****The shake hand trick****

johmel

New Member
Now I know that im not going to be seeing much of any results for probably about 4 weeks teaching this trick to my siberian husky...But this is my problem in week 1 with her. When I tell her to sit, she does. And when I grab her paw she gets out of position thinking that there is food there because I didnt give her any for sitting but I did click my clicker. Am I suppose to click my clicker after she sits even though the trick im truing to teach her is the paw? And how can I make it so after she shits, she dosent get out of position trying to see whats inside of my hand?

Thank,
Johmel
 

johmel

New Member
Also I feed her white cheese yesterday while I was training her. this morning her poop was white, could that cheese be bad for her?
 

Jean Cote

Administrator
Staff member
johmel;13383 said:
Now I know that I'm not going to be seeing much of any results for probably about 4 weeks teaching this trick to my Siberian husky...But this is my problem in week 1 with her. When I tell her to sit, she does. And when I grab her paw she gets out of position thinking that there is food there because I didn't give her any for sitting but I did click my clicker. Am I suppose to click my clicker after she sits even though the trick I'm trying to teach her is the paw? And how can I make it so after she sits, she doesn't get out of position trying to see whats inside of my hand?

Thank,
Johmel
Hi Johmel,

How long has your dog known the sit command for? If you've just taught it to her, then yes I would recommend that you give her a treat after sitting. If on the other hand, you've taught her to sit several weeks ago, then don't give her a treat.

You only click when you are reinforcing a specific behavior. So if you are not going to give your dog a treat after sitting, then you don't click your clicker. You can tell her 'Good Girl!' or something is similar in a positive tone of voice to let her know she did right, but without any food.

It will take some time and daily practice. Remember, if you practice 5 minutes a few times a day, your dog will clue in very quickly! It's also important that you do not give her a treat until you have her sitting down with her paw in your hand. If you happen to give it to her any other time, then she will think she earned it for standing up, moving away or whatever she was doing at the time.

P.S. How much cheese did you give her? You should cut your treats in pea size treats so that you don't overfeed the dog. ;)

I hope that this helps.
Jean
 

johmel

New Member
Jean;13386 said:
Hi Johmel,

How long has your dog known the sit command for? If you've just taught it to her, then yes I would recommend that you give her a treat after sitting. If on the other hand, you've taught her to sit several weeks ago, then don't give her a treat.

You only click when you are reinforcing a specific behavior. So if you are not going to give your dog a treat after sitting, then you don't click your clicker. You can tell her 'Good Girl!' or something is similar in a positive tone of voice to let her know she did right, but without any food.

It will take some time and daily practice. Remember, if you practice 5 minutes a few times a day, your dog will clue in very quickly! It's also important that you do not give her a treat until you have her sitting down with her paw in your hand. If you happen to give it to her any other time, then she will think she earned it for standing up, moving away or whatever she was doing at the time.

P.S. How much cheese did you give her? You should cut your treats in pea size treats so that you don't overfeed the dog. ;)

I hope that this helps.
Jean
I gave her little peices of cheese. But when i watch the video of you doing the paw, your dog just sits there and lets you grab her paw, you make it look so easy, lol. But when I try it, my puppy lays down and get out of the sit position. I have taught her sit for about a week now so I guess I will give her a treat everytime.
 

Jean Cote

Administrator
Staff member
I think that you should train your dog to stay sited a little longer.

To do this, follow the following:

Put your dog in a sit position, after your dog sits, click & treat.
Then continue clicking & treating every 2 seconds for about 15 seconds.

Release your dog with the 'Okay!!!' command, move to another spot and start over.

Remember: If your dog gets up, moves or anything, then she looses all possibility of earning those yummy treats!


Then later on, you can get her used to being touched while she waits sitting. Start by touching her head, or her side, eventually all the way to her paws.

Basically you would click & treat to reinforce your dog staying in that sit position.

(Wish I could be there in person, it'd be a lot easier to explain) LOL

Hope this helps.
Jean
 

johmel

New Member
Jean;13390 said:
I think that you should train your dog to stay sited a little longer.

To do this, follow the following:

Put your dog in a sit position, after your dog sits, click & treat.
Then continue clicking & treating every 2 seconds for about 15 seconds.

Release your dog with the 'Okay!!!' command, move to another spot and start over.

Remember: If your dog gets up, moves or anything, then she looses all possibility of earning those yummy treats!


Then later on, you can get her used to being touched while she waits sitting. Start by touching her head, or her side, eventually all the way to her paws.

Basically you would click & treat to reinforce your dog staying in that sit position.

(Wish I could be there in person, it'd be a lot easier to explain) LOL

Hope this helps.
Jean
Ok I think I get it. So after I tell her to sit and she listens I should click and give her a treat. Then After I do that I should tell her to stay and every 2 sec for about 15 sec I should tell her to stay over and over again and if she does, I should give her a treat for everytime that she does, am I correct? If so, what should I do if she decided to move? Should I say no and dont give her a treat or should I tell her to stay again?
 

