How to Teach your Beaglier to Shake Hands

Once you have taken the responsibility to buy a Beaglier puppy, then the next step you need to take is to invest some time in training him how to behave properly. Dogs are a lot more fun when they are well behaved, yet too many owners simply don’t take the time to train, choosing instead to blame their Beaglier for bad behavior. Training your puppy can be highly rewarding, and once you have mastered the basic instructions, such as getting him to sit or come when called, then you can start to move on to what we like to call the party tricks.

One of the coolest party tricks is having your Beaglier shake hands when asked. Like all training sessions, this one is going to take some time and effort to get him to master it, but it becomes a little easier if you have him somewhat trained prior to this point. Getting your dog to give a paw and shake your hand begins with him in a sitting position, so you will find that you will have much more success here if you have already trained your puppy to sit on command. Now, let’s take a look at how you can train your Beaglier puppy to shake hands.

When you plan on training your Beaglier puppy to shake hands, make sure that there are no distractions in the surrounding space, and be sure to have a bag of treats in your pocket, as those little nibbles are going to be your best friend. We all know how much Beagliers LOVE food! Start out with a treat in your hand, and follow that up by issuing the sit command to your puppy. Once has is sitting and paying full attention to you, put your hand with the treat in it a couple of inches off the ground and close to his paw. He may try to stand up at this point, and if he does, give the sit command again, which is something you may initially need to do a few times.

When he lifts his paw off the ground or paws at your hand with the treat, praise him and give him the little treat. Batting at your hand is what he will most likely do here, but since that is close to the act of shaking hands, give praise and the treat. Once he has done this a few times, you need to start bringing your other hand into play. When he raises his paw to touch the hand that holds the treat, take your other hand and gently take the raised paw. Again, praise and a treat should be offered up when he does this correctly.

Once he consistently raises his paw for the treat, start to say “shake” when you take his paw with the other hand, as this will help him associate the action with the word. Over time, you should start to phase out the treats until you reach the point where he is properly reacting to the shake command without you having a treat in your hand.