Encourage the dog to put his paws on your arm with a food or toy lure in your other hand.  Crouch low to the ground at first. Click or say ‘yes’ for the dog just touching your arm with one or two feet.  Some dogs might need encouragement to do this ‘rude’ behavior of invading your space.  As your dog succeeds raise the height of your arm. 

 

Fade out the lure, click for the behavior and THEN present the hidden food or toy from a pocket or from under your shirt. 

Once you and your dog are standing upright, you can add a verbal cue.  Say the cue you would like to use, for example, “paws up!” and then present your arm.  This is a good idea because if this becomes the dog’s favorite trick you will find that the dog will want to put his paws up on your arm every time you reach out your arm, and this can interfear with other tricks that involve outstreached arms.

There is also the option of supporting the dog while standing behind the dog.  Some breeds of dogs are not built for standing on their back legs on their own so by using just a little bit of creativity you can make some very interesting and impressive moves with a ‘supported stand’.  Some examples are: have your dog go between your legs from behind and then put his paws up on your arm, or have the dog switch from one of your arms to the other from behind you.  Another great move is having the dog give you a ‘high five’ or a ‘high ten’ as you face eachother.

Once you have mastered the ‘supported

stand’ and built up your dog’s leg muscles sufficiently, you can try teaching your dog to stand on their back legs unsupported.  This can either be done using a lure held above the dogs head or a target stick as shown in this picture.  First you will click for the dog making any movement of their head upwards.  Next for one or two of the front feet lifting the ground.  Gradually add critiera, it could take a couple of weeks for some dogs to build up to a couple of seconds of standing upright.  Remember to take caution with this trick as it is very taxing on a dog’s joints.  Even slightly overweight dogs should not be doing this trick, as well as old dogs and dogs with joint issues.