Touch. Good. Treat. Repeat.

Today was a great day and I'm very proud of my little boy Max! I worked on getting him used to his paws being touched. I'm going to have to wipe them with pet wipes so they're fresh and clean. After we got back from our walk outside, I decided Max was ready for an exercise of a different kind. 

Can we please go train now? I'm cold.
(Ignore my owner's sausage foot)

I wanted to teach him that getting his paws touched was ok and that it wouldn't harm him.  I know that food makes Max happy so I went to the kitchen and selected this type of treats called Beggin' Strips, which are these dog treats that have the strongest smell of bacon and are easy to rip into tiny pieces to give to him during training. We have one other type of treat which is biscuit-like and makes too many crumbs. It's not good for breaking into little pieces so I used the Beggin' Strips. Another great alternative is tiny pieces of boiled chicken breast (no bone!) 

For this training session, I began by using the clicker but quickly realized that the verbal cue of the word "good" was better because the clicker got him too excited. Sorry I got too ahead of myself. A clicker is a handy little tool which does just that: it makes a clicking popping sound every time you press down on it. It's very precise and sounds the same to a dog each time unlike a word which you can say differently (emphasis on different syllables). 

This clicker has a sharper sound

This one is a little bit quieter

The reason why the clicker becomes useful is because I had already made Max associate the sound with food. You'll hear the phrase "charging the clicker" a lot when people refer to this tool. Simply put,  the dog or cat for that matter, learns that with the sound of the clicker comes a treat. Charging the clicker is that initial phase of creating the animal's connection between the two. With enough repetition of click treat click treat, Max now knows that the click is a good sound and one that he should look forward to. I'm glad he does, because that association comes in pretty handy when I want to teach Max things like sitting in his carrier and staying on his bed while I move around. 

It's a great tool, but for this particular exercise I set it aside. I broke the treat into tiny pieces and placed it on the living room table. I sat down on the floor and told Max to sit. When he did I'd say "good" and then I'd reach to lift his paw but he would quickly get up and bark. I realized his frustration after many attempts at this. Then I decided to ask him to sit after I had gently lifted and held his paw. That didn't work either and after fifteen minutes of trying this I knew that it wasn't his fault. I just wasn't communicating it the right way. Basically my goal was for him to calmly remain seated as I lift and eventually wipe each of the front paw (the back paws will have to wait until a later time!) I decided to gently remind him to stay seated while I placed my right hand on the back end of his body. I made my other hand flat and then gently touched him on the highest part of his left front leg and worked straight down until I reached the bottom of the foot and lifted it. As soon as I did this I practically shouted "good!" and the popped a treat in his mouth. I repeated this many many times and reminded him to remain seated. After multiple times, I gradually increased the amount of time for which I held the paw. Then I took the wipe (which by now had dried) and repeated the actions. After about an hour and a half, here is what I can show you:

Yes!

Ah, the small things! I was so happy with him that I was shouting praise excitedly so I hope I didn't scare you Maxie pants!

Please, I don't scare so easily!

I'm going to look through the books I have and see if any of them offer good ways to teach him to willingly "give paw." First, I'll practice what I did today with him so that he gets comfortable with getting his paws touched in the first place.