k9 university
Teaching Your Dog to Crawl By Jess Williams
All dogs like to learn new things, and why not teach your dog something that will not only benefit him or her mentally but also physically? Teaching a dog with cookies works best. Make sure you are training your dog before a meal with a treat that he or she really enjoys. With this trick the most important thing to focus on is small movements in the dog’s backend. If your dog is over 10 years old or has hip issues, I don’t recommend this trick.
Step 1
Lure your dog into a down position.
Step 2
While providing licking access (but not eating access) to a soft treat such as a small piece of cheese or a hot dog, try to lure your dog forward one inch. If your dog is very small, you may have to lure him or her forward only a centimeter at first. If your dog doesn’t shift forward at all, try moving the cookie out a little farther from their nose. You want the dog to know you have the cookie and gently urge him or her to make the smallest movement forward. The closer your dog’s backend remains to the ground,
the more benefit this trick will provide. Reward any attempt forward at first.
Step 3
Once your dog offers a small movement forward, see if your dog can keep crawling forward a wee bit more. I wouldn’t ask for more than one foot of progress per session because your dog will be using muscles they aren’t accustomed to using very regularly.
the treat down! This is called fading the lure. You will still reward your dog for following your cue, but you don't need to (and shouldn't!) always practice with that reward in your hand. HAPPY CRAWLING!
Step 4
If your dog is consistently following the treat, then you can start to label the behavior. I don’t typically label or name a trick early on in the learning stages because the dog isn’t truly doing the end behavior yet. Once your dog is crawling an entire body length forward, I would then say, “Good crawl!” so your dog starts to associate this type of movement with that word.
Step 5
Jess Williams and her husband Scott own Beyond The Leash dog training business in southern Maine. They also co-host a podcast together called The Quirky Dog which you can find on most major podcast platforms including YouTube.
Step 6
If you would like video access to this trick as well as additional tricks, they are discounting their course to $27 EXCLUSIVELY for Seacoast Bark readers via this link which will be valid through 9/5/22: https://www.k9healing.com/sbm
When your dog is proficient at all of the steps above, you can start cueing (i.e. saying) “crawl” when your dog first lays down.
As soon as your dog will follow the hand signal and/or verbal cue, you should put
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