Cross/Weave Between Legs (Luring/Shaping/Prompting) 

Remember for this trick you can start in the standing position teaching your dog to weave while you stand still or you can teach them to weave while you walk. You can of course eventually teach BOTH, but I would recommend having your dog become proficient at standing before starting walking, to ensure they can transfer the skills. I use the same cue word for both and my body tells the dog what I want. 

Step One- (Standing still) Begin with your dog in front of you, and a treat in both of your hands. Stand with your legs spread wide, your left hand in front of your body and your right hand behind your body.

Pop your right knee out to the side and lure your dog with your left hand in-between your legs, transfer the lure to a hand behind your back to encourage your dog to come through your legs and mark/reward there.

Start again with your dog in front of you, pop your left knee out to the side. Switch your hands (right in front, left in back) Reach around the side of your body and lure them back to the front and mark/reward there!

 *** If you decide to walk, start with your dog on the side of you and lure them between your legs as you take steps, usually over their body.** 

Step Two- Once your dog is easily being lured between your legs with treats in both hands, reduce the treats to just one hand, and use the non treat hand to prompt your dog to go where you would like. Still mark/reward with the crossing of each leg, so your dog knows they are getting it right! Don’t remove the rewards to fast for this one as there is a lot going on, removing the lures is important but the rewards need to be there! 

**Tip- Remember when you make the trick harder let your dog know how wonderful it is when they are successful!! Extra rewards, high praise etc… Also if they are confused and don’t know what you want, you are moving too quickly, go back to luring.

Step Three- (for standing still) Begin to add in in shifting your weight from side to side and bending your knees in the direction your dog is weaving to encourage them to follow your legs as a prompt. Still use your hands but also slowly being to remove the lure from your hand when possible, and instead point (prompt) to the direction you would like your dog to weave/cross. 

Step four- Once the lure is completely removed from your hand (for standing and walking) begin to reduce your hand movements and add in a cue word of your choice. You may need to do these separately depending on your dogs level of proficiency. 

The end goal for this trick is to be able to use words and your legs to indicate what you want. So just shifting side to side and bending your knees or just putting one leg forward to indicate that you will be walking and your dog will follow by turning and crossing with each step. 

**Tip- Remember when you make the trick harder let your dog know how wonderful it is when they are successful!! Extra rewards, high praise etc… Also if they are confused and don’t know what you want, you are moving too quickly.

Happy Training!