Cool training moment

[Porter]

I have JUST started working on "Down" with puppy.

He is pretty good on sit, and Down has been added on to that. He has had maybe half a dozen exposures to the word with the action.

The other day I had the Puppy in his crate in the kitchen and I was about to take the two older dogs out to play fetch. They were going nuts because they love going out to play.
I don't want them rushing the door, so I give them a loud, "Down!" Command. They both lay down. The puppy, in his crate, seeing this, lies down too!

Pretty cool to see. He learns from watching, and maybe I can use this to my advantage later.

[Bruce Schwartz]

That is cool! Dogs certainly seem to learn by watching but you never know by how much.

A ways back I was teaching one dog to stay seated on a piece of plywood (about a foot or so square) off to the side while I was throwing dummies for a second dog. Then I put the active dog away and called the one who had been on the plywood over to run drills. A while later I saw my oldest dog sitting patiently on the piece of plywood. She had never sat there in her life but had observed and acted on the proper sequence to getting to retrieve!