Dog trick: Wave left, wave right!

Quite some time back, after I taught Donna the high-five, I started to teach Donna to wave left and wave right.

But I stopped working on that after a while, so she lost the memory for that I think. At least, in this video, it’s either she can’t differentiate left or right anymore so she tries both. Or she’s just too excited to focus. To give her credit, at least one of those paws would be the right one, right? Haha.

How she was Waving Left and Right weekend before last

I can’t tell left or right, human! So I’ll just wave both… sure to get it right, right?????

In any case, she wasn’t in the right frame of mind anyway being too excited and probably close to frustration, so we stopped after this video clip that night. No point pushing it and setting her up for a sense of failure, right?

That video above was from the weekend before the last. Subsequently, we have worked on waving on and off.

This is the result after two weeks. Both videos taken today, during short 1-2 minute sessions that’s maybe an hour or two apart.

Note: In both these videos below, Donna is taking commands at about a metre away from me, so that I can fit as much of her on the camera as possible. One man show here and no tripod! :P Sorry! Anyway, she does much better when she sits right by me. She is responding to my hand gestures more than my words actually. One metre away is a new distance , which is interesting because the hand commands seem to be less clear to her. So her response to the left and right are even more muddled than if she were nearer. 

How Donna did her Wave Left, Wave Right trick today – session 1

Subtitles don’t synch very well, apologies! But I find it cute when she nom nom nom and continue to stare at you with those eyes that scream – treat, treat! 

Since it’s during the daytime, she is sleepier. She typically can sleep the afternoon away. :P But she starts the session with a smile so I think she is anticipating it.

I was throwing the treats for her to catch to make it more exciting for her because I know waving is not her favourite thing compared to other actions that she can do better.

It’s not the first time I notice her shuffling her two paws a lot before lifting one. I’m not sure if:
(1) it’s a habit she has just developed
(2) the floor is slippery so she needs to right herself for balance before lifting a paw
(3) she is hedging while trying to decide which paw to raise :P

Hopefully as she gets better at waving, this shuffling will decrease.

How Donna did her Wave Left, Wave Right trick today – session 2

Not so patient or just bored with wave left, wave right?

Waving is not her favourite thing yet because she needs to decide which paw is left and which is right, so I think that really works her brains! :P She is visibly less patient for this session compared to the previous, I think.

Two things we’ll continue to work on for wave left, wave right:

1) Having the confidence to raise the correct paw to the correct cue
– Right now we can still see her getting it right sometimes, but at other times still unsure. So she tests by lifting one paw then the other, so she may observe which turns out to be the correct one in the end, for which she gets a click and treat.
– In her case, it is important for me not to say “no” or make other sounds or actions that she may perceive as negative. This is because Donna is a really cautious, safety-first type of dog. By this I mean, she’ll rather not try at all than get it wrong. So these sort of reactions from me will impede her progress.

2) Rising the paw higher to imitate a wave
– A few months back when I first tried to teach her to wave, I tried to extend the association of wave to high five so that she may wave high. But somehow, she still ended up with a slight lift of her paw and wriggling it (pictured below 1st picture left).
– So in these videos, she is already waving higher than she used to. But I hope she can lift her paws higher still so it will look like a real wave eventually. :D

A few months back, when I was teaching Donna to wave in response to the cue “Who is a good dog?”

Does your dog know Wave left, wave right? Any tips to share? :)