When we last left off, I was training Luke on having his paws handled so that I could trim his nails. We were also working on “roll over” and that wasn’t going so well. I tried moving the “roll over” training to our bed, so that maybe he’d feel more comfortable rolling over, but that didn’t help. I decided to set that aside for now and work on something else. I had originally decided against training him to do anything involving paws, because he has not been comfortable with having his paws handled. However, since we’ve been working on that and it’s going well I decided to try “high five”.
Per instructions I read online, I was to hold a treat in my fist, hold my hand up, and get him to try and get at it with his paws. Guess what? He nosed my hand over and over but not once did he try to get it with his paws! So I switched it up and instead of doing just that, I told him to “give paw”, which we had learned, and when he pawed at my hand I clicked and treated. Once he had that down, I put the treat in my other hand and gave him the palm of my hand instead, and started adding the command “high 5”. It took him literally only minutes to figure it out, and I was able to stop using the clicker in no time.
The next time I wanted to get him to use his other paw, which was a little trickier. We had been working on “other paw” some when doing his paw handling, and I sometimes had to tap the back of his leg to remind him, but he got that down pretty quickly too. Occasionally he wouldn’t get it, and he would just start throwing all of his paws up so that’s when I decided that next we would train “all ten”. We’re just starting to get that too! He still needs some more work, but I really am excited at how quickly he’s been catching on. It more than makes up for our lack of success at “roll over”.
I decided to make a little video so he could show off! He was a bit distracted in the beginning, I think because my hubby was there taking the video. Later in the clip you’ll see another distraction for him as well.
The video is edited some, so you only see one of the times he was totally screwing up! One thing that is so cute about him is that when he gets a little frustrated, and is not comprehending what I want, he has a “go to move”. He’ll kiss me! He knows what will make his Mom happy. I’m really proud of how he did here, especially in light of the distraction he had towards the end! Neither my hubby or I saw Sam, though I did see Luke keep looking behind me, and I did ask my hubby at one point if she was out there, because I knew she had been in the other room earlier.
A few notes:
- I no longer need to use the clicker for this training but I am still using treats when we do a session like this. We work on this occasionally throughout the day though, with no treats.
- I think that Luke responds to my hand gestures as much as to what words I use for commands, if not more. I’ve noticed this with his other training as well.
- The nail trimming is going very slowly, so we’re going to try something else for that as well….I’ll keep you posted.
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That video is great. Luke is doing really well at that.
I’m not allowed to “high five” – they say I was too rough. The male biped stood up and I wacked him in the wrong place when they tried to teach me that! He was doubled over with a red face! I’m sure I could do better now but he doesn’t want to risk it again!
Oh, Clowie, that is too funny (with apologies to your biped for laughing)!! Luke’s paws do get flying sometimes, so I can see something like that happening. I guess it’s a good thing I’m doing this trick training, and not my hubby! 🙂
Awww, so cute. I would love to train “kisses” as a default move.
I plan to add that into the repertoire, so to speak! He will actually give hugs too, so it’s really just a matter of taking what he naturally does and applying a command to it. I know he will do “kisses” I just haven’t commanded him to….yet. 🙂
Nice job! One of the things I love about clicker training is determining what your dogs’ strengths are and tailoring things to fit their individual personalities/preferences. Ruby and I had tabled a trick that we just recently came back to, and a new approach brought success! Luke looks like he really enjoys your sessions – the most important part. Thanks for joining the hop this month!
Thank you! He really does enjoy it. He gets so excited when he knows we’re headed downstairs, where we do most of it, for some training!
I definitely try to stay open to tabling things for a while, and coming back later with a different approach. There are so many things I want to try with him, that there’s no need to harp on something that’s just not working at the time.
So cute!! Good boy, Luke!! You know, Lucas never learned rollover either. I suspect it’s a physiology issue, like it’s too uncomfortable or something? Paw work is a ton of fun, though, and he’s nailing it!! Nice work!
Thank you, Maggie! I definitely get the impression from Luke that he is just not comfortable rolling over. Though we do see him lying on his back when he’s sleeping sometimes. We’ll try it off and on, but won’t ever push the issue. It’s just for fun anyway, and there’s plenty of other tricks to learn. The paw work is more important, as we hope it leads to being able to clip his nails. Plus I’m trying your peanut butter plate trick, and that is helping too!
