"Breaking" a dog from offering its paw?

[Papa Deuce]

Any idea on how to get my Golden Retriever to stop offering her paw?

Telling her no, and smacking her paw isn't working at all. I can't think of anything else to try.

 

[HeatherH]

Your dog wants to shake and you want to break her of it? Why?

Unless she is doing it incessantly, I think it's kind of cute.

 

[phorsenuf]

Why do you not want her to offer her paw? Did you train her that to begin with?

 

[Serena]

Change it to "shake" like the previous poster said. Offer a treat when you ask for shake and no other time.

This is not something to break, but to encourage in another direction. Have you trained it to do other things?

 

[manning]

Oh oh, sounds like politics are going to the dogs. What office is this dog running for. Shaking hand, in this case paws can get you a lot of votes.

 

[Papa Deuce]

Your dog wants to shake and you want to break her of it? Why?

Unless she is doing it incessantly, I think it's kind of cute.

Because she is doing 500x a day. We did not train her to do this.

 

[daisax]

Turn your head away and give the cold shoulder.

That's dog language for "I'm not interested."

It may take a while.

 

[suejai]

Is she putting her paw over your arm or your leg while you are sitting down? Because from everything I've read this is a sign of her exerting dominance over you. Are you alpha in your house?

If she is just standing in front of you and offering up her paw as if you asked her to shake a paw then I would just ignore her and not offer any eye contact and she should eventually stop, I hope.

I like watching the show Dog Whisperer, it gives lots of great tips on how to handle dogs. It has helped me immensely with my very stubborn Fox Terrier.

 

[LuvCuteBoys]

Turn your head away and give the cold shoulder.

That's dog language for "I'm not interested."

It may take a while.

Oh, that just makes me sad!

 

[NMAmy]

Maybe this is a golden thing. Our golden does this all the time, too. She wants me to just hold her paw, not shake. She's not a cuddly dog--in our case, this just seems to be her way of connecting with us. In fact, every time she does it, I say, "I know. No hugs. We're just good friends."

When I feel like indulging her, I hold her paw. Otherwise, I ignore her and she will lie down after a second or two.

 

[Papa Deuce]

Is she putting her paw over your arm or your leg while you are sitting down? Because from everything I've read this is a sign of her exerting dominance over you. Are you alpha in your house?

Dominance? Not her. Except for this trait, I can LITERALLY make her do many things just by looking at her a given way.

I say "office", and she RUNS to our office and lays down. She lays at the bottom of the steps a lot. If anybody comes close she runs to her crate.

She just started this on her own a few weeks ago, and nothing seems to help, including showing no interest.

She is darn near a perfect dog in every sense. Well behaved. Can trust her with any child. She's an awesome dog - except for this.

 

[ma2jr]

Turn your head away and give the cold shoulder.

That's dog language for "I'm not interested."

It may take a while.

I agree...

 

[Serena]

Dominance? Not her. Except for this trait, I can LITERALLY make her do many things just by looking at her a given way.

I say "office", and she RUNS to our office and lays down. She lays at the bottom of the steps a lot. If anybody comes close she runs to her crate.

She just started this on her own a few weeks ago, and nothing seems to help, including showing no interest.

She is darn near a perfect dog in every sense. Well behaved. Can trust her with any child. She's an awesome dog - except for this.

I swear my Maxie talked to me just by looking at me too. She was an amazing dog and I loved her to death.

 

[minkydog]

Because she is doing 500x a day. We did not train her to do this.

I was about to say this is a non-issue until I read this. I'm assuming that it's not really 500 times a day, but still too frequently for comfort. I agree with a PP, turn your head and walk away. Only allow her to shake at certain times of day and only for a limited time. We had a Saint Bernard who would sit there and "shake" all night long if you'd let him. It wasn't a dominence issue--heck, even the baby was dominent to this dog--but he seemed to enjoy it immensely. We just had to let me know that a few "shakes" is all that is necessary to make us happy.

 

[MinnieMe87]

Send her to my house, maybe my Lab will rub off on her! We cannot get her to learn to shake for the life of us. Every time she starts to sort of shake, she'll tip herself over and lay down.

 

[Papa Deuce]

I was about to say this is a non-issue until I read this. I'm assuming that it's not really 500 times a day, but still too frequently for comfort. I agree with a PP, turn your head and walk away. Only allow her to shake at certain times of day and only for a limited time. We had a Saint Bernard who would sit there and "shake" all night long if you'd let him. It wasn't a dominence issue--heck, even the baby was dominent to this dog--but he seemed to enjoy it immensely. We just had to let me know that a few "shakes" is all that is necessary to make us happy.

Oops... 1 too many zeros...

But people can't sit down anywhere w/o her coming over and putting her paw on their lap, including guests.

 

[suejai]

The dominance thing just depends on how the paw is being offered, but it sounds like you have a winner there.

Maybe if you re-direct her attention to something else when she offers her paw without acknowledging the offered paw. Just throwing out suggestions.

 

[JR6ooo4]

Oops... 1 too many zeros...

But people can't sit down anywhere w/o her coming over and putting her paw on their lap, including guests.

ya, thats a pain.

especially with our freddy. he has sweaty pads and leaves wet footprints whenever he is nervous... or happy.

for the guest issue it might be easier to start not letting her go near the guests without being asked. then anyone who likes dogs and asks will think the paw is cute!


we had the inlaws over last weekend. the dogs kept looking at me all confused. wondering why these two people did not want to pet them.

Mikeeee

 

[2binak]

I agree with previous posters who said just ignore it and she should stop. When you touch the paw, even if you say "no" while doing it, you're giving the dog a positive reinforcement. She wanted to be touched and you touched her. It will take a while, but it should work.

You could give her treats when she removes her paw. That will teach her that removing her paw is a good thing and will help with training her not to do it.

 

[Papa Deuce]

Here she is: