How to Teach Your Dog Left Paw vs Right Paw on Cue

Some pet parents teach their dogs how to shake, and that's that. It's adorable, seeing a dog hand over a paw to shake, but is that really all there is to it?

I was talking to my vet a while back, and he told me a story that made me think there could be a lot more to "shake" than most people believe.

He once had a patient, he told me, who was an extremely obedient and well-trained pooch. It was a Shiba Inu, a breed notorious for being headstrong, stubborn, and prone to ignoring commands. This one was fiercely obedient and surprisingly loving despite its demeanor.

What really stood out to him, though, was how much the obedience with this dog played into receiving vet treatment. During a routine check-up, my vet was going about his usual inspection when the Shiba's parent stopped him and showed off.

"Each," is what the Shiba's parent said, and the pup obediently lifted up its front paw for a quick look at the paw pads, nails, toes, and overall foot health. "Knee," he said next, and the Shiba put down its first paw and lifted up its second. What was especially astonishing, though, was how it continued. "San" and "Yon" followed, and the Shiba lifted up each back leg in turn.

Now, those trigger words weren't what you might think. "Each" is actually "Ichi," and "Knee" is actually "Ni"; these are just the Japanese words for One, Two, Three, and Four. But here in America, the chances of someone accidentally triggering a command using Japanese are slim, so they made perfect training commands.

It wasn't just about teaching the dog to shake; it was about teaching how to raise each individual paw. Any time that pup's parent suspected their fur baby had an issue, or even just when it came time to trim their nails, a nice and easy command made it a simple matter to access whichever paw needed attention.

Now, I haven't gone that all-in on training my own pups. Left and Right are usually good enough, and I socialize them enough that I can get to their hind legs when I need to. Still, it's undeniably a pretty cool bit of training and obedience, right?

Shake vs IPT

First, it's worth acknowledging that this isn't really "shake" anymore. It's something called IPT, or Individual Paw Targeting.

Your dog has an awareness of their own body and knows the difference between their paws.

What they don't have is an innate understanding of what is "left" and what is "right" or what is "front" and what is "back". They don't really have a concept of directions the way we do, and the words we use to describe them are just meaningless noises to a dog.

Your goal is to promote a specific behavior, which is lifting a specific leg. You also need to associate each specific leg with a specific sound. In the case of my vet's story above, it was a simple Japanese word. In our case, it could be anything we want.

How to Train a Dog to Lift the Correct Paws on Command

You're here for the training steps, right? Let's get to it.

Step 1: Pick Your Commands

The first thing you want to do is give some thought into the commands you want to teach your pup. If you're going all-in with all four legs, you can pick words that remind you of each quadrant of your pooch.

One bit of caution is to make sure you're picking words that aren't things you'll commonly say in life, to the extent that you confuse your pup. Certainly, most dogs are smart enough to recognize when you're talking to them versus when you aren't, but then, I'm sure you've seen the funny videos of dogs responding to commands that come from the TV or from a song on the radio, too. Adorable as it is, it can get in the way of training.

Some people use numbers. Just using One, Two, Three, and Four can work, especially if you precede it with an overall command, like Lift One, Lift Two, etc. Another idea I read on a dog training blog was to use specific training words: Shake and Paw for front left and front right, and Lift for back left and Rise for back right (L and R words help you remember them.)

Don't forget the secret fifth word: praise! Something affirmative, like Yes, Good, or Nice, serves as part of the reward system for training.

Step 2: Introduce a Target for the Paw

The early key to training individual paws is having a target for your dog to recognize. For front paws, this could be a box, stool, or other surface they can reach while sitting or standing, without having to stretch too high. You can also just kneel or sit in front of them and offer out a hand as the target.

Hind legs are a little harder. There are special dog training tools you can get that are modular boxes you can stack, but you don't need a specific product for this kind of training. A couple of stacked books, a closed Amazon box, or another slightly raised surface is all you really need.

Step 3: Lure and Mark

The actual training starts here. Grab a treat or a piece of kibble in one hand, and hold it in front of your dog's paw near the target. If they ignore it or don't know what to do, you can lower it and touch their paw with it, raise it back up, and repeat. Many dogs, though, will instinctively do two things. First, they'll nose towards it to smell what you have. Then they'll go for it; they might lick at your hand, or they might raise a paw to touch it. It's that second one you want to see, and it is worth immediate reward and praise.

