Let the challenge begin, it is now time to teach your dog to give a hind paw on command.

The way you are going to do this is to tickle one of your dog’s hind paws whilst keeping its attention and luring its weight forwards.

To way to encourage your dog to lift one of its hind paws is by tickling the paw.  I find that the best place to tickle is right at the back of its paw. As soon as your dog lifts its paw as you tickle it, mark with your Yes command and reward.

After you have worked this for a while and your dog is happily lifting its paw when you tickle it, start associating a word to the behaviour. In the following videos with Manouk and Leo we associate the word “Tip” to the behaviour.

By continuing to tickle the paw you are encouraging your dog not to transfer some of its weight back on to this paw. The aim is for your dog to be able to lift a hind paw and then keep it in the raised position. To do this your dog need to learn to transfer its weight on to its other three legs so that it can remain in a balanced position.

When your dog is mastering its balance in the 3-legged position, start to fade the tickling so your dog learns to offer the trick only with the “Tip” command.

Note: Another location that some dogs will respond to being tickled in their groin, so try this if your dog is not responding too well to you tickling around its paws.