Handstand!

So, I already shared this on FB but I thought it was neat so I wanted to share it here too.

I tried something different last night and Cohen has a nice walking handstand!

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I'm kind of stumped at how to fade the lure & change my body position. It's not really "useful" if I have to be sitting next to her, guiding her along. But dang, I love this dog.

For a 40lb dog with a novice trainer and no tail to act as ballast, I'm super impressed with her.

I know quite a few people on this forum have done handstands (free standing and with a wall) and I encourage everyone to post their videos and troubleshoot in this thread.

That is amazing! I've never had success moving Gusto's off the wall.

Um yeah. I don't even know how to get my guys away from the wall - I'm happy we even got there LOL. You guys are just awesome!!!

I was JUST watching videos last night on this. It's the one trick I have been wanting to teach forever and then just never do. Jackson has almost no rear end awareness, LOL... so we'll see how it goes. I'll update my progress.

Cohen is doing AMAZING! She looks fantastic and such a natural.

Thanks!!

What have you tried? Early on I had a lot of success using a large empty box laid on the wall. It was kind of bouncy and uneven, so I had Cohen windmilling herself up into position pretty early on, instead of reversing straight back. You could also try starting Gusto off closer to the wall to get him lifting himself with his front.

Once you get the windmill I think it's just a matter of offering less and less support while the dog finds the position. Using a hand or arm to support the rear has seemed to help.

Thanks a bunch! Further to the above, sometimes I get a handstand out of Cohen when we're doing foot target work on a small surface like a bowl. Once the strength is there, the dog may be able to just tip forward into a handstand.

Thank you! It's been a long (long long) process for us. Mostly because I had no idea what I was doing! It's such a fun trick, and people are really caught off guard when you do it. Do it!

Mostly I've tried capturing the moments where he isn't using support. He's already pretty good about what I think you are referring to as windmilling - swinging up onto the wall, rather than walking up with his back legs. He's had a few moments where he's supported himself because the wall wasn't where he thought it was, or where he swung up onto something that wasn't what he thought, but it's not very regular. I started to get some really incomplete efforts after that though. One leg going up, or just bumping a hip into the wall and putting his head down. I should try going back to it and seeing if I can do better.

Cohen is simply amazing. The end.

True words.

Seriously so impressed with this!!!

I hit the same road block as Boston. I got to the point where he easily swings himself up onto anything there but not if there isn't anything there.

The last I worked on it I was trying to get him to target my hands instead but stopped because I was seriously getting tired of him waving his butt around anytime we worked on anything else :rofl1: might be time to work on it again though! Cohen is seriously an inspiration.

Okay, so I've learned that Jackson has NO idea he even has back legs. :rofl1: I made a little corner so he has no choice but to back up. And I put a big book behind and am working on getting him to back up against that.

Well, I guess he SORT of knows he has back legs. Because he knows how to do backwards circles around my legs, he knows how to "reverse" and "Back up" etc. But for some reason this is proving to be confusing for him. So we're just going to go slowly. He's just started backing up onto the book, but I'm not sure he even understands WHAT he is even doing yet. Since he won't do it when he's not blocked by a chair on his side lol.

So after this day ^ I got lazy.

So just started practicing again yesterday and am pleasantly surprised with how fast I could stack the books up! He's suddenly picking it up really well.

I have confidence this is going to turn out really cute. I'm going to gradually start introducing him to things besides the books too.

There's a song halfway thru the video because my little sister was in the back singing away LOL... I figured you wouldn't want to hear that!

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Omg that's insane. I will never get a dog doing that lol

That's awesome!! Keep up the good work!

I'll suggest that you be mindful of your reward placement. I found, through my own mistakes, that you want the head in line with the rest of the back, rather than up. Reward placement can encourage him to keep his head down a bit better.

There are also a few moments where he's standing there with his feet up, just sort of looking at you. (I'm watching this at work with no sound -- maybe you're talking, I'm not sure.) He looks like he's not getting much feedback. I'd try to be really conscientious of the amount of time he spends with his feet up with no feedback/reinforcement from you. It's sort of like when you teach a retrieve - you don't want to leave the dumbbell around the dog's face unless you're actively working with it. You want the dog to see the stack of books and immediately be engaged with the game. No zone outs. I'd probably address this by shortening the amount of time he's asked to stay in position, and upping the rate of reinforcement so he's being rewarded almost constantly for his position.

... Does that make any sense?

Yay handstand!

Thank you!! This is why I love video taping so I can see what I'm doing right/wrong

I actually am talking to him a bit (maybe not enough), and initially (before I videoed this), I was popping treats left and right when he was in the position. But today I lessened the treats a lot since he kept giving me the position for longer times, maybe I shouldn't do that so soon?

Ohhh didn't even THINK of this! ok, thanks. So do you mean feeding him the treat either on the floor, or low to the ground would be best?

I'd still feed from the hand, but between his paws, or even a bit underneath him. I might also consider using a release word to let him know he can pop out of the position.

Startup doing Talon's handstand and he is such a fast learner. He's is really just starting this, but he's moved faster than Art did at this stage. I think he has some upper body strength and all the other things we've done for core strength lol.

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Also, "*stand stare* *drool*" yeah..... :rofl1:

I also got stuck getting Quinn off the wall.

I've recently returned to it, just trying to C&T when she lifts her feet away from the wall. We'll try with that. It's been a work in progress for about 3 years now. LOL!

Like Linds, I stopped because I got sick of it being the only thing she would offer. First time she saw a rally-o sign she backed up onto it. The trainer standing near me just looked at me like "wtf is your dog doing?"

Holy moly, he's picked it up fast. Great work!

mrose_s, I had some success using a smaller, less stable platform. I was using a long, thin cardboard box for a lot of my early work.

Actually, here's a video of some of our really early work from a few years ago. The box provided a bit of a bounce and helped encourage her to rely less on her feet to hold herself up.

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THANK YOU for that new/old video of Cohen! I've got to go looking for a box. I think I needed that visual to understand what you meant about using the less stable box.

Now that Gusto's hug is going so well (I didn't have a toy at the barn the other day, so he showed off by holding a horse brush, which was much heavier than anything he's held!), I'm back to wanting is handstand to become independent.

Here is where we are now. My foot is blocking his head half the time, but he's definitely nose-touching the ground between his front feet pretty deliberately for the click. Once or twice he's gotten so vertical that his feet have come off the wall - I've jackpotted the heck out of it when it has happened, but I know it wasn't obvious to him what the deal was. I think with the idea of the box, I have somewhere to go now (once I find a box).

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Wow, Gusto's strength is obvious. He really just pulls his whole body up without much help from the wall. Glad you think that video is going to help! I guess I wasn't explaining it very well before. Good luck!

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Well, I didn't find a box, but I found a...whatever this thing is that we keep wrapping paper in. I'm bummed I didn't angle the camera better, but I'm so glad I recorded it from this direction. He's doing so much more work than I realized! He had a couple of great moments here, I think. Curious to see how this develops this week!