Shake Hands?

[Rainey]

Hi there,

I just had a basic question to find out the general consensus over the shake hands command? Scud has just learned how to do it, but before I cement it into his head should I continue??? The reason I ask is because I heard somewhere way back that it is not a very good command, and that he may never sit neatly if he's always lifting his paw.

Thoughts?

[Guest Pandii]

Sorry I have never heard this

I am currently teaching a 2 1/2 yo a 2 yo and an 8 month old to shake hands

they all know sit and sit when I ask with all paws on the ground

but they can paw at me to get my attention

[Miss Monster]

My sisters 2 labs both shake & hi 5 and quite happily sit perfectly until given the command to lift their leg to do either - I think it's all in the training.

Are you going to be doing obedience with him - does him lifting his leg while sitting matter too much if you are just teaching manners/tricks????

[Rainey]

Cool! Well I did think that he would be able to distinguish the two (sit from shake). I will just enforce that he does not get a reward for sit unless all paws are on the ground.

We won't be showing him, he is just our child, but I wouldn't like to train bad habits into him while he is so young and easily influenced.

[leopuppy04]

both my dogs learnt shake hands as a basic 'puppy' behaviour (first trick we taught them) - they never offer it in the middle of a sit. Once you have it on cue, just make sure you don't reward it unless you asked for it and you'll be fine

[Arya]

What the??? Shake hands, a BAD trick to teach????? That is HO HA I am here to tell you that your dog will sit straight with all four paws on the ground if you teach the shake hands command. Shake hands is shake hands. Sit is sit. They can tell the difference. Pawing at you for attention is also a behaviour motivated by different reasons. If the dog offers a shake to you sometimes when you are teaching something else, this is sometimes referred to as 'superstitious behaviour'. It might not be a shake, it might be something else the dog knows well and can do automatically, like bark. The reason for this is lack of understanding of the command you are giving on a new trick or obedience excercise. I am here to tell you that my girl plays up in the ring but she has a suite of more than a dozen tricks and I've yet to see her pull one in the ring at an obedience trial.

TEACH SHAKE HANDS. It's a very important trick. You have just taught your dog to target your hand with its paw. From there you can teach numerous other tricks, like targetting a small piece of mat or tin lid with the paw and then running to a mark and banging the paw down on it and standing, sitting whatever. You can also teach your dog to switch lamps/lights on from this simple shake excercise. Targetting the hand, then targetting the switch and fading the hand away. You can then teach them to wave too.

Don't let anyone tell you differently. Shake hands is great and won't interfere with obedience excercises. Neither will any other tricks. Not even doggy dancing where the heel position is not stuck to and I'm sure agility peope (LP?) will tell you working on the right hand side of you and stuff won't interfere either. The dogs learn. They can differentiate.

[Rainey]

Thank you so much everyone! I was sceptical as well, thats why I wanted to ask you all!

My mind is at ease now! Hehehe.

[PAX]

If you're worried about 'shake' and 'sit' sounding the same you can always use a different word. I use 'paw' for shake.

[BC]

Cooper loves shaking hands a waving

When he is in a sit however, and I am giving him a command that he does not fully understand, he tries to shake my hand if he is confused. Actually, he does it everytime he is confused regarldess of the position

When I was originally teaching him the left finish, I would get ahead of myself sometimes and do it without food when he did not fully understand what I was wanting. My command is "left" and he would sit there and look at me and then lift his paw to shake my hand, but that was my fault. At least I know now when he's not too sure.

I think all tricks are fun, but I think some need to be taught at the right time, eg, bow.

Go for the tricks though. The dogs enjoy them and it breaks up the formal obedience training

[Ms James]

Yep, we use "paw" as well, & "high 5". It's a real crowd-pleaser for the kids

[Mystiqview]

shake hands is as bad as rub belly.....

Set the scene.. Obedience ring... recall.... beautiful recall.. get to infront and stop, sit. Then roll over for belly rub... very funny....after you get over you just got a zero for the exercise.

Had the same with shake hands...stand for exam... person comes near... up comes paw for shake.. does not have to be sitting for shake hands...and I do use "paw" and not shake.....it just became too common to come up.. sit or stand and lift paw...

arrgghh dogs.. gotta love em

[gila]

wow i never thought of a raised paw during a sit as a bad thing. spence has always done it since he was a puppy..before we taught him anything. we've since taught him a few paw-related things like shake, gimme 5, and high 5, but he will still sit with a raised paw and tilted head after he's finished an exercise. he looks as if he's saying, "treat please!" it usually gets a laugh from the other people in the class and a few "awww"s! having said that, he will sit with all four paws on the ground when i tell him to "sit".

just wondering why it would be considered a 'bad habit' if you're not planning on doing obedience trials?

[Jean26]

Kasier learned to shake hands (both paws, but with one firmly on the ground) in one 10 minute session (so proud ) as a 10 week old pup. He only does it on command.

My sister taught her rotties to shake their whole body on command like when they shake water off their fur. Would LOVE to teach Kaiser that!

[The Spotted Devil]

The only problem I had with my dearly departed ACD and "shake hands" was that she was strongly "left-pawed". She used to give me these 'sad' and 'confused' looks as I tried to teach her. When I finally twigged and asked for her LEFT paw you could see her go then and we never had another problem. Nor did she ever do it unless she was asked

[jaybeece]

The only problem I've had after teaching him to give me his paw is that he's more likely to paw for attention. That and he knows "right" and "left" and will give me both to save time occasionally. Not so much a problem since it's pretty damn cute when he does it

He gets this immense look of satisfaction on his face like he's saying "See, I knew you were going to ask for the other one too so I saved time! I'm great! Gimmee food! YAY!".

[squeak]

I tend to agreed with leopuppy's comment on superstitious behaviour. I have also been told, and agree through observation of other people's dogs as well as my own, is that for superstitious behaviour, it is very often the very first "trick" that you ever taught that the dog will offer when they are confused. So, if this is true, I am extremely grateful that I chose to teach "paw on knee" (I was trying to teach shake!) instead of "speak".

[Rainey]

Well I am happy to report that Scud's training is coming along nicely. I tought him to hi-five tonight (after the suggestion in this thread) and made a short video clip of his tricks so far.

Here is the clip:

You'll have to excuse the sloppy trainer in his uggs and old clothes (for handling the dog), hehehe.

Edited September 15, 2007 by Rainey

[jaybeece]

Damn that's a cute little pup And so well behaved!