The big trick here is getting them to use the correct paw for the task. You're going to want to work with front paws first, since back paws without a prior behavior might just have them turn to follow, and that doesn't work.

If your dog is hesitant to raise their paws, one trick you can use is to make sure they know you have a treat for them, and slowly raise it up until they have no choice but to basically stand upright to try to reach it. Once they do that, you can touch the correct paw and reward.

This is where you would be using a clicker, if you choose to use a clicker. If not, the treat and reward can be enough to work, but it can be a little less precise.

Step 4: Add Your Command

Once you get the general behavior in place, add in your command to the specific paw. When training the front paws, you can alternate between left and right, adding your individual commands for each, until they get used to knowing which paw is which.

Hind legs, again, are trickier because you can't lure as effectively. That's why you want to have the front paws trained already. Your dog can then understand that when you say a command and touch their paw, you want them to raise it. When they do, you reward them to solidify the behavior, and you're off to the races.

Step 5: Fade the Lure

Fading the lure is the term for starting to leave out the treat and only go with the click and praise, and then eventually just your verbal cue without the click.

Once you've completely faded the lure out, you'll know your dog knows the behavior you want them to do.

Step 6: Add Complexity

Complexity is the key here. You don't want your pup to just be raising paws and still shying away from you if you need to trim their nails, right? You can change up the surface you have them put their foot on, you can vary heights and directions, and more.

One thing you definitely want to do is "harass" their paw when they hold it up for you. Tap at their wrist a couple of times, put a little pressure up on it, and generally just be a little annoying. This helps desensitize them to you messing with their paws, since they know they'll get a treat or praise out of it.

Tips for Successful Individual Paw Training

The process, overall, is simple on the surface. The difficulty comes in all the little details that can make things go wrong.

Make sure you're varying your targets soon enough. You want to avoid a situation where you're teaching your dog not to raise a paw, but to put a paw on some specific object. I've heard tales of dogs who, when given the paw command, would go and place their paw on whatever object was used for training, not just lift it. Cute, but wrong.

Don't be afraid to be patient. Some dogs will pick up on what you're asking for right away. Others will have a harder time. I've seen dogs learn their tricks in just a session or two, and others take weeks of work. It all depends on your pup, so give them the time they need.

Consider working on supplemental tricks as well. You can combine paw training with scent training, for example, which helps you build a more robust list of behaviors your dog can execute on command.

Fortunately, this isn't too complex a behavior to train, so there aren't too many pitfalls to avoid.

Further Questions About Individual Paw Targeting

As usual, there are a few other details I wanted to include that didn't fit in the main post. Let me know if you have a question I didn't answer here!

Are there other benefits to individual paw targeting?

I get it; it's a lot of work to train such a specialized trick just to examine paws and do a little grooming. Truthfully, though, IPT is often used in two ways that go above and beyond those basics.

The first is as an advanced dog trick. Individual targeting with paws and nose is something a dog trainer can demonstrate at a show, such as AKC agility shows.

The second is a little more broadly applicable: it's for fitness. Teaching your dog to engage and lift individual paws and use assistive devices like training blocks and stools can help them stretch and work muscles they might not normally get much use out of. This can help prevent injuries, recover from injuries (like canine physical therapy!) and extend the comfort level for senior dogs.

If you can train these behaviors, they work really well when used properly.

Do you need specific tools for individual paw training?

Not at all! This is a dog trick just like any other, so all you need is a reward and the discipline to keep with the training.

I find that a clicker works well, too, but it's definitely not necessary if you don't want to use it or if your dog doesn't like it for one reason or another.

My dog really doesn't understand rear paw targeting. Help!

This one is tricky. One option I've seen is to teach them to back up first, put your lifted obstacle behind them, and get them to back up until they step on it. Once they lift a paw up and put it on the object, click and reward.

On the other hand, you can just not teach the back legs if you don't want to. They can be impressive, but if your dog isn't super averse to letting you touch their paws, you don't really need to make a special point out of it.

What do you think; do you feel like it's worth teaching your dog their left from their right, or is "shake" good enough for you? I've seen it go both ways, and I'm honestly still deciding myself, so weigh in down below!