How do you teach 'paw'

Ruby knows the basics when it comes to training and picked everything up fairly quickly, so this weekend my soon to be 6 year old son asked if her could teach her a trick as her training is boring apparently So i said we could teach her paw.

Now i thought this would be a fairly easy task but i dont think im going the right way about it as it doesnt seem to be twigging at all with Ruby, i appeciate its only been 2 days but she looks at me as if ive gone mad when i try it

Anyway what ive been doing is saying paw then picking her paw up whilst saying paw again and then treating. So far she has not attempted to even be lighter on her foot when i go in for the grab so im wondering if i should keep tryin this technic or is there another.

My training may be boring but it does the job.....children ah who'd have em!!

The easiest way to teach paw is put a treat in your closed hand, put your hand just under your dogs nose near their chest, ignore any attempts by your dog to get the treat out of your hand with their mouth/nose (keep your hand tightly closed), but open your hand and let them eat the treat if they attempt to get the treat with their paw, it's even easier if you use a clicker, but not essential, don't say paw until they lift the paw to begin with. Some dogs take longer than others and sometimes you have to move your hand slightly up/down/left/right until you find the right place that they attempt with their paw and not nose/mouth. Good luck!

lol this took Ben 6 months

My mum tried the picking up the paw thing - but you could see in his face that he thought
'crazy lady touches my feet, crazy lady gives me sweeties'
but it didnt occur to him to pick his foot up first

I tried the treat in my hand - but he sniffed it then looked at me and waited for me to tell him what to do to get the treat (I wasnt good clicker trainer then)

In the end I found luring his head up and to the right made his weight come off his left paw and it lifted
and he slowly got the hang of it

Mia on the other hand - I put my hand with food by her leg - she put her paw on it - she learnt the trick different dogs are so different

I always teach it by putting a treat in my closed hand and not releasing it 'til they put their paw on my hand. They will snuffle and lick for a while and eventually put a paw on to try and open your hand, when they do this open your hand and let them have the treat, then try it again, they will catch on after a few goes.

When they 'get it' and do it instantly, start saying 'paw' (or whatever it is you want to use) when you offer your hand for them to paw at.

Next step is to give them a treat from the other hand (not the enclosed treat). Some people might say do this from the start but when I did that they then tried other tactics to get the treat and lost interest in the one I was never giving from my closed hand, if that makes sense. But once they make the connection that they are getting a treat for giving their paw, you can give it from the other hand.

Then of course try it without the treat in you enclosed hand.

Then try it with an open hand.

As when training anything, if they start to struggle go back a step and work back up. This is one of the easiest things to teach IMO and usually doesn't take long at all, good luck, let us know how you get on! x

With a dog that is reluctant to put a paw on your hand (although I personally have never had that problem, mine are all pretty bolshy and forward lol!), try tapping their feet, that usually makes them lift up their foot, or touching their toes or inbetween their toes, things like that usually make them lift their foot up, THEY need to make the connection, so YOU lifting her foot isn't going to get her to catch on as fast as if SHE makes the decision to lift it herself. Once she does it herself it won't take long at all. Star had it totally licked in a day.

I think I may have taught my first dog it by picking up her foot and shaking it (like a handshake) and saying 'paw'. I vaguely remember doing that, and she did that trick well in the end so she must have caught on eventually, no idea how long it took though, I was only 14/15!

Thanks for the advise i will try new method today. As somebody already said Ruby definatly thinks 'crazy lady' when i pick her paw up! This is obviously gonna take longer than her others, as she would usually start to make a litttle progress straight away and i could tell she was 'getting it'

The tapping the paw method worked for us to. I would gently tap het toes then as soon as she lifted her paw up, I would give the paw command. I managed to do it without treats as she's a cheekey so and so, if she knows she can get treats for doing something, she'll refuse point blank to do it without. Hence our training heelwork is sooooo much better than when we do it in a show!

Akira caught on pretty quick, just got her to sit then picked up her paw and said 'paw, paw' to her (in a very silly voice, I admit) and then praised her. However, I don't put this down to my fantastic training, more that she likes bashing with her front paws and she clearly thinks this a more legitimate form of playing splat - sometimes the paw is offered quite violently

I taught "give a paw" by just picking up their paws when we come in from a wet, muddy walk. I just said "paw", picked it up & rubbed with a towel, all the time praising whilst I was holding the paw.

But the dogs have learned from this differently, even though I did exactly the same for both of them. Now Barney will happily give me a paw (even raise a rear foot if I tap his leg) but ONLY in the kitchen, after a walk, by the back door & when I've got a towel in my hand! Ask him to give a paw any other time & he just looks befuddled.

Wilma, on the other hand, has managed to generalise "paw" to raise a front foot, any time & any place when asked.

Just shows how they all learn differently!

But I have known many dogs (especially rescues) that have probably been taught (or self-learned) that batting you with a paw gets attention, gets a "isn't it cute" reaction, gets them treats. Then they use batting at you with a paw in all sorts of contexts ~ which can be really annoying!!! It's not something I usually deliberately train just in case the dog uses it in ways that I didn't intend. So I'm more than happy that Barney has restricted the learning to a specific context only .

I taught it by using a treat in closed hand - but used the word "please" - thought it was great at the time as it looked funny when I said "say please" and would get "the paw" turns out to be a right pain as she's always saying please now & if I ignore her, she nudges & whacks or just leaves her paw on you with claws holding on

I then taught her left & right paw, which she picked up quickly & get her to guess which closed hand the treat is in by sniffing and choosing with her paw.