The simplest of cool tricks to show your dog is to cross their paws. It is really easy and adorable especially for miniature, toy, and small dogs. You can teach your dog this sophisticated and cute trick by following these simple instructions. Start the exercise with your dog in the down position (of course he should already be trained to do so before attempting the ‘cross paws’ trick)
Now have your dog offer his paw on command. If he does not know how to respond to this command yet, simply reach out and grab one of his paws. Be sure to click once (using a clicker) and offer a small treat each time. It is important that your dog remains in the down position while doing this.
One great tip is that if your dog still does not seem to understand you, then place the treat in your hand a few inches away from the paw you want to shake with. And before long your dog will almost instantly move his paw to the treat in your hand.
Continue having your dog offer his paw, but be sure to concentrate only on one paw at a time and do so repetitively with a click and a treat. When your dog has reached the stage where you can rely on him to target your hand with one of his paws, slowly move your hand closer to your dog’s other front paw. Now in order to offer you is paw, he must lift it up and move over sideways in order to reach your hand.
What may happen is that he may choose to lift the opposite paw instead of continuing with the trained paw. Each time this happens, all you have to do is pull away your hand and simply ignore this response from your dog.
When your dog can target your hand as it has moved to the opposite side, near his other paw, quickly snap your hand back at the last second. His moved paw should now land right over the other paw and in a crossed-paw fashion. Be sure to click and offer a treat.
Finally,continue repeating this training regimen and each time his paw crosses over, slowly fade your hand away so it is further from the dog. Eventually, your dog will automatically cross his paws when he sees your hand signal, and at increasingly longer distances away from you.
Posted under Dogs General, dog training
This post was written by admin on December 25, 2008
