Shake and paw, starting from a loosely closed hand

How to teach a dog to shake starts with your dog sitting and a small treat hidden in a loosely closed hand, held low near the chest. If a paw lifts toward the hand, mark it and pay. Then offer an open palm and pay a paw on the palm, and add the word last.

How is shake different from teaching leave it?

Both tricks begin with food inside a closed hand, and that is where the likeness ends. They pay opposite things. In leave it, the dog earns a reward for backing away from the fist. In shake, the dog earns a reward for reaching toward it with a paw.

Keep them apart with hand position. A leave it fist sits at nose height. A shake hand rests low, near the chest, with the fingers loose and the palm turned up. Try not to teach both in one session, since the same starting picture is asking for two different answers.

If your dog already knows leave it, give shake a fresh spot in the house, or use a different cue word right from the start. A new setting and a new hand keep the two from blurring together.

How do you get the first paw lift?

Wait, and keep quiet. With your dog in a sit, show the closed hand low in front of the chest and let your dog investigate. Sniffing is fine. Licking is fine. If a paw twitches toward the hand, that twitch is the one you want.

Pay any small lift, even a little one that barely clears the floor. Mark it with your usual word, then open the hand and hand over the piece, or give one from the other hand. Early rounds are about showing that a lifted paw gets paid, so the quality of the lift hardly matters.

If nothing happens, change the picture a little. A hand held a bit lower, or slightly to one side, is what handlers often try next. A short break can help too. Come back with fresh pieces and a quiet room.

Never reach down and lift the paw for your dog. The trick is only worth teaching if the paw moves on its own. A handler's hand takes that choice away and makes the whole exercise less useful. As in most training treat work, mark the lift the instant it happens, since the mark tells your dog which part earned the piece.

When do you swap the closed hand for an open palm?

Once lifts come quickly, change the picture. Show the hand open, palm up and empty, with the treat out of sight behind your back or at your belt. A paw that lands on the palm gets the mark, and the piece comes from your free hand.

Then work toward a handshake. Raise the palm a little higher each round, so your dog reaches up and into your hand, and pay the paw on the palm. Keep the treat in the opposite hand so that the shaking hand stays a target and not a vending machine.

Add the word only when the paw is arriving without a pause. Say "shake" just before you offer your palm, and your dog has a sound to line up with the motion.

How do you teach the other paw and a high five?

Pick a second word for the second paw, such as "other" or "left" and "right", and teach it the same way, from the opposite hand. The first paw stays on its own cue so that neither one muddles the other. Start the second side from the closed hand again, since it is a new paw.

For a high five, turn your palm to face your dog and hold it at about chest height. Pay the paw that touches it. Here is the usual progression:

1. Start with the palm turned up, as in a handshake.
2. Rotate it slowly toward your dog, a little more each round.
3. When it faces your dog, mark the touch and pay.
4. Add a new cue word, separate from "shake".

You can find other tricks that grow from here in the trick guide. The cheddar bites page has details on our treat, which our listing calls a treat and not a complete diet.