the down with the send out. On the day I do this, there will be no ball there since I don't want the dog to be rewarded for being wrong. If they down, I go out to them, pretend to remove the ball from the tree, go to my dog and reward it. Sometimes I actually hang the ball (with my back to the dog), pick up my dog, turn around, and send them. I NEVER just send them after they have downed. I usually do it from a closer distance so I can run after my dog (haha run) and make sure they down and don't just run around searching (the reason why I never put a toy on the ground). Then it becomes random where most days I send the dog with the toy and then I will throw in a down (no toy) like in a trial. Depending on the dog I don't do these very often. Some dogs are harder to stop especially when judges wait until they are almost to the end of the field. These dogs might see the down more often. The random downs are very important, though. Nike never saw a down on a send out until the two times I trialed her. Vala, on the other hand, saw quite a few. LOL


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## gsdluvr (Jun 26, 2012)

She is nuts for food. I started by putting her dinner across the yard. Then made her sit. Walked back to her and gave the command. I did this a lot as a beginning. then when her ball drive kicked in, I hung the ball tree with ball hanging so she could see it after I revved her up with the ball. Led her back to the starting point, and got her super excited to go after it, then let her go. I just kept increasing the distance until she would run knowing it was there. Now when I take her to the field. I hang the ball way down before I take her out of the car, get her in the starting position, heel and send her. So, even when she doesn't see me put it, she believes it's there.

I have only platzed her a couple of times because she is not the highest drive dog and I need to build speed. If I did too many downs, she might be anticipating my command and not run fast. Like Lisa, I don't put the ball on the ground for the same reason.


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## lhczth (Apr 5, 2000)

Always a fine line between downing often enough and downing too often.


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