Teaching "shake", the hand signals
Hello again!
I have a 1 year old male cocker spaniel (this guy) and we're working on learning some new commands right now.
things he responds to so far:
sit
down
leave it
go downstairs
get in the box (the crate)
up
dance (moving around in a circle)
I want to teach him to shake like I did my old cocker, but we've worked on it quite a bit and I still can't get him to offer me the paw. I'm wondering if there might be a better teaching strategy.
When we have a session, I get him into a sit, then hold out my hand and tell him "shake". If he doesn't offer, I pick up his foot myself, say "shake" again, and then reward him. It's the same strategy I used with my old cocker, but he doesn't seem to be catching on.
I also noticed he seems to be responding more to my hand gestures than the verbal commands sometimes. With "down", for instance, he won't lie down just on command. I have to do the same thing I did when he was learning, moving my hand from his head down to the floor. That's kind of a pain. Is there a way to get him to respond to the command without the gesture?
I have a 1 year old male cocker spaniel (this guy) and we're working on learning some new commands right now.
things he responds to so far:
sit
down
leave it
go downstairs
get in the box (the crate)
up
dance (moving around in a circle)
I want to teach him to shake like I did my old cocker, but we've worked on it quite a bit and I still can't get him to offer me the paw. I'm wondering if there might be a better teaching strategy.
When we have a session, I get him into a sit, then hold out my hand and tell him "shake". If he doesn't offer, I pick up his foot myself, say "shake" again, and then reward him. It's the same strategy I used with my old cocker, but he doesn't seem to be catching on.
I also noticed he seems to be responding more to my hand gestures than the verbal commands sometimes. With "down", for instance, he won't lie down just on command. I have to do the same thing I did when he was learning, moving my hand from his head down to the floor. That's kind of a pain. Is there a way to get him to respond to the command without the gesture?
