"Wave" - from a sitting position

[milos_mommy]

I'd like to teach Edna to "wave" because I think that's a cute trick. She already shakes hands and has easily transferred that to touching my hand when I hold it upright in a "high five" position.

However, if I try to do this from a distance, or move my hand slightly out her reach, she will reach her paw towards me, but immediately jump up from sitting to come close enough to paw at my hand. How do I get her to remain seated and lift her paw?

 

[MandyPug]

Work on a really really good stay that she won't release from until she gets the release word.

 

[milos_mommy]

Yeah...she has a really good stay. It didn't occur to me to tell her to stay before asking for her paw. Duh.

 

[kady05]

Yup, make sure she has a solid stay. And work often standing further away from her. Lots of dogs know tricks when you're standing up close, but when you stand further away, they get confused.

 

[Xeph]

My Strauss both gives a foot (not the same as high five) and "waves". They are two separate tricks, even if they use the same general action, so I trained them that way. Stay is implied, regardless of whether I ask for "foot" or "wave".

I actually used a target stick initially to get him to wave. In order to get him to lift a foot, I began by lightly tapping the side or back of his pasterns, I would click him when he raised the foot. Eventually the criteria was that he had to touch the stick more than once with his foot, which got the wave action. I transitioned the target stick as a cue, to me pointing at one foot or the other to get him to wave.

A finger pointed at a foot = wave
A hand held out flat = give me your foot.

 

[misfitz]

I taught wave as a hand signal, the same as "give paw" only it's from further away. Sienna's problem was that she also knows "sit pretty" and when I'm more than a foot or two away, she wants to raise BOTH front feet.

I've had the best results practicing this a lot with a clicker. Only clicking for the single foot, with lots of repetition. And I had to add distance very slowly, like inches at a time. Good luck!

 

[Maxy24]

Make sure you're not actually giving the paw/high five command but are just offering your hand and the dog is just assuming that's what you want. Instead of moving your hand away in the forward direction try moving it up out of reach, see if that helps. She might just leap up but maybe not, give it a try and see.

 

[milos_mommy]

Lol thanks everyone, but I got her to do it just by asking her to stay first. It's adorable.