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Permalink Reply by Beth on September 10, 2009 at 9:27pm

I had to work forever to teach Jack to "wave." He got "paw" in no time, but the wave thing confused him. He would start to pick his paw up, then look at me like "Really? Are you SURE this is what you mean?" I said to Shawn that it seemed to make no sense to him, sort of like if you tried to teach a person how to touch their coffee cup with their toe. They would understand what you were saying, but think that could not possibly be what you meant.

Anyway, "wave" took forever so we worked on it a lot, and now when he wants my attention he will start madly waving his paw at me. It's quite funny. I made the mistake of asking him to do something one evening, then instead of going for a treat I stopped and asked Maddie to do something as well. Jack came running over and started waving his paw in the air madly, as if to say "I did what you said! I did it! Hey! Hey! Get my treat, lady!"

It's the only trick I've ever taught him that he does spontaneously, just to get attention, and it was the least favorite for him to learn.

Permalink Reply by Garrett, Katie, & Conan on September 10, 2009 at 10:12pm

How did you teach the wave? I want to try it! Your analogies are hilarious, I love them!

Permalink Reply by Beth on September 10, 2009 at 10:30pm

Hmmm, what finally worked? I started with "paw" (which I use for "shake hands") and would just keep my own hand right out of his reach. So I would put my hand out like I wanted to shake and say "Wave" and keep my hand further away so there was no contact. Then I started swapping out with the hand signal I wanted to use, and alternating it rapidly with the hand signal for "paw" again keeping my hand just out of reach.

Once he sort of had the idea of sticking his little paw out into mid-air, I then gave increasing encouragement for him getting his paw up higher and higher each time. I do believe part of the confusion arose because I was basing it on another command he already knew, and partly because the motion really made no inherent sense to him. It's just not something a dog finds practical. So "back up" was easy because he normally never reversed before, but once I showed him he thought "Ah, this will come in handy!" But "wave" had no practical application for him, except that I seemed to like it. LOL, I think that's why he does it go get my attention now. "That crazy woman, she likes when I make this strange gesture."

If your dog knows high-five, it will be much easier, because you already have the high-paw move down, you just need to have him learn to do it without contacting your hand.

Permalink Reply by Garrett, Katie, & Conan on September 11, 2009 at 1:47pm

I definitely want to try this! Thanks for the input :)

Permalink Reply by Beauty and the Beast on September 11, 2009 at 3:44pm

That's funny. How do you teach wave anyways?
The first thing that Shiro learned thourgh shaping was play dead and now sometimes he'd do it even if I ask something different, or when he's trying to be all good just like Jack with wave :) He waves his paws in the air while doing the play dead, looks like a bug that can't turn over, so cute.

Permalink Reply by Beth on September 10, 2009 at 9:30pm

A few well-timed "ah-ah's" should rectify the shaking-while-sitting situation. Jack got barking confused with backing up; when he gets excited during training he barks, and he was getting very excited when I was training him to back up (it involved me shuffling rapidly towards him in a narrow hallway to force him to go straight back instead of turning in a circle." So he thought that "back up" meant "back up whilst barking" but I was able to break him of it by "ah-ahhing" whenever he'd yap. Tell him "good" when he sits but "no" as soon as that paw starts to leave the ground.

You may then need to go back to teaching "shake" again, as he may think it's always bad. But he'll get the context.

Permalink Reply by Beth on September 10, 2009 at 10:24pm

I should say I use "no" and not "ah-ah." With Jack, ah-ah means "that's bad" while "No" is more a "that's not what I'm looking for" when he offers the wrong thing during training.

Permalink Reply by Garrett, Katie, & Conan on September 10, 2009 at 10:10pm

Haha us too! I just keep telling myself that they must get worse dogs. It makes me feel less guilty :).

Conan used to do the exact same thing. He would sit and shake automatically, the minute we grabbed a toy or treat. Then we broke that by just saying "no" or "try again" (after bringing him back up to a stand) and he eventually got it. We had to do the same thing with sit and high five, and are now doing it with down and bang (play dead). It takes a while, but he'll get it eventually.

Permalink Reply by Allison Musick on September 10, 2009 at 11:21pm

Man, I wish Heidi was more interested in tricks and training. She's more of the stubborn type, nothing wrong with her brain but she needs me to explain WHY she should learn these things I'm asking before she'll take it into consideration. So far food is the only reason I've found that works, but unfortunately she's getting on the pudgy side so I don't want her health compromised for the sake of something non-essential. Your dogs sound like so much fun!!!

But don't get me wrong...she's still tons of fun even without knowing tricks. Most Corgis are. ;-)

Permalink Reply by Beauty and the Beast on September 11, 2009 at 11:25am

What my instructor did is measured her dog's daily portion and gave it throughout the day for tricks and good behavior.
That way your doggie won't get fat.

Permalink Reply by Beauty and the Beast on September 11, 2009 at 11:24am

Touch the feet and give treats at the same time. Sometimes if they are too stressed they won't even look at the food, so start slowly. Touch the paw for a second then give a treat. It might take a while, but eventually she'll think it's a good thing.
We never had this problem with Shiro even though the breeder told us that corgi's are horrible when it comes to touching their feet. So we started doing it together to make sure he didn't get himself hurt. It actually works great when a second person helps you. One is holding and stroking the puppy, the other is clipping nails. But again, he's not typical, he lets us mess with him all the time, as long as it's not for too long.
Another thing you can do, just clip one nail a day. That way she knows she's going to be free in a moment and perhaps won't make a fuss of it eventually.
Also, remember you can't let her go if she's twisting and jumping, wait until she calms down even if for 2 seconds. That way you let her know that being bad is not going to work, that she needs to e calm and still in order to be freed.

Permalink Reply by Amanda & Tuck on September 11, 2009 at 12:32pm

Walking on sidewalks keeps his nails pretty short but when they do need trimming we use a dremmel on Tucker. We started out by just having it on near him - with lots of treats. Then another day we rubbed his feet with it so he could get used to the sound and feeling - more treats. Eventually we did one or two nails at a time - with my boyfriend giving constant treats while I did his nails. Now he just gets treats when we are done and I can handle him myself without too much squirming. I just need to get a real dremmel so it works better/faster because the pedi-paw is just too weak and takes FOVERER. Last time we were at the vet I just had him cut his nails and he was fairly cooperative surprisingly - took all of 2 minutes.

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