Fun Training: Teaching Your Dog to Shake

Teaching your dog tricks is both fun and entertaining for you and your dog. Before you teach him any tricks, he should know basic obedience: sit, down, and stay. These are more important anyway, and also get your dog used to training sessions. Most tricks are based on these commands and your dog should know to pay attention to you for learning.

The success of any kind of training is finding what kind of reward your dog responds to best. For some it takes the form of food, others simple praise will do, and for others it's a stretch of playtime. Finding out what works best is vital to any training you want to do with your dog as it is a great motivator. Training sessions should run around 5 to 15 minutes, daily, and always keep them upbeat and fun. Always end with a reward. If you begin to feel frustrated, quit for then and start again another day.

Teaching your dog to shake is easy and fun. You can build from this success since he'll pick up this trick pretty fast. Have a food reward ready and have your dog start from "sit." Praise verbally, but withhold the treat for the actual trick. After a few seconds of him holding the sit position, say "shake" (stick to one word commands) and gently pick up one of his legs beginning near the elbow and sliding toward what would be his wrist. Some dogs don't like their paws being touched so only perform this exercise if your dog is comfortable with that. Give your dog's leg a slight shake and let him go. Reward for any degree of success until your dog can give you his paw on his own. If your dog stands up during this process, simply begin again.

A full "shake" to you might be one leg, and that's fine. What I've taught my dog is to give both her paws up for a shake before the reward is given. Starting with one leg, use the above procedures. If you're teaching your dog to give both paws, switch legs randomly when teaching him so he's comfortable with you touching both. I use the command "Other Paw" after my dog has given me one, I've shaken it, and released. This causes her to immediately give me the other one once she's put her just shaken paw down. This takes more practice, but this is one of the easiest tricks to teach your dog. Pretty soon your dog will be handing you his paw without you asking, wanting a treat for such a simple maneuver.