Teaching a dog to shake is just about one of the easiest dog tricks you can teach. Shaking is a natural action and once your dog has it down, there are lots of fun variations. You can probably teach your dog to sit in just one or two three minute sessions.
To teach a dog to shake, you first need to teach the dog to sit. Once sitting, say to your dog, "shake". Reach down and lift his paw physically, then give him a treat and say "good shake, good shake". Release his paw and repeat.
Variations: (these are best taught with clicker training, but can be taught with treat and praise- just make sure that your praise is INSTANT so your dog knows exactly what he is doing right- read tips on teaching tricks for more tips)
Raise paw without trainer offering hand
Simply teach your dog to shake by offering your hand and practice until your dogs associates the trick with the command, or a small hand gesture instead of an offered hand.
Cute Commands to associate the gesture:
"anyone have questions?"
"WHO's" the best dog here? (command being "who's", or a gesture so you can vary the questions)
Shake your other paw
teach this right after teaching "shake" if you want your dog to be "ambidextrous" for all these other tricks. Tell your dog to shake, treat when he does, then say "other paw" and pysically lift the opposite paw. Command "shake" again, praise, then "other paw" and lift the opposite. Your dog should pick this one up quickly.
"no not that one! The other one!"
"right paw, left paw"
Raise paw high in the air
Teach this trick by withholding the treat until the dog gets frustrated enough to raise the paw very high, then immediately treat. If your dog is still associating your hand with "shake" then you can move in as if you are to shake, then move your hand higher as your dog reaches up with his paw.
"high five"
Raise paw and cover eyes
a prop is the best way to teach your dog "peek a boo". Stick and unstuck a 1x1 inch piece of masking tape until it is unsticky enough not to hurt you when pulled off your arm. Then stick the piece of tape just above or below the eye on the opposite side from the side your dog usually shakes on. (If your dog usually shakes with HIS left, put it on his right side of his muzzle). Most dogs will paw at it franticly (if your dog doesn't mind, try a large piece of tape, a big loop, or a doubled over non-sticky piece covering the eye). When the dog starts pawing, get him to stop by feeding him several treats in succession. As you are feeding the treat, say "peek a boo" and pause just long enough for him to paw again, then distract with treat. As he is chewing the treat, before he has a chance to paw his face again, say "peek a boo" and when he does paw, treat immediately after one paw. After 6 or 7 repetitions you should be able to pull the tape off, say "peek a boo" and get one or two spontaneous coverings of the eyes. To learn this trick reliably, you'll need to repeat the trick with and without the tape multiple times.
"peek a boo"
Raise Paw and touch mouth
Teach this with the same method used to teach peek a boo.
"wipe your mouth!"
Tip: Many dogs, after you teach them to shake, immediately sit and lift a paw whenever they see food. After you teach your dog to shake, be sure to vary the order in which you run him through his tricks. If he does lift her paw to shake as soon as you pull out the dog treats, simply ignore the trick and ask your dog to "down" or "beg" as the first trick instead. (Always vary the order of tricks. Make sure that 60% of the time when you ask your dog to "sit", the next command is NOT shake)