Jean Cote

Administrator
Staff member
Just tell her 'good sit', and give her a treat. Keep bombarding her with treats while she is sitting. If she gets up - you stop giving her treats. ;)
 

snooks

Experienced Member
Click ALWAYS means treat. So if she sits and you click she gets a treat. If she knows sit on cue then you do not need to click her for sit. The clicker is for teaching not permanent use. Once the dog knows a behavior you do not use a clicker for it any more. So even if you accidently click the dog gets a treat. ALWAYS.

How about shaping the shake by teaching paw targeting instead of grabbing her paw. Leash he up so she won't run off. Sit on the floor and put your hand on the floor palm up. Every time she moves a front paw click/treat. Then up the requirement, she has to move the paw toward you or your hand. Have your hand right in front of her paw. If she accidently touches you hand C/T and then after that C/T for every time she touches your hand. At 80% success you can add the verbal cue Touch or whatever you use. Get up to 99% and start moving you hand around pick it up off the ground a little at a time and say touch C/T. Then get up the spot where you want a shake. You should get a paw touch.

Another thing to consider is that you need to reset every so often. Sitting for many minutes staring at a dog waiting for it to move is boring and frustrating to a dog. Release her and ask her to sit again and reset when you feel she quits thinking or offering behavior.

Keep each session very short 1-2 minutes 2-3 times a day. This is how I taught my dog to touch with nose and paw and to use left and right paw and touch different named objects. She can now shake on whichever side I put my and I say other and she give the other paw.

http://www.clickertraining.com/node/289 is a good place to learn about targeting.

Have fun.. :dogbiggrin:
 

johmel

New Member
She knows the hand shake now. My girlfriends mom actually taught her it in like 5 min and she caught on REALLY quickly. How exactly did you teach her to touch things with her nose?
 

tx_cowgirl

Honored Member
Staff member
I agree with Snooks; getting the dog to touch your hand with their paw of their own will is much more natural to them, rather than you snatching her paw.

Targetting is simply teaching the dog to touch objects(or you) with paw, nose, chin... This is beneficial in many advanced tricks. Use your dog's natural curiosity to teach this trick. For instance, to nose-touch your hand, use your thumb to hold a treat in your open palm with it facing the dog. The dog of course will go to grab the treat. Click and allow the dog to take it---but only after the click. Continue this several times, then just hold your open palm facing the dog(no treat) and say, "Touch!" Give her a second or two to process it and try to figure it out. If she doesn't, try the treat again a couple times and then give her another opportunity to do it without the treat in hand. Jackpot when she gets it right. You can advance this to touching objects later.

So let's say you want to teach object discrimination(knowing objects by name). Just as you held a treat on your hand, place her in a sit and place a treat on a rope(or whatever). She needs to be advanced enough that she knows not to break the sit to get the treat. You may point to the treat or say, "Okay(this is the RELEASE), touch the rope." When she takes the treat, click and reward her again(along with the treat she took from the rope).

Let's say for instance you wanted to teach your dog to pick up a ball. You sit the ball down, and the dog looks at it. That's interest. Click and reward! After a little while, she decides to try harder, and touches her nose to it. Again, click and reward! Then she decides to mouth it. You guessed it---click and reward. And so on...the same is true with paw targetting. Reward for the desired behavior.

Targetting usually involves letting the dog think for themselves and figure out what gets them the tasty treat(pawing or nosing). With other tricks, you're usually luring...but here, the dog has to think on her own.

So, if she's not getting frustrated and pawing your hand on her own in an attempt to get the treat, try targetting. Get a target stick or something and teach her to place her paw on it. Once she's got it, hold the target on your hand. Eventually you can remove the target and she will understand that your hand is also a target. When she gets it right, jackpot.
Remember to reward for the slightest attempt(barely raising the paw, rather than just waiting for the desired "shake"--chances are she may not "get it" yet, and if you don't reward her for trying then she'll get burnt out and give up).

Hope this helps! Good luck!
 

snooks

Experienced Member
Yay for the hand shake!! Touching with nose is even easier. If you smear peanut butter or something good and stinky on your hand it's very easy to get a nose touch. Just rubbing chicken or beef on the end will probably get a sniff. I started with my hand but if you want to do something that is the most versatile and can translate to touching other things you could use a target stick. Target sticks are basically any type stick with a ball on the end. You can by a nice metal telescoping one, some have clickers built in, or you can make your own with a wooden dowel from a crafts store about 2-3 feet long and stick a Styrofoam ball on the end. You can also use a long handle spatula if you like.

stick link http://www.sitstay.com/dog/supplies/servlet/product_10001_10001_40511_-1_Pocket+Target+Stick_13283_14026_

click stick http://www.petexpertise.com/dog-training-aids/dog-training-targets-sticks/clik-stik-retractable-target-stick-with-clicker.html?sef_rewrite=1 I found this clicker a little quiet but I like it.

Once you get the dog to lick be sure and click/treat. Then you can leave the food off as she gets better and click. Usually they'll continue to lick a little so I click touching with nose but not licking. The thing that's nice about the stick is that you can point with it and put it on the bell to ring for going outside and train the bell. Or you can put it on a light switch and train to turn the lights off/on. You can also just train the dog to follow the ball. This makes it very easy to teach tricks like weave poles, weave between your legs, spin in circles, go over jumps.
 
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