My dogs are such keen observers that they've parsed out every move of my signals to them. A dog trainer told me that holding my hand up, open palm like waving, beside my head is a good signal for "lie down" because they can see it from most angles. My dogs are usually right in front of me because I have treats in my hand as a reward.

At first they simply responded to the hand in the air, but they were always so close they'd end up on my shoes, so I started stepping back to make room for when I raised my hand. They caught onto that. And they also know that before I step backwards I shift my weight at the hips to make that step, and they see that also.

These days, all I end up doing is shifting my weight and they plop down on the ground in front of me, before any of the other parts of the signal.

SRS