To teach a dog to give paw, build voluntary hand contact before adding a word.

Find the first contact

Practise somewhere quiet, with rewards already appropriate for your dog.

Never pick up the paw or close your hand around it.

Offer a closed food hand and keep it still. Mark and reward when a paw touches it; sniffing or licking is a different response.

If no paw follows, your dog struggles or leaves, stop and try later.

Alternatively, Battersea starts from a familiar sit: guide a reward from above the nose toward the dog's right. Reward a voluntary left-paw lift, then offer your other palm for contact.

Our sit lesson covers that separate starting skill. Choose which route you are trying before changing the setup.

Remove the food prompt

Following Dogs Trust, once contact is familiar, use an empty fist; reward from the other hand. After that works, offer an open palm and reward contact.

If the changed hand gets no response, return to the last presentation that worked.

Add a cue and progress

Dogs Trust gives its paw word before presenting the learned hand; AKC names its shake just before predicted contact.

Keep the asking word separate from the marker that identifies successful contact.

A different hand or setting may need easier practice. Return to the familiar arrangement for uncertainty; do not punish another paw.

High-five is optional: gradually change the learned presentation higher or upright, marking and rewarding contact.

Dogs Trust names high-five before offering the hand; Battersea adds it as the hand is presented.

A session can end without progress. Note the hand, prompt and response that actually occurred. Our nose-target lesson teaches a different contact. The training reward pouches category identifies storage equipment, not a suitable reward or a learning result.