How to teach your dog HIND LEGS COP COP

(Repost from my old blog)

Okay, since it was requested at a dog trick forum, I will try to make some kind of tutorial for the trick I call “hind legs copcop”. It's not the easiest trick to learn, since it require great balancing skills and trusting from the dog. This trick is probably easier if you have a smaller dog, but will work as long as you are able to carry the weight of the dog. And yeah, I apologize in beforehand since English isn't my first language, but anyway..

When I taught my dog, Brownie, this trick, it was all his idea from the beginning. We started from between-position, and he started walking on his hind legs, accidentally touching my feet. And then we moved on from that.

Okay, to start, it's good if your dog already is comfortable with standing on his or hers hind legs. You could also tell the dog to stand up on the hind legs between your legs, supporting his weight on your body to easier keep balance. You could then try to walk a bit like this, making the dog follow your move, backwards and forwards, and reward every time he get to the right position resting his back on your legs or body.

^ Upper picture  it's good if yout dog already knows how to keep his balance on his hind legs.

< Left picture  let the dog use you as a support to get a stable position.









When you and your dog feel comfortable doing this, it's time for the trickier part: to get the dog to target his back feet on your own feet. Put your feet in the shape of a V, lure the dog to walk trough, lure with your hand, a target stick and what you find is the easiest. Maybe shaping to make it a bit trickier for the dog. heavily rewards every time the dog hits the target. Do not walk to fast forward telling the dog to hit the target walking on his hind legs at first. Let the dog be comfortable having his hind legs on your feet while on all fours.

Click on the picture to make it bigger

When your dog automatically puts his legs on your feet, you could begin to make him stand up. Keep rewarding even if he slips away, and heavily rewards if/when he try to correct it himself. This step will take much time, the dog won't be able to make it on the first try. Or second. Or maybe the ten first times. But make sure that he's always able to put his weight on you.

Click on the picture to make it bigger

When the dog finds a way to balance like this, you start moving. Tiny, tiny moves/steps to begin with, lots and lots of reward when he stays. And from there you just keep adding the difficulty with more and larger steps.

I use the word "mell-upp" for this trick (a combinition of "mellan"=between and "upp"=up). 

I hope this was at least a little bit helpful, since I unfortunantely wasn't able to make a video.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comment section "kommentera" below.