Next I thought it would be fun to teach Gracie a useless but cute trick, so I decided to train her how to shake hands. This was actually fairly easy to do, and she caught on faster than the tricks I previously taught her.
In 101 Dog Tricks, Kyra Sundance says to hide a treat in your hand in front of your dog, and encourage your dog to paw at it by cheering them on. Next, you should, "reward your dog with a treat the moment his paw comes off the ground" (22). I found out with Gracie that the timing of when I give her the treat is crucial.
Once your dog begins to recognize raising their paw is how they earn the treat, you should increase the level of difficulty by raising your hand higher in the air. Once your dog has gotten the hang of this, introduce the hand signal. You should cue "shake" by extending your right arm, and when your dog paws your extended hand, reward him with the treat (22).
Now that I have trained her three new tricks in a short period of time, I found that the timing of when I reward her with the treat makes all the difference in how quickly she learns. I think I have been improving as a trainer by improving my timing of rewarding Gracie, something this book has helped me greatly with. If you have a dog, do you think the success of a trick depends on you as a trainer or your dog?
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