I think roll over is one of the most difficult tricks to train. Don’t you think that teaching him that touching his paws can be fun and rewarding will help with nail trimming? I do. 🙂
Oh, I do think it will help….at least I sure hope it does! I actually tried my different technique today, and it went pretty well! Only I realized I need to work on handling his back paws more.
I’m so glad you said that about roll over. We’ll come back to it but maybe do some more easier stuff first! 🙂
Great job with the High 5! When I was helping the shelter run their training classes it was always a lot of fun to watch people try to train High 5s or rollovers. People felt less anxious about the training because it the behavior fell into the “trick” category.
It is definitely easier when training something just for fun, over the more important stuff! It’s not such a big deal if they don’t get it.
I did that too toegther, I thought it gives me the time to take a look on his dew claw… sadly we failed, I was disappointed the pup stuffed with treats.
Instead to use the clicker I only tried it with cookies, I’m a nut! today the clicker comes back ha!
The clicker will probably do the trick….good luck!
Trust me, there’s been times the only result we ended up with was a pup stuffed with treats too!
Luke your a smarty pants and too darn cute, great job with the new trick!
Luke thanks you! My favorite thing to say to him is “you’re so smart!”. 🙂
I’ve heard this trick is easy to train, and I think I’m going to try it with Cricket to see if I can disprove that theory. LOL
That is so cute. Maybe I should try that one with Rita too. I kinda gave up on training her to do tricks when we couldn’t move past “roll over”. Out last 2 dogs leaned roll over so easily, but maybe she just has issuse with that trick and we can try something else. She knows “shake” and “other paw” so maybe it would be easy to add in the high 5’ing. You guys sure made it look easy! 🙂
Oh, I think you’ll find it easy to progress from shake and other paw to high 5! You should definitely try it. Roll over really discouraged me too. I think some dogs just might have issues with it….Luke would flop on his side, but seemed to scare himself when he tried to go on to his back. We haven’t completely given up on it, but I wanted to have some successes to build our confidence! Honestly, I didn’t expect High 5 would be it, but it sure was!
too, too cute, and an awesome job-loved watching Sam in the background and still Luke went on!! Just love it, what a smart boy, and patient Mom!!
Thanks, Lynn! I think Sam was trying her hardest to throw him off his game, but it didn’t work! LOL
You two are doing an amazing job! It’s nice when our pets can train us to know when they’ve had enough, and it’s outstanding when we are able to recognize those signs. So proud of you both. You go girl!
Thank you so much, Cathy! Learning to communicate with Luke and understand him more has really increased our bond….that’s the biggest reward.
It’s so satisfying when things start falling into place! Great job on the training.
Thank you. Luke is the first dog we’ve really done formal training with, and I can’t believe how rewarding it is!
Wow, Luke is doing pretty good with the high 5. The mom would love to teach us tricks but she doesn’t have the patience. 😉
Seriously, I know some people do teach their cats to do tricks! I don’t think I’d have the patience either though. 🙂
Mr. N’s therapy instructor says one of her dogs won’t do roll over either. Mr. N refuses to jump up or bark on cue. I haven’t put a lot of work into it but I think he thinks it’s “rude” lol.
High five is one of Mr. N’s favorite tricks and people love it. Yay for you and Luke!
Ha ha, the last thing I want to do is encourage Luke to bark, because once he starts he doesn’t stop! Just kidding….I think that is a tough one to teach, though one of our other dogs used to do “speak” very well.
I think you were at least one of the ones that gave me the idea to try high 5…I’m so glad we did! Thank you!
Good job Luke! Mom has given up on teaching me High Paw but Roll Over I love to do! I get a little over excited though like Luke does. Mom’s going to try to work on the High Paw again after seeing this. Love Dolly
That’s funny….I guess you each have what you like! We haven’t given up on roll over, I just wanted to take a break from it for now. I hope you’ll let us know if you get the High Paw this time!
That’s awesome! High Five is such a great trick!
Thank you! It’s really a fun one.
My sisters and I have been doing high 5 for years, but recently, Mom added a twist on it for me. You could use whatever command you like, we use feety up and then hold, because Mom is silly. It is where I put my paw up for high 5 but leave it up and hold it there. It makes for some fun with photos. Luke might like it too.
