teaching a dog to shake hands when they are suspicious

[Critter]

We have been teaching our little guy tricks and I can't seem to teach him to shake hands, he just seems suspicious of us when we try to lift his paw he backs away from us. it took a while to teach him to do circles because of the same behavior. he wouldn't allow our hands to go behind him without backing away from us. any suggestions?

[QuickSilver]

I'm having the same problem. Very interested to hear people's techniques!

[Moses]

I actually have been able to teach my boy this trick fairly easy. First they have to know the sit command. Once I tell my boy to sit I then tell him to shake. When I started I took his right paw when sitting and said SHAKE as I was shaking his paw. Then I would give him the treat. After a few times doing this he picked it up pretty easy. Now he know's its coming and will want to put his paw up before I even say shake..LOL

[jennzy]

its been awhile since i trained mickey (he's 13 so def been awhile!)

whenever i tried to teach him to shake i'd have him sitting (by this point he mastered the sitting) and i'd say "shake" then grab his paw then say shake again then give him a treat...

in the beginning stage, he's try to pull his paw away because he wasn't comfortable with it. but by 5th time, he realized that i'm not hurting him and there was a yummie treat in it for me to grab his paw, he was completely cool/fine with it...

just make sure when you take his paw, do it lightly and not for very long time.
say "shake" before and as grabing the paw say "shake" and then let go. this process should only take few seconds...


hope this helps!

[gramsof1]

Hi,
Our little Tiki is smart. She was obeying the "sit" command within 5 hours of bringing her home. She is in love with "Pupperoni" treats and that is what we have used to teach her (her brother does all the same tricks too).

We just took her paw - right paw to righ hand and gave her the treat after we said shake hands. After she learned it with the right, we taught her with left hand to left paw. Now she does them both so automatic that it's funny.
She does "Dance", just turning in one circle on her hind legs, then gets a treat. She does roll over and goes the direction I point - each direction. Oh and Sit Up Pretty" is so darn cute. She sits up there forever with her little sweet paws up there in the begging position. I think she thinks if she stays up there she will get more treats - and she does. She will take her precious little paw and gently lay it on my hand as I give her the treat.
We have this entire routine we do with the tricks. I'll tell her "give Mom a kiss" and she stretches up to give me a kiss. I'll tell her "go give Dad a kiss" and off she runs, up on the couch and gives him a kiss and zips back for her treat. She does this with my friend too (the one who has her brother)

Her grand finale trick is to fall over dead when I point my finger at her and say "Bang". She usually will fall slowly, doing a dramatic death and lately she has started to whimper as she falls over. She stays there very still until I say "good girl" and flips up for her treat.

We are trying to think of new tricks to try. This one usually works really well if she is being stubborn and won't eat. I put 2 or3 little pieces of the treat inside the pile of her food, have her do the tricks and then she scoots right to her food and usually cleans it right up.

Like I said in another post, she has us well trained too.
Gosh, we love her so much.
Myrna

[Moses]

Originally Posted by gramsof1

Hi,
Our little Tiki is smart. She was obeying the "sit" command within 5 hours of bringing her home. She is in love with "Pupperoni" treats and that is what we have used to teach her (her brother does all the same tricks too).

We just took her paw - right paw to righ hand and gave her the treat after we said shake hands. After she learned it with the right, we taught her with left hand to left paw. Now she does them both so automatic that it's funny.
She does "Dance", just turning in one circle on her hind legs, then gets a treat. She does roll over and goes the direction I point - each direction. Oh and Sit Up Pretty" is so darn cute. She sits up there forever with her little sweet paws up there in the begging position. I think she thinks if she stays up there she will get more treats - and she does. She will take her precious little paw and gently lay it on my hand as I give her the treat.
We have this entire routine we do with the tricks. I'll tell her "give Mom a kiss" and she stretches up to give me a kiss. I'll tell her "go give Dad a kiss" and off she runs, up on the couch and gives him a kiss and zips back for her treat. She does this with my friend too (the one who has her brother)

Her grand finale trick is to fall over dead when I point my finger at her and say "Bang". She usually will fall slowly, doing a dramatic death and lately she has started to whimper as she falls over. She stays there very still until I say "good girl" and flips up for her treat.

We are trying to think of new tricks to try. This one usually works really well if she is being stubborn and won't eat. I put 2 or3 little pieces of the treat inside the pile of her food, have her do the tricks and then she scoots right to her food and usually cleans it right up.

Like I said in another post, she has us well trained too.
Gosh, we love her so much.
Myrna

this is really cute, I have to tell you it took me forever to teach my boy to sit, I even took him to a professional and he couldn't get him to do it. So I gave up. Then all of a sudden I tried it again and it worked. I was so shocked. Now I have tried the sit up and look pretty or beg and he doesn't get it. How did you teach your baby to get up on his back legs and sit there.

[gramsof1]

I have to tell you, it was so easy. My son has a jack russell terrier and he does so many tricks. My son told me to hold the treat above the dogs head and just gently push down until the dog is sitting instead of standing on on the hind legs. It worked so fast with Tiki, but then again, I think she is the world's smartest dog.

Myrna

[Critter]

Samson does several tricks but I just can't get him to shake because he is suspicious of why I am reaching for his hand. like I mentioned it took me a while to do circles because of this. he catches on so quickly for everything else but he sure doesn't like us touching him during tricks, which seems weird to me because all other times some part of his body has to be touching our bodies.