Teaching Your Dog to "Give Paw"
Hi! I'm Pam Whiteman, editor of our PetFoodDirect newsletter, and I am not a dog trainer. Before I got Buddy, I had never trained a dog and I think it's terribly exciting that anyone who is willing to do the work can have a well-trained dog. Today, I want to show you how I taught Buddy to "give paw." I wanted him to learn this trick mostly because he did not like having his feet touched. The first time I took him to the vet and she clipped his nails it was wild! Buddy had to wear a muzzle and it took three of us to hold him down and clip his nails. Buddy was terrified and I wanted to help him be more comfortable. So, I started working on desensitizing his feet. I started by wiping his feet down when we came in from his walks. He would then get training treats in the hopes that he would associate having his feet touched with something good. After a week or two of that, I started having him lie down and I would rub his feet and give him treats. Then, I decided to teach him how to "give paw." First, I needed Buddy to understand the word, "paw." So, I would pick up his paw -- over and over -- and say, "paw." I would give him treats to keep him interested in our game. We worked on "paw" every evening for about 4 or 5 days until the concept clicked for Buddy. When he gave me his paw for the first time, we had such a celebration! Lots of praise! A treat! We were both delighted. We continued working on this every evening for a few more days until Buddy was consistent. He's a quick draw with the paw! The most exciting thing to me about all this is that anyone can train a dog. I watched a lot of dog training programs on TV, read a few books, and am lucky enough to have Valerie Wagner, our Pet Care Advisor, as an informal coach. But anyone can make a huge difference in their dog's life just by spending 5 or 10 minutes a day on training.
