Ideas to teach tricks

This is how we taught our dog to shake. We put him in the 'sit' position, we extended our arm (palm of the hand open), and said 'shake' with a firm voice. At first he didn't know what to do so with our other hand we grabbed his paw and put it on our open hand. When the paw was in our hand, we praised him saying 'good shake!' Then we repeated the exercise until he got it on his own!

Clickers work wonders for helping the dog realize what behavior you are trying to get them to understand. I think I just started clicking and treating Maddie when she held up her paw for any reason, then narrowed it down to clicking and treating when she let me touch her right paw. By then she would offer her right paw at the drop of a hat because she is very food motivated, so I only clicked and treated when she offered her paw after I said "How do you do." You should be able to get some basic info on clicker training online and/or at the library if you don't want to buy any books. I just picked one up called "The Only Dog Tricks Book You'll Ever Need" by Gerilyn Bielakiewicz. I got it at Barnes and Noble or Borders for about $8.

Mom agrees because dogs aren't born to speak English. Telling them to "shake" can be frustrating to them because quite frankly, what is a "shake"? Clicker training is based on rewarding the behavior that can then be shaped into the desired "act". Maybe a basic obidience class with one of your dogs *and then practice at home with both of them* would help you along the way. I went to canines in action with Alena (caninesinaction.com).