One of the more advanced tricks you can teach your dog, once he has learnt basic obedience, is how to “shake hands”. Now before you try to teach you dog this, you need to have the basics of obedience (like sit, stay etc) down. This is because your dog needs to respect you to learn tricks from you.
You also need to know that some breeds of dog are better suited to this trick than others, so don’t be disappointed if your dog can’t or won’t perform this trick very easily.
With this in mind, let’s learn how to train your dog to shake hands.
The first thing you need to do is have your dog sitting on your left hand side. You then kneel down while holding your dog’s collar in your left hand. Then show your dog the food treat that you should have in your other hand.
The next step is to move your right hand downwards towards the ground. Go down far enough to have your hand in front of your dog’s paw. You want to make sure you’re holding his collar still at this point, otherwise he may want to lie down to sty close to the food treat.
Next, you need to push the food reward towards your dog’s paw. Your dog will then lift up his paw. When he does this, you need to put your hand underneath the paw, and lift slightly up and away from the ground.
When your dog’s paw is resting against your fist with the food reward, lift it up and give your dog the command “paw” or you may prefer “shake hands”. Then give your dog his well earned food reward.
Now it goes without saying that it will take a few goes for your dog to learn this. As with all dog training, persistence and patience is required. But if you stick at it, your dog should soon have learnt a nice trick that you can use to impress your friends and family.
Amy Howells is the owner of the Dog Owner Blog, where she gives free tips, lessons and advice on how to train your dog. She has recently started posting her dog training book for free, so make sure you go check her site out right now.
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Teach Dog to Shake Hands
Teach Dog to Shake Hands
