How to get a 5 month old male puppy to give paw

[BethaniiMarcinko]

For some reason I can not get him to give me his paw and that's one thing that I wanna be able to teach him. When we had a female german shepherd I was able to teach her to give paw and for some reason I can't seem to get him to give it to me. How can I teach him? It's so much easier to have my other german shepherd paw when she was alive.


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[balloons]

The way we learned in puppy classes is to hold the treat in front of their nose, and tap the leg that you want them to give you then immediately click and treat once its up. Do this a few times until they get the hang of it, then add in the name, "shake" "paw" "hello", and gradually fade out tapping the leg, then fade out the treats.


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[kelina]

it took a lot of treats and TIME!

It basically holding her paw, saying "PAW" then putting the treat on her paw lol.
Keep doing that and BAM!

[runnershigh108]

Instead of "Paw" I taught Gem "high five"...same thing as paw just more of a show off thing for guests, I guess.

How I taught her: held my hand out, say "five" then grab the paw and put it in your hand, give treat and praise. Do this over and over and over and over and eventually she'll get the hang of it. ONce she gets it you can say "high Five" she won't really know what the high part is but shell recognize the five.

Gem likes giving fives so much that anytime she does anything good or cool its high five time.

[gaia_bear]

Wow there's so many different methods, hopefully one works for you. I taught paw or shake a paw with a clicker and lots of treats using the "capture" method, I think that's what it's called. I'd hold a treat in a closed hand and when she pawed at my hand click and treat. After a few repetitions I added the cue and started randomly distributing the treats instead of every time. Once she had paw down we worked on left and right.


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[Cassidy's Mom]

Another method that worked very well with Halo, (who does an AWESOME "gimme paw") was to tip the dog off balance by pushing gently at the shoulder. Most dogs will lift one paw when you do this, so you just have to quickly grab the paw, mark, and reward. The first time I saw it demonstrated, it was so smooth and quick that I didn't even realize what the trainer did to get that perfect paw lift. He was facing her while she was in a sit, and he used his right hand to push her slightly to the left, while reaching forward with his left hand to grab the paw.

I've heard that the method that gaia_bear describes is pretty effective too, but I don't want my dogs to paw at my hand when I'm holding food, and since I start training them from an early age that the way to get the treat in my hand is to ignore the treat and offer eye contact, it wouldn't have worked very well for me anyway.

[reck0n3r]

What I did with Rusty was simply have him sit, and I'd say "shake", to which he obviously didn't know, but I wanted him to know that I wanted him to do something. After that I picked up his paw and put it in my hand and said "shake" and gave him a treat.

After just the one repetition he's had it down pat. I thought him high 5 the same way.

[Lilie]

I've always had the dog sit first (treat). Then say the command of choice, "Gimme your paw" with high value treat in hand take same hand and touch under the chin. The pup wants the treat, knows it's in your hand and most of the time will take their paw to control your hand.

Even if the paw moves just slightly, reward. If the pup just sits there looking at you like you're an idiot, give the command again and touch under the chin. Move the hand out from under the chin to remind the pup that the treat is still in the hand, and repeat....but don't nag.

[BethaniiMarcinko]

Having him sit wasn't a problem, he would sit without even telling him to sit. When we first brought him home he would sit down next to the refrigerator when we would open it. But it seems like I try to do some of what you guys tell me to do, touch his paw and saw paw he doesn't listen he just wants his treat. I even picked his paw up and he still doesn't give it to me, he'll sometimes gives it to me when he plays and I say good paw hoping that it would help by praising him for giving me his paw and that doesn't seem to work either.


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[Cassidy's Mom]

Have you tried what I suggested? If he's in a sit in front of you and you tip him slightly off balance by gently pushing on his shoulder he'll lift a paw. Grab the paw as you mark the behavior ("yes!") and give him a treat. Rinse, repeat.