1/10/18
One of my favorite dog tricks is hand/paw shaking. Watching other people/dogs perform this with ease always fascinated me and I've always wanted to try it with my own dog. Based on previous training sessions, I think this will be the most difficult task to achieve because she has a difficult time associating words with actions. Hopefully with the help from author Tamar Geller, Marcy and I will be able to get it down easily and in a short amount of time.
Geller starts by saying, "Hold a treat in your hand, low to the ground. When he raises his paw even slightly, to investigate the treat, slide your hand under his, say, 'shake,' and reward him with a treat from your storage hand" (Geller 272). She then goes on to say that if your dog doesn't lift his paw off the ground, you can gently shake their paw until he gets the hang of it. The first time around, Marcy didn't lift her paw off the ground, instead she buried her nose in my hand, trying to get to the treat. I had to hide the treat, then take her paw in my hand and slowly shake it up and down, saying "shake." I took the treat out again, but she only went for it with her nose. I did the action for her several times before she finally lifted her paw up so I could slide my hand under hers. As soon as I shook her hand, I rewarded her with a treat. "Once your dog associates 'shake' with lifting his paw, keep raising the bar - hold back the praise and rewards until he's raised the paw a little higher than he did the time before" (Geller 273). As I said before, Marcy isn't the best at association, but she is able to get the hang of things if the action is repeated over and over again. I continued on working at the basic level of just lifting her paw off the ground slightly. To raise the bar, I tried using hand gestures to show that I wanted her to lift her paw higher. The first few times, I had to pick her paw up myself, then give her a treat to show that that's how she would get rewarded. Anytime she lifted her paw slightly, but not high enough, I would show her the treat, but not give it to her. Eventually she was able to raise her paw a little higher, even if it wasn't by a lot. Every time she raised it high enough, I rewarded her quickly so she would know exactly what she was doing right.
In Geller's section of "Common Coaching Mistakes," she includes, "Sessions that are too long or repetitive. It's so important to end on a high note, with your dog feeling good about the results rather than feeling like a failure" (Geller 268). Taking this advice, I waited for Marcy to set her paw in my hand a few times, before ending the training session. She still had room for improvement, but seeing as she got pretty far today, I ended the session. I decided to try to perfect the trick the next day.
What do you think the hardest trick for your dog would be?
What areas does your dog excel in, and what could they improve in?
How often do you spend training you dog?
