Teaching how to shake hands.

I have been working with George trying to teach him to shake hands. Whenever I try to pick up his paw, he rolls over and thinks I am going to rub his tummy. I don't get how the paw and the tummy rub are related but George thinks so. Rosie learned to shake hands fairly quickly, but I think George is just not going to get it. Does anyone have any ideas?

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Permalink Reply by Chris on February 17, 2009 at 3:00pm

I tried with Kirby when he was a pup for quite a while. He never really got it. Probably trainer error though ;-)

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Permalink Reply by Shippo & Koga Corgis on February 17, 2009 at 8:13pm

It sounds like picking up his paw causes him to become submissive and roll over.

Does he ever offer his paw voluntarily, either by pawing at you for attention, or when he gets excited/wants to play? I shaped Shippo's "Give Paw" trick by either waiting for him to offer his paw or getting him excited enough that he'd paw at me or wave his paws around in play.

If George ever happens to offer his paw, you can slip your hand under it (but not take hold of it because he might roll over lol) and click and treat or say "GOOD BOY!" and treat or whatever. After a couple times of doing this, the light bulb should come on, and he should realize what he is doing to get your praise/treats. =^^;=

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Permalink Reply by Sam on February 17, 2009 at 9:36pm

One successful way we have used is a very tasty treat. Put it in your hand and let him smell it but not eat it. Close your fist. He will start sniffing, nosing and eventually pawing at your hand. As soon as he picks up his paw say "shake" and offer the treat. Wont take him long.

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Permalink Reply by Bronwyn on February 17, 2009 at 9:37pm

Bronwyn took quite a while to learn this. I would get her to a sit position and have a treat in my hand. I'll place the treat just above her nose so that she looks up and with my other hand take one of her paws and say 'Give Paws'. After taking her paws. I give her the treat. I did this everyday about 5 minutes each time. It took me about a month. This was the most difficult trick to teach her. A few dog owners told me the same thing. Than one day when I got Bronwyn to the sit position and she just gave her paws without asking!

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Permalink Reply by Bonny on February 18, 2009 at 12:08pm

I taught Junebug this trick pretty easily by holding a treat in my hand and placing it near her chest. The word I gave her was "paw", and then I let her figure out what she needed to do to get the treat. She smelled my hand and then started working it out, and as soon as she put her paw on my closed hand (in an attempt to dig it out) I opened it to reward her action. The next time I did this, she put her paw on my hand immediately. When she was pretty reliable with this, I started giving her an open hand with the treat in the other hand, and the lesson translated. This was one of the easiest tricks to teach her.

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Permalink Reply by GoGoRainbow on February 18, 2009 at 12:12pm

Besides everyone else's advice, I'd like to add what worked for me. Pooka wasn't getting it either, but then I made sure to always use the same paw, and she got it pretty quickly after that.

Maybe make sure to saw no when he rolls over so he knows that's not what he should do. But if he's submissive in general that might not work out.

Good luck!