How do you train a dog how to shake?

Question

I have a 1 year old rat-terrier, and it's the first dog I ever had that didn't already know how to shake. Is their a eaisy way to teach her this, and how long before she gets it down?

Answer 1

Well, it maybe different for different breeds of dogs, but I have a pug and it took him about a week to teach him. Just have the dog in a sitting position, then tell her, in a firm voice, SHAKE, then grab her paw and shake it. Do that many times, giving treats after each time. If she does get it right, show her that she did an excellent job and reward her and say things like GOOD GIRL, SUCH A GOOD DOGGIE! :-) That's wat worked for me. It may be easier if you teach her to sit first if you haven't already.

Answer 2

You can do as others have suggested and take her paw after saying "shake," then reward her. She'll get it eventually. However, here's my favorite way of teaching it:

Have your dog sit. Hold a treat in your fist and place your fist at about your dog's chest level. Don't say anything, just let your dog work to get the treat. Most dogs will sniff the hand, then may lick at or even nibble it a bit. But then they start to paw to get the hand to open. When this happens, praise her and give her the treat. Do this until she is pretty quickly pawing at your hand. Now, say "Shake" and do the above. Do this three or four times, then try it without the treat.

A note about the poster's suggestion to "knock the ankle." You need to kind of nudge the back of the ankle, not the front of it.

And, MJ, there's no such thing as a useless trick! Anything a dog can learn is beneficial.

Answer 3

We just kept kind of knocking the ankle a little. We'd say "Shake" and wait a second then knock the ankle, which seemed to instinctively bring the paw up and we could catch it, then make a big delighted deal and give a treat. Do like 10 times in a row 3 -5 times a day, expecting him to make the first move more and more and the dog will be trained in no time.

Peace!

Answer 4

O.k please define "Shake"
hands? repeated grasping of paw and saying "shake" with reward or praise.
Water off? (I use this most with retrievers) Your dog needs to be steady to sit and stay command! When she comes out of the water-make her sit and stay-while dripping when then say "shake" the first thing she'll do is shake off the water and will come yp associate the act with the command,

Shake a rat?-she's a rat terrier it'll come naturally!!!

Answer 5

hi the 1st step is to get the dog to sit. having acheived this givethe dog praise and pat its head. then stroke its front with the flat of the hand all the way down eventually the dog will automatically ofer its paw. sometimes you can lift the paw gently and repeat the process always praise the dog good luck

Answer 6

Everbody seems to be thinking you want to teach her a useless trick!

If you mean to shake her body, try blowing softly into her face, that will often get them to shake, especially if they are wet.

Answer 7

I would say to just continuously put his paw in your hand and say shake. Keep doing this until you can just put your hand down there and say shake and he automatically puts his paw in your hand.