Shake. From what I understand the easiest trick to teach a dog. Simply have your dog place their paw in your hand. No big deal! Ha. You all make it sound so easy. Well I challenge you to come to MY house and get my dog to shake.
I wanted to start Willa (my little borrowed friend) with something easy since this is one of her first training sessions. So I googled “teach your dog to shake”. I read an article saying something along the lines of pick your dogs paw up while saying shake and click and treat. Hummm. Sounds okay I guess. Willa sat, I pick up paw, say shake, click and treat. I did this about 20 times and then stuck my hand out and said shake. Nope. Nada. Nothing. I repeated this whole process a few more times and gave up. Something’s not working. Back to google. I REALLY did my homework this time and noticed almost EVERYONE said do NOT pick up the paw! Instead, put treats in your hand, close and hold in front of their nose, ALL dogs will use their paws to help get that treat out, click and treat! Easy and can be done pretty quick! Armed with new information, a more organized plan and a hopeful heart, I bring Willa back in for round two.
Willa, sit. I stuff a hotdog treat in my hand close it and hold it to Willa’s nose, she starts licking my fist like a madwoman! Great! This might just work! As she is licking away I’m watching her little paw like a hawk. The second it comes up off the ground I’m gonna be ready! Lick, lick, lick, lick, lick, sniff, sigh. Lick, lick, sigh. Lay down. Wait! Why didn’t you use your paw? The five friggin youtube videos and three different articles I read ALL said you would lift your paw! It’s “instinct”! Okay, redo! Willa and I tried this again and again and again, all at different angles, heights and fist pressures. Nothing. No paw lifts. Not one. No shake.
I started really thinking about the training session as a whole. Maybe I messed her up the first time around with my assault on her paws and lifting them like crazy and saying some foreign word she couldn’t understand. Maybe she didn’t like me pulling her paw up and out from under her and it made her uncomfortable. So when I went for round two she might have been uncomfortable with the idea of lifting that paw and wanted to keep it firmly and securely placed under her and out of my reach. At least that’s my best guess. So moral of the day; do your homework! Do not just take the first advice you see and apply it. Chances are they are doing it wrong too! Research and read several different methods and try to find one that works best for many people and what you think would work best for your own dogs needs.
Willa and I will start with a different (still easy) trick tomorrow. I want her to forget my uncomfortable assault on her paws completely before I try that one again. Maybe we will have better luck the next time around when I know she won’t remember my screw up, I’m just hoping that the dogs will all have patience with ME while I am learning too. My mom had yet again, more words of wisdoms today to help cheer me up. She said “Katie, someday your gonna look back on all of this and laugh.” I sure hope she’s right! Thank goodness I have her smart words of encouragement and support because they are very much needed.
Collar Scholar 