Oh, we might give that a try too! Once he has this really down, which he’s close to, we’ll want to move onto something else and that sounds fun.
I simply adore that you and Luke are such an amazing training team. He offers his “go to move” and you follow his leads on what he enjoys learning. A lot of dogs I have worked with that disagreed with rolling over did better learning it after learning “play dead.” A roll over is a pretty logical step after “play dead” and, surprisingly, most “roll over” shy dogs are more fearful of the putting their head low part of rolling over, which they must do in “play dead,” than the belly exposure. Naturally, once the trainer knows what part of the action upsets the dog, working through it results in a more confident canine! Which leads me to wonder about Luke and his paws… This does not look to me like a dog afraid of paw touching. Have you tried simply holding his paw? No nail touching, no nail clipper, no poking of any kind, just your hand around a paw? Gentle paw holding has been huge for Brychwyn’s paw issue progresses. We humans forget that nail trims involve a lot more than just the paws and nails. Nail trimming can feel uncomfortable to wrists, ankles, elbows, knees, shoulders and hips as well. If Luke can get used to an eventually longer and longer gentle, loving paw hold, maybe even sweet squeezes, he may reveal more about why nail trims are not his thing. Also, with everything I have learned about small animal massage, passive touch like a paw hold is very therapeutic. Thanks for joining Positive Reinforcement Pet Training Week this month (and for using our restyled badge!) I look forward to more updates and fun as you and Luke continue your training journey together.
It amazes me every day how much training increases our bond, and we really have fun together. If it’s not fun, we stop.
I might try starting with “play dead” then and see how we do. He actually seems to scare himself when he starts to roll over onto his back. We’re trying to do that with him playfully when on the bed to see if he’ll get more comfortable with it that way.
I have been trying just holding Luke’s paw sometimes. Like if we’re lying in bed, I’ll just casually hold onto it. Sometimes he still pulls it away, but he really is getting better. And when I have treats in my other hand, he will let me consistently hold his paw….and I hold it firmly yet gently. But when the clippers come out, I’ll get one nail and then he’ll start pulling away again.
He seems to be worse about the nail trim of his back paws, and it had occurred to me that it could be because of his knee problems. So I’m trying to do it without actually lifting his paw much. I wish I could do it with him lying down, but if I have treats, he always jumps up for those. That could be something else to work on though.
We will keep trying things until we find something that works!
how awesome. I think I need to find your post on the paw work and read over it. my Pug Olivia is a little thing but when it comes to nail clipping she turns into Professional WWE DIVA and there is no getting it done. She lets me handle her paws but when she sees the Nail Clippers its over with and she is a BEAST. I had a friend who came over to try to help who thought I was exaggerating she helped once and said NEVER again. I found an awesome groomer who was able to work with her and get them done but she MOVED. I was so devistated. I am on the search for a new groomer now. I would really rather her get to where I could do them on my own.
I should have linked back to that post, in fact I think I’ll go back and fix that. But here’s the link here: http://www.afarmgirlsfinds.com/positive-pet-training-taking-it-slow/
The problem with this technique is that I can only get one nail at a time, and I’m bad about doing it daily. So progress is too slow! Once I clip one nail on him, he’s on to me, and that’s the end of that! I’ll keep working on it, but I want to try something else as well, and I will post about that soon too.
Good job. I tried teaching Delilah this. I had a green bean in my hand and she was so focused on the GB that she couldn’t do what I asked. Sampson was sitting there observing the whole time and finally walked up to me and high fived me! It was priceless. He had never done that before!
She does better now that we use food a lot for training, but in the beginning all the lab could see was the food. 🙂
Oh my gosh, that is too funny! I do find that Luke does better if I don’t have the treat in my hand…so I try to keep them close by. If the treat is in my hand, sometimes he gets too focused on that as well!
Oh wow! What a great video!!! Well done Luke and the momz!
My huskies high five too, and I just love that trick!!!!
ღ husky hugz ღ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!
Thank you! It’s a fun one, and I just know Luke will like showing it off to people – which I think helps him when he’s feeling shy.
What a smart boy! Good job, Jan, with the training!
Thank you, Sheryl! He’ll definitely want to show you this next time you come over!