I FINALLY got through to her!

[Laurelin]

Okay so since I've had Summer I've been trying to teach her 'high five'. I have taught it to every dog I've ever had in just a sitting or two. But well, Summer never even thought to use her paws so it's been challenging. So I've been using a marker on the ground and then trying to move it up. For the longest time it didn't work. But a few days ago she did something unexpected- she pawed at it!

So now I have it marked where she will paw any object I'm holding but I can't seem to transfer it to my hand. How would you go about phasing out the target?

It seems so silly since I've taught her a lot of more complicated commands than this but for some reason using her front paws is a little hard for her to get.

 

[Whisper]

I'm no help since I'm in the exact same spot with Lucy! So I wanna learn, too.

 

[CharlieDog]

I'd just work on teaching her to paw something that can be cut down smaller and smaller. Or, perhaps teach her to paw an X, and then draw it on your hand. I'm sure once you get her pawing your hand with the X on it consistently, she'll get the idea.

 

[MericoX]

I'd start putting marker in hand... so she gets used to pawing at your hand, but still at the targer. Slowly get it up to... high-fivable height. And then start taking away marker.

And THEN when she knows high-five... you can teach Wave, and then two-pawed wave.. and its the adorablest thing EVAH.