Tricks
How to teach a dog to crawl
Two metres of commando crawl on cue, elbows down the whole way.
What “crawl” actually means
In Proof this is a skill in its own right, because ridiculous and adorable, and sneaks in real core work.
Teach down first — it is what this one is built on.
The stages
These steps are a draft pending review by a credentialed trainer. They describe standard positive-reinforcement marker training; the app carries the same notice on every session screen.
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Stage 1 — Commando crawl
Goal: Dog covers a metre elbows-down following the lure
- From a down, drag the lure slowly along the floor just out of reach. Mark any forward scoot with elbows down.
- Pay single scoots before asking for distance. Add "crawl" once it flows.
If it goes wrong
- Rear pops up immediately? The lure is too high or too fast — floor-level and glacial. A low hand or a stick under a low table can make the idea land.
- Dog just lies there? Scoot the lure a centimetre, not a hand-span. Pay a nose-stretch first if that is all you get.
How long does it take?
Most foundation skills reach their bar in two to four weeks of short daily sessions. Adolescence can temporarily un-stick anything, which is normal.
Proof does not put a timeline on an individual skill, and neither should anything else — the honest answer depends on the dog in front of you, how often you practise, and where you practise. What it does instead is measure: every session records how many reps landed, so progress is a number rather than a feeling.
Proving it in 3 different places
A behaviour that only works in the kitchen is situational, not trained. Crawl counts as proven in Proof once it clears the bar above at the top stage in 3 genuinely different contexts:
- Indoors — the quiet room where everything works
- Garden — outdoors, but home turf
- Street — pavements, traffic, passing people
- Park — other dogs, long grass, real distraction
- Somewhere new — a place the dog has never worked before
Proof also expires. Leave a proven skill for two months without asking for it and it returns to the daily plan as a refresher, because that is what actually happens to trained behaviour.