Pedestal Training

This is one of the most important foundation behaviors you can teach a dog! It helps a dog learn how to confidently use their back legs independently of their front feet. It teaches them how to line up at your side. It can teach them to chase your side.

It is a foundation step for:

  • Heel work

  • Orbit trick

  • Freestyle tricks

  • Body awareness and conditioning exercises

Many folks teach this using lures, I strongly suggest you be patient and use shaping with a clicker instead! The results are so much more rewarding and give your dog a much deeper understanding of behavior shaping and using different parts of their body purposefully.

When choosing a pedestal at first pick something very solid and sturdy that will not shift or move under your dog’s feet, later on you can use things less stable but we want the first work to feel super solid beneath their feet. Pick something a bit elevated, the more elevated the more weight it puts on their back feet and the more it physically works their rear end (a dog with bad hips or weak legs you would choose a very low pedestal) The more elevated the tighter spins you get. I use an upside down ceramic crock pot liner for mine, also big heavy water bowls work, 5 gallon buckets that are weighted work. Round is best, but you can use big books.

When shaping pedestal work my first step is basically like the box game:

  • click and reward any interactions with your pedestal

  • use where you reward to help your next steps, reward from your hand over the center of the pedestal

  • shape until your pup knows the deal is to get their front paws on (again you can lure, but if you shape you will have a much more independent confident pedestal if you shape it)

  • once they are 100% putting the front feet on, watch the back feet, if they move AT ALL, even the slightest weight shift, click and reward using the hand position I demonstrate in the video.

  • the goal is to turn the dog’s head away from you as you reward so they are moving towards you with their rear legs.

  • resist the temptation to step into them to make them move! We want movement towards us, not away!

  • the way you shape this spin is entirely about reward placement and hand position!!! So plant your feet and don’t move your body into them.

  • Once your dog is purposely moving towards you with back feet steps build up the number of steps before rewards.

  • Once you have a half dozen steps between steps, be very aware of your hand and shoulder position, drop the shoulder of the side you want them to come to, place both hands near that side’s hip.

  • Work BOTH sides from the very beginning. Expect it to be challenging going the new direction and remember, click the smallest movement even if it’s in the wrong direction, and use your reward placement and hand position to turn their heads so they are moving their rears towards the new side. REWARD PLACEMENT IS EVERYTHING.

  • Once your dog can rotate both directions from the middle facing you to your side, make the new criteria their shoulders making gentle contact with your leg, teach them to target your leg as the click point.

  • Once your dog knows they need to touch your leg for the click, start moving away from them as they are nearing your side so they need to chase you a couple steps to get the contact and click.

  • Work up until you can circle the pedestal with them chasing you, in either direction.

  • You can add a verbal to differentiate which side (I use here & side).

  • Fade down the size of your pedestal gradually.