Hopping On The Bandwagon

I decided to go ahead and teach Boone to do a handstand, and here's the video of Day 1. You can skip to the 11th minute or so if you want to see the end-ish result instead of watching the whole thing.
http://youtu.be/dTFFYMLc0-Q

I love recording these things. It helps me get another perspective. There are a few things I want to change when I work on it with him again.

ETA: There was one short session before I decided I should go get the camera and start recording. Nothing much happened, though. It was mostly the same as the first clip in the video.

Love it!!! I would try rewarding him in the position, with his head down low. But that's me.

Linds said the same thing. But I want to try and see if I can get him to do it on his own. I THINK he will offer it once I start waiting for him to actually hold the position instead of rewarding so quickly, but we'll see.

Well, I watched the whole thing and I loved it all. Including the cat. I love his hops back onto it. He's doing SO great!

The biggest issue I was seeing with that is he's watching you. His whole body is going vertical but he still isn't taking his eyes off you and because of that his head/shoulders aren't going in the right position. He knows the treat is going to come from you so his body is angled to go in that direction rather than the reward coming from under so he's angled down.

But, Boone is Boone and he does a really good job reading your mind so he might just decide to make all of us except for you look the fool :rofl1:

I'm not talking luring him at all, you would still be waiting for him to do it himself, just the reward would come with him in the position is all. The reason why I like it better is because it will help him establish his balance quicker, it doesn't create the quick attempts and then coming to see if he will be rewarded (which can be avoided with rewarding the way you are doing it, it's just more difficult) and it cuts down on time between repetitions, he doesn't have to go to you for the reward and leave what he was doing. Quicker repetitions = more reps in a single training session.

I'll be watching this with interest whichever way you do it! Handstands intrigue me!

This too. LOL! You know your dog best and obviously you are a stellar trainer so ya.

No, I do understand, and you're probably right. If he doesn't offer it up, he'll have a hard time figuring out how to get his balance once the slope isn't there to assist him. At this point, I mainly want to do it as an experiment and see what happens. There's no rush, and it's not something I absolutely need to teach him. So I'm okay with it not panning out or taking longer.

I will say, though, that I would probably still toss a treat away after rewarding him in position if I did it that way. I don't mind time between reps, and I prefer him moving away and having to go back to it. It seems to work his brain just a little bit harder, which makes him sleep longer afterward. lol

ETA: And regardless of which way I go with it, I do really appreciate the input! It makes my own brain work a little harder... Wish it would make ME sleep longer!

Ya that's what I do.. reward 2-3 times in position and then toss the treat away. It'll be an interesting experiment for sure! Excited to see the progress!

Day 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLWV-svAq-8&feature=plcp

That looks fantastic!!

He's doing so good!

I'm really jealous of all the handstand doggies here!