Pawing

[Chaselin]

Hi everyone. My baby girl will be a year old tomorrow. (July 5th). Anyway she is a great dog. She is freindly, she listens to me.... im sure most of you love your Rottie as much as i love mine. My question is: when ever she gets excited and someone wants to pet her she "paws" at them. Kind of like shaking but she isnt presenting her paw she is actually putting her paw on arms legs ect. She doesnt do this all the time. How should i teach her not to do that? She is already sitting when she does it. I tell her "off" but sometimes she will do it again. Any advice? Thanks for your help. :D

[bear1906]

I think thats kind of cool...

I guess dogs do the instinctively to communicate a certain emotion/desire...

I had a GSD dog that did it, and whenever he did it, I would say "paw"...eventually he did it on command...

I just taught the same trick to my 16 week old rottie...

Guess I'm in the wrong then, huh?

[Carina43]

I have a six month old who does the same thing when he wants attention...I don't mind it. But he only does it to me, and not frequently.

If I didn't want him to do it, I would make it unrewarding. Since his goal is attention, I would turn away from him, dislodge the paw & ignore him until he stopped doing it...THEN he would get attention.

[WorkinDogz]

When she's doing it without being "asked"; tell her "No Sit"...reward/praise her for sitting and having all 4 paws on the ground...then ask her to "Shake" or "Give Paw".

Yeah...it's "cute" that they do this; and ordinarily it's not a big deal but, it is less cute when you're a small child and that paw is 1/2 your body weight or an elderly person with very sensitive skin.

Conditioning her to only do it when asked; and no positive reinforcement given (like Carina said!) when she does it without being asked makes it even more adorable ;)

[southerncomfort]

If I didn't want him to do it, I would make it unrewarding. Since his goal is attention, I would turn away from him, dislodge the paw & ignore him until he stopped doing it...THEN he would get attention.[/QB][/quote]

I agree with Carina.

[delila]

My female just stated doing this a couple of months ago. If I kneel down in front of her, and have her sit she will give me the paw. She will normally put it on my arm or leg. She is SOOO happy if I just sit there and hold her paw.

I kinda like it. She does not do this to anyone else :)