This page may contain affiliate links. In addition to sharing our personal experiences, we often write about products and services that we use ourselves or that we believe would be a helpful resource for you. To support our work, and remain a free website, we receive a commission from some of the links we share.
Teaching your dog to shake hands is a pretty easy trick. (It’s a good one to impress friends with too!)
My one dog has it down to a science, but my other dog still thinks you are trying to do something to her paw when you are trying to teach her to shake hands.
I’m going to try the exact tips mentioned in the following video and see if that helps her (and me!) better than the way I was doing it — which was very similar.
I do know that the secret to teaching your dog to shake hands is to make sure you have plenty of treats ready. And be prepared to give your dog lots of praise for even the slightest improvement toward accomplishing the trick.
Here are some simple tips for teaching your do to shake hands…
The video below highlights these 5 steps:
- Put your dog in a sit position.
- Put your dog’s paw in your hand, and praise him with a “Good boy,” and then give him a treat.
- Help your dog to get it right. What you want to see is your dog starting to lift his paw for you. You can help him out by tapping on the back of his paw. As soon as his paw is lifting, place in your hand and give him a “Good boy.”Yes, it’s like you did all the work for him, but it will help your dog to associate what exactly it is that you want him to do. Don’t forget to give a treat — even if you made the trick happen more than he did.
- Keep doing this until your dog is offering you his paw on his own (in order to get the treat).
- Finally, give your dog the sign (open palm), and as your dog puts his paw in your hand say “Shake.” Immediately give your dog a treat and a “Good boy!” Do this several times in a row until you’re sure that he’s connecting the fact that an open palm means he should put his paw there.
Once you have mastered shake with your dog, you can teach him more fun tricks.
Here are 101 dog tricks to choose from. There are lots of basic and advanced dog tricks that would be fun to try!
I have 2 Miniature Pinschers. My husband and I consider them our 4-legged kids.
