# How do i teach my dog to bounce off trees



## R-a-m-b-o (Feb 17, 2012)

Any idea's how do i teach my dog to bounce off trees?
Like in this video


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## kiya (May 3, 2010)

Well if I ask Lakota "where's the squirrel" she jumps up on this one tree in my yard. I don't know about keeping that motion going, but if dogs could climb trees she'd be pretty good at it!


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## Castlemaid (Jun 29, 2006)

That's easy! Start by sticking a treat to the tree or any other vertical surface at his nose level. Have a command for him to go get the treat. Get something a bit moist that will stick on it's own, like a piece of wiener or cheese. Then you gradually get the treat up higher and higher so she has to reach to get it, even stand upon her hind legs
with his front paws on the tree to reach the treat. Then even higher and have him run to the treat, so its run, jump up a bit to get the treat. 

Then go back to just above nose level where he has to hit the tree with paw to pull himself up (like waist level). Have your dog sit and wait. Go up to the tree or any surface you are working with, and pretend to stick a treat to the tree. Keep the treat hidden in your hands. Move back to where your dog is, give him the command to get the treat. He will get up on the wall looking for the treat - after a sec or two, he will look at you wondering where the treat is - praise and throw him the treat - do this over and over, until he knows that he has to run to the three, pull himself up, turn and look at you to get a treat. 

Then instead of throwing him the treat, stand closer and show him the treat in your hand, move backwards so that he has to come off the tree and follow you to get the treat. You now have the sequence: run to tree, jump up on tree, turn and come back to you. 

It also helps to have a very food motivated crazy Malinois.


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

As he explains in the video, even though this is not a flyball dog, what it's doing is basically a flyball "swimmers" turn, just off a tree rather than a flyball box. We train the turn off a vertical wall before transitioning to the box, and once a dog will do that, they shouldn't have trouble doing the same turn off anything else, including trees. 

First, I'd determine which way your dog turns naturally, since that will determine which side you stand on to train the turn. We do that by restraining the dog and tossing a toy or ball a short distance away, waiting for it to go "dead" (stop moving - we call this exercise the dead ball retrieve) and then sending the dog to get it. If you do this 5 or 6 times in a row and each time the dog turns either to the left or to the right as they come back to you, you know which side they naturally turn. 

We use a target stick, since that extends the reach of our arm by several feet, other people will lure with a tug toy or a piece of food. We stand on the side that the dog turns towards (Halo is a righty, so I stand on the right side), and point the target stick high on the wall. At first the dog may just put their paws up on the wall, which is fine, we work up to getting all four feet up there, and getting the butt higher, so they're more horizontal. We whip the stick (or toy) off the wall as soon as the dog touches it, and reward low, down towards the ground or actually tossing it on the ground, if you're using food. 

It can take awhile to train, and if you do use a target stick you'd have to teach targeting first, but if your dog likes tug toys you can try luring with the toy instead.


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

Here are some videos from a flyball person I know up in Canada - she's using a piece of plywood padded with gym mats against a wall. At first it's not completely vertical but it gradually gets steeper. She's also using a variety of "props" to get her dogs up higher on the wall.


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## R-a-m-b-o (Feb 17, 2012)

is there any "How to" videos that i can use?
because this "written methods" wont make sense in my head :/


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