teaching puppy to wave, eliminating food lure

Hello,
I've gotten to Filou to lift his left paw pretty high, using a food lure, and started say "wave" at the clicking moment. Will continuing to practice that help me eliminate the treat? Would add a hand signal be too confusing? I'm still pretty new at this, so bear with me.
I've tried to introduce a target stick (wooden) and he chews it. Could a target stick be used instead of a food lure for a behavior like that?
Many thanks-Jen

Comments

Shake Paws

Hi
I did this with both my dogs, I eliminated the food as a lure but still click and treat. Initially I held my hand as if it still had the treat and then gradually opened it to become a visual signal. A high hand is a wave, a hand level with my dogs is shake paws. I've trained them to offer left and right paw to different hands and verbal cues. I now reward paw occasionally to keep the behaviour sharp and they respond well to either a verbal or a visual cue for paw. I've also developed into wiping face but thats another story looks really cute though. Its all about shaping and taking it a step at a time.

Targets, lures, free operant shaping

Aidan's picture

Hi Jen, I'm not even sure how you would use a food lure to teach a wave, I applaud your creativity!

Teaching a paw target is fairly easy, and very useful. If you've already somehow managed to teach Filou to target food with his paw, then perhaps your best bet is to pretend you have food in your hand. Then you can start fading your hand as a target while still clicking for the behavior.

I teach this trick using free operant shaping. It's difficult to do shaping any justice in a short email, have you seen any videos of free operant shaping? There are a selection of free clicker training videos here.

Regards,
Aidan
http://www.positivepetzine.com

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