How Do I Teach Dog To Back Up Between My Legs?

[tigerlily46514]

I'm not sure what this cue is called, but, the dog walks backwards and ends up between your legs and stands there.
How in the world do i teach that?
In some variations, the dog continues to walk backwards all the way through the human's legs.

any ideas? YOu would all laff, if you'd seen me just now, trying to lure Buddy backwards, from behind him....he looked completely baffled, and naturally, kept walking around to FACE me, to see what i wanted.

then i decided, i can't figure this out, HELP!!
(is this cue already explained somewhere on here?)

also, what is cute cue word for this trick? i was thinking, of "hide", not sure though. I like funny cues, if anyone can think of one.

 

[laramie]

Tigerlily, I'm not really sure how you train this trick, but one thing that might help is teaching your dog to accept cues and commands when you're not directly in front of him. A lot of dogs are used to sitting in front of their owners when they are given a command, and when you're not in front of them, they'll move to make it so. If you were able to do this and teach him to back up, you may be able to get him to go between your legs and not face you.

 

[Anneke]

I Cooper knows how to back up between my legs, and can do it from a few feet away, BUT I have not tought him to turn. I position him, the stand behind him. Back then I did not know how to get him to turn and face away from me.
The dogdance workshop, I attended, told me how to do it.
So here is how the trainer told us to go about it. (I haven't worked on it with Jinx yet)
She split the complete thing up in two parts. Front position facing away from you and the backing up.

So we started out with the front position. Luring the dog to face away from you, by making half a turn. She told us to make sure the dogs butt was touching your legs(keep legs together) so the dog has a target. The other target is going to be your hand, stretched out in front of you, once you have taken the lure away. If you can't stretch over your dog with the treat( some dogs are pretty long) try to use a targetstick.( I have used this with Cooper, but can't use it with Jinx yet, because she doesn't know the targetstick very well yet.)
This position is one of the basic positions in dogdance. I call it: front.

I assume your dog already knows how to back up?
If not:
Take a treat and slowly move it towards the dogs chest. Click and reward for the slightest movement backwards.
Most dogs won't walk backwards in a straight line. Try using a wall on one side and some chairs of a sofa on the other side, or... have the dog between your legs and move back with your dog.
I find this last one to work well, as the dog gets used to moving between your legs and he has the support of something blocking him to move aside.
It may take some time to figure out at which position you should hold the treat, so your dogs starts to move back.

Once your dog is reliable at both the front and back up, you can start putting them together.
Put your dog in front, take a step back and ask for a back up. If he finds it hard, you can keep your legs together at first, but I skipped that step with Cooper.

Then you can build up distance.

My cue for this trick is BACKDOOR. (Door Is dutch for through)

Hope I explained it so you understand it and hope it is helpfull

 

[tigerlily46514]

OH THANK YOU ALL FOR THE GREAT TIPS!!
Sara, thank you for that idea, i can see how that could work!! I had no idea how to even get started.

Anneke, i so appreciate the step by step advice, that was great!! Buddy does know "back up", but i had no idea how to get him to "back up" from behind him, (like Laramie said, that is just how my dog is, he thinks he has to face me to begin a trick!! )

I can't wait to get started!! I liked all the "cue" ideas, too!!! THANK YOU!!

 

[JRT-Smurf]

This is much easier to teach if broken down in to small stages. You can start by standing with a leg each side of the dog (if he is happy for you to do so) - about half way - so head end facing same way. Have a treat in left hand, but keep hand still on left side- use the right hand gently in front of face, if necessary gently pushing him back (assuming you have a friendly dog!)- then as he steps back reward him with the treat on the left. Do this a few times - then swap hands - so you guide/push him back with left hand and treat with right hand. Lots of praise when he does it. Once happy with this stage - stand immediately behind him -and ask him to back up - lots of praise and over time increase the distance but only very gradually... be content to accept small stages of progress and increase the distance a tiny bit each day - but shorten the distance if he is confused - hope this helps....

 

[tx_cowgirl]

I know three dogs that are going to learn this. ^^
But Z's still not comfortable between my legs like that. We've been working on weave, and I stand in mid-stride holding the tennis ball on the opposite side. Right now we're rewarding just for him coming up to me and stretching his neck out to get the ball. He can't even go through yet. Poor Zekers, such a troubled dog.
Mud's going to have some trouble with this; no matter how much we work on rear end awareness she's still completely clueless there is anything behind her shoulders.

 

[tigerlily46514]

omidawg, we are still trying to figure out the best way, tried a few times last night, was only confusing the dog, will try again today, well, tomorrow, Buddy is out in the woods with his dad all day today, so i won't see Buddy til later.

 

[tigerlily46514]

THANKS, Fickla, that sounds like a great way, too!!

so far, buddy does not quite get it at all, i will look at those videos noW!!!!!!!! THANKS!!