Shake

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1. Hold your hand out to your dog.

2. Your dog may do some experimenting to figure out what you want, like sniffing, licking, etc. The key is to wait it out, not saying anything. As soon as your dog paws at your hand, click/praise, open your hand, and give the treat.

3. Repeat the above step several times until your dog is consistently pawing at your hand.

4. Once your dog is consistently pawing your hand, start building the duration and increasing the difficulty. Have your dog hold their paw on your hand for slightly longer before you praise/click and treat.

• Remember, you aren’t giving any verbal cues to your dog yet. You want to make sure that your dog completely understands the trick before adding in the formal cue. This will help avoid confusion or accidentally teaching your dog to paw at you instead of shaking your hand.

5. Start slowly with building duration when your dog paws at your hand. Wait until your dog’s paw rests on your hand before clicking/praising and treating. You want to make sure that your dog understands what you want is their paw on your hand, so the timing of treating and praising is important.

6. Ask your dog to hold their paw on your hand first for only for a second before clicking/praising and treating. Your dog will figure out that what gets the treat isn’t just scratching at you, but placing their paw on your hand.

7. When your dog is consistently placing their paw on your hand, start introducing a verbal cue of your choice. “Shake” is the most common cue, but you can use any word you wish. When you hold out your hand right before your dog’s paw makes contact, say “shake,” then praise/click and treat. You want your dog to make the association between the “shake” behavior and the verbal cue. Again, timing is important. You want to start introducing the verbal cue right before your dog offers the “shake” behavior, and when you are confident your dog is going to shake your hand.

8. When your dog is consistently successful at this level, you can flatten your hand sideways and hold it out to your dog, asking them to shake by using your verbal cue. When your dog’s paw meets your hand, click/praise and treat. If your dog doesn’t shake at that point, it just means they aren’t quite ready for this step.

9. When your dog is consistently able to place their paw on your outstretched hand, you can start to introduce some gentle movement up and down. Remember to praise and treat for this too. If at any point your dog becomes nervous or uncertain, just back up to the previous step where they were successful, work that a few times, and then slowly re-introduce the more challenging step.