How do you train dogs to shake?
10 Mar 2010
What’s the technique? I don’t think we’re taking him to obedience school anytime soon haha.
What’s the technique? I mean like to shake hands, not to shake his body.
This is the technique we use at our shelter:
Start this training indoors and then work out of doors after the dog has mastered the command and can “Shake” to you immediately after each command.
• Call the dog by its name and show the dog a treat.
• Have the dog “Sit” in front of you.
• While the dog is sitting, hold a treat over its nose with your left hand, and with your right hand touch the back of the dog’s RIGHT leg right at the “wrist” and say, “Shake!”
o When the dog lifts its paw, even a fraction, give it an acknowledgement cue such as “yes”, “thank you”, or “excellent” so the dog knows it did the right thing.
• Give the dog its treat, pet it and give it lots of praise.
o Clapping your hands together (as applause) and using verbal praise such as “Yay!”, “Good dog!”, or “Good Shake!” are all acceptable.
o Using the phrase “Good Shake!” helps to reinforce the idea that coming to you on command is a good thing.
• Repeat until the dog is automatically lifting its right paw to “shake” your hand.
• If the dog does the wrong thing don’t give any reward, just try again from the point where the dog last did what it was told.
• Keep this up over time until the dog has mastered the exercise.
To reinforce the learning of this command, ask the dog to “Shake” regularly throughout the day’s routine. Every time the dog meets another person ask it to sit and “shake” hands as a form of greeting.
NOTE: It’s best to teach dogs both the “shake” (with the right paw) and “high five” (with the left paw) commands. If you don’t teach the dog both commands, it may get into the habit of demanding attention by forcing its “shake” paw on you and your guests all the time. If you teach both commands, and don’t give the dog a treat until it offers the correct paw, it will be less likely to be demanding, and will instead wait for a command to either “shake” or “high five”.
8 Responses
2010 Mar 10
Teaching a dog to shake is just about one of the easiest dog tricks you can teach. Shaking is a natural action and once your dog has it down, there are lots of fun variations. You can probably teach your dog to sit in just one or two three minute sessions.
To teach a dog to shake, you first need to teach the dog to sit. Once sitting, say to your dog, "shake". Reach down and lift his paw physically, then give him a treat and say "good shake, good shake". Release his paw and repeat.
References :
http://www.collargirl.com/teach-dog-to-shake.html
2010 Mar 10
Start by having your dog sit. Say, "Shake hands," and take his paw with your hand. Hold his paw and say, "Good dog!" Let go of his paw. Do this a few times every day. And give a little piece of a treat when you have told him good boy. You can use one treat and break it into small pieces that way he won’t eat to many treats.
References :
2010 Mar 10
what u do to have a dog shake is, first the dog needs to sit. then u would tell him to shake hold out ur hand and grab is paw. hold it for a few seconds and put it down and give him a treat. u may have to do this a few times i know we had to do that with my dog. then after awhile he will get the hang of it.
References :
experience
2010 Mar 10
have a treat ready-as an example small piece of milkbone- pick up his paw in one hand- offering the treat with the other hand- repaeat as you pick up paw"shake" or "paw".give small piece-repaet in small sessions of 5 to 10 minutes.repaeat daily.soon when you say the word "shake" or paw watch him give you his paw/praise all efforts with"good boy".next test will be using hand signal for same result.i used tapping my left hand into my right-then you can move on to "other paw".good luck
References :
2010 Mar 10
With lots of over the top praise and a few treats. When the dog is sitting say ’shake’ or whatever you choose the prompt to be while lifting his paw. Start by saying it as you lift it and hold it for a few seconds. Then say ‘good shake’ and get really excited. After 5 or 6 goes, say it before you lift the foot and then do the same praise routine.
My dog got it in about 5 minutes using 1 slice of cheese. She now does high fives too. This is a shake while standing on her back legs. Very cute!
**HINT – always praise the specific action – good stay, good sit, good shake rather than just good dog – it reinforces the word prompt.
References :
2010 Mar 10
While your dog is sitting,reach for his paw,shake his paw as you would a persons hand and as you shake his paw say shake each time you pick up his paw. Keep doing this everyday and after a few times of doing this just reach towards his paw and say shake. If he raises his paw as a jester to shake your hand shake his paw and then reward him with a treat. That is the trick to training an animal. Regular working with them and treats when they do what you want them to do.
You can do this with about any kind of training. Some take perseverance.Hope this will work. Don’t give up and be patient with your dog.
References :
From my own experience.
2010 Mar 10
This is the technique we use at our shelter:
Start this training indoors and then work out of doors after the dog has mastered the command and can “Shake” to you immediately after each command.
• Call the dog by its name and show the dog a treat.
• Have the dog “Sit” in front of you.
• While the dog is sitting, hold a treat over its nose with your left hand, and with your right hand touch the back of the dog’s RIGHT leg right at the “wrist” and say, “Shake!”
o When the dog lifts its paw, even a fraction, give it an acknowledgement cue such as “yes”, “thank you”, or “excellent” so the dog knows it did the right thing.
• Give the dog its treat, pet it and give it lots of praise.
o Clapping your hands together (as applause) and using verbal praise such as “Yay!”, “Good dog!”, or “Good Shake!” are all acceptable.
o Using the phrase “Good Shake!” helps to reinforce the idea that coming to you on command is a good thing.
• Repeat until the dog is automatically lifting its right paw to “shake” your hand.
• If the dog does the wrong thing don’t give any reward, just try again from the point where the dog last did what it was told.
• Keep this up over time until the dog has mastered the exercise.
To reinforce the learning of this command, ask the dog to “Shake” regularly throughout the day’s routine. Every time the dog meets another person ask it to sit and “shake” hands as a form of greeting.
NOTE: It’s best to teach dogs both the “shake” (with the right paw) and “high five” (with the left paw) commands. If you don’t teach the dog both commands, it may get into the habit of demanding attention by forcing its “shake” paw on you and your guests all the time. If you teach both commands, and don’t give the dog a treat until it offers the correct paw, it will be less likely to be demanding, and will instead wait for a command to either “shake” or “high five”.
References :
2010 Mar 10
if you want to shape the shake and you know your dog is already "handsy" – uses it’s paws to figure out puzzles, then do the following:
get something really stinky and of high value and put it into your closed fist
if you want have your dog in a sit, but position doesn’t matter, place your closed fist under the dog’s nose so that he sniffs is and has to try to figure out how to get the treat out
BE PATIENT, let the dog think
when he tries to get the treat by pawing mark it with at "yes" or "clever" and release the treat
repeat five more times until the dog readily offers the pawing action, then you can name it
place you fist down as you did before and as your dog paws your hand say your word and then mark it
you can quickly then remove the treat from that hand and treat from the other hand, then you can move to an open hand
takes about 10 – 15 reps
References :
am a professional dog trainer – clicker training