Shannon is a rescue I've had for about 5 months now. Technically, she's not old -she's 2 and a half. Still, I feel her learning a new trick is relevant to this task.



When I adopted her,Shannon already knew how to sit. She was also fairly easy to crate train. But for months, I've tried with very little success to teach her other things. For example, I still don't take her on walks. She tries to pull me everywhere & the last time I tried, she slipped out of her collar & I had to chase her around the neighborhood for 30 minutes & carry her home. I was so terrified that I'd lose her or that she'd get run over or that I'd get shot for running around in people's backyards. I do live in Texas after all.

She's a pretty smart dog in many ways. The first week of crate training, she managed to push the bottom tray out of the crate & scoot around in the kitchen, kind of dragging the crate with her. She's smart..but just hasn't been learning any commands (like lay down or stay or things I've been trying to teach her for months now.) I REALLY wanted to teach her how to shake but had almost given up.

Last night though, instead of feeding her dinner, I took her dog food & stuck it in my pockets. For the next 20 minutes, I proceeded to command her to shake while grabbing her paw & kept rewarding her with pieces of her dinner. She finally got it after that. Now she is throwing her paw up at me constantly & really milking this whole thing =) This taught me I should umm...be less of a lazy person. Teaching requires persistence. Who would have thought that to be the case?

I should have videoed the whole process but had little faith in a successful outcome.

Here is a video that was taken shortly after she learned her new trick. Toward the end you can tell she's all exasperated & to me, her eyes seem to be communicating the message, "Just feed me, damnit!"