Figure Eight

The "Figure Eight" is a fun and exciting trick that all trick-performing dogs must know! Whether your dog does freestyle, demonstrations, shows or if you simply want to impress your friends, this is the perfect trick!

Learn our 4-step training process that will get your dog to weave in and out of your legs on command.

What's inside this free dog training lesson:

  • Teaching your dog to weave in and out of your legs.
  • Conditioning your dog to respond to a hand signal.
  • Associating a verbal command to the behavior.
  • Increasing your dog's enthusiasm for a spectacular performance.

Follow along this lesson with your FREE complimentary lesson sheet...

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About the Author

Jean Cote is an animal lover and the founder of the Dog Trick Academy. For more than a decade, he has served as a coach to thousands of dog owners around the world to better train, communicate and forge a stronger bond with their dog using positive and force-free training methods.

  • Maggi says:
    at

    Thanks Jean for a good trick. I have worked on this before with my dog, but not too successfully. I’m quite small (5 ft) and have a large GSD so getting her to go through my legs fast is quite difficult; I’m not sure whether she doesn’t like the contact as she goes through, but sometimes also if she knocks against me I can get overbalanced. when we’re stationary it’s not too bad, but trying it walking is really difficult unless we’re going very slowly, and it’s much less impressive that way!!! not so cool!
    Any suggestions?
    Thanks, I really enjoy the Dog Trick Academy stuff!
    Maggi :thumbsup:

    Reply
    • Jean Cote says:
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      Hi Maggi,

      Is the problem that your dog is having trouble walking underneath you because there is not enough room and thus slowing things down, or is it because your dog is so long that you can’t take the next step right away because her rear end is still in front of your other leg? You might want to videotape a few repetitions to see exactly where the problem is.

      Reply
  • Maggi says:
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    Hi Jean,
    Thanks fir the speedy reply! 🙂 I think it’s a combination of both, but the main problems is her length, and yes her rear end is still there as I go to take my next step. Thanks for that analysis!
    Maggi

    Reply
    • Jean Cote says:
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      Hi Maggi, thank you for the videos. 🙂 I can see why you may be having trouble with such a large dog.

      What if you combined two tricks together? For example, you could get your dog to turn around after going around one leg, which will give you time to move your leg and prepare for the next “through”.

      So it would be:

      Through -> Turn -> Through -> Turn

      I can make a video if you wish. 🙂

      Reply
  • Maggi says:
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    Hi again,
    I thought you might like to see some videos of Solas and myself doing a bit of work!
    http://youtu.be/Z7JvN73g548
    http://youtu.be/hixiE_DZMZM

    🙂

    Reply
  • Maggi says:
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    Hi Jean,
    Thanks for the reply. I think I get what you mean about the through/turn/through/turn, but a video would help clarify it! 🙂

    Reply
    • Jean Cote says:
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      Hi Maggi. I will do a video for you very shortly… In the meantime, do you think you could provide a video of your dog doing the figure eight? I watched both of the videos you posted, however I did not see the figure eight performed. Maybe I missed it?

      Reply
      • Maggi says:
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        Hi Jean, no you didn’t miss it! I can certainly do this, but won’t be able to get round to it until tomorrow! 🙂

        Reply
    • Jean Cote says:
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      Hi Maggi, here is the video that I promised you.

      https://watch.cloudflarestream.com/65f7843d38296b9e154d91c4a37afcdb

      Basically, you will want to combine two tricks into one – the turn around and figure eight. This way while your dog is turning around you can bring in your leg for your dog to walk under. It will take a little bit of practice to get the mechanics down but I’m sure you can handle it. 🙂

      Reply
  • Maggi says:
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    Jean, Thank you so much for taking the time to make this video! I can’t imagine how you have the time to do this online stuff? I’m going to go away and practice! Solas and I have been doing agility for the past 4 weeks….just starting but here’s a link to how we’ve been doing!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZywYVXiwKk
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDCPcFj4enA
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7JvN73g548
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hixiE_DZMZM

    Sorry, you’ve probably seen some of them before, but I’m not too computer literate!
    Maggi and Solas

    Reply
  • Maggi says:
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    Hi Jean,
    I’ve realised what’s been going wrong with the walking weave! When she was entering before, if I had my R leg forward for her to go under, I was taking her in from my RHS, which meant she was crossing over in front of my L leg which made it impossible to bring it forward!!! DUH!! Not surprisingly, I’m managing it a bit better now. It’s still a bit difficult as she big, but I’ve also gone back a bit with the figure 8, and just working with throwing treats through my legs; this is making her lower herself as she goes through which means she doesn’t overbalance me so much on the way through. Needs a lot more work though 🙂 Thanks a lot! :thumbsup:

    Reply
    • Jean Cote says:
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      Hi Maggi, that is awesome that you were able to figure out how to improve the trick. This is one of the reason why I’m such a big proponent of videotaping your training sessions, because when you review them, you always notice little things that you could do better. And you don’t have to review the whole thing, just reviewing 3 minutes of the training will give you a very clear idea of what you can be improving. 🙂 Keep up the excellent work!!

      Reply
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