Things You'll Need:
- A calm and engaged dog
- Small training treats
- Patience
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Step 1
Begin by getting your dog's attention. You can show the dog the training treats or use any verbal or manual signals that you have used to get the dog's attention in the past.
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Step 2
Engage your dog. Once your dog is engaged, you will want to get him into a standing position, as it will be difficult for him to swipe the ground while sitting or lying down.
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Step 3
Choose a command word (something like "swipe" or "dig" works well) and give the command to your dog while gently taking her paw and guiding it in the motion you would the dog to learn.
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Step 4
Guide the paw in the swiping motion and, once completed, give the dog a treat and praise him, repeating the command word so that he begins to associate the word with the behavior.
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Step 5
Repeat this process until your dog begins to swipe the ground when you speak the command without your guidance. This may take several repetitions, depending on your dog's train-ability level. Always remember to praise the dog and offer the food reward, as this positive reinforcement will speed up the learning of the behavior.
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Step 6
Have fun. Once the dog has mastered the command, you can have some fun with it. You might create a swipe once for "yes" and twice for "no" system, or simulate counting with it. The possibilities are endless.
