Want Your Dog to Wave Hello or Goodbye? Read This!

If your dog knows how to give a high five, learning to wave will be a breeze. It’s the easiest trick on the AKC Intermediate Dog Trick Title to learn, and it’s a little surprising it’s listed as “intermediate.” If you are interested in training this too, keep reading this step by step tutorial.

What is the Wave trick?

The wave trick is when your dog raises his paw up really high in the air. We view that as your dog doing a “wave” hello or goodbye to you. You can use any cue word that you want – I usually put my hand up and wave it and say “wave” as my verbal cue, but you could use “hello,” “goodbye,” or anything else.

How to Train Your Dog to Wave

All you need to train this trick is a hungry, marker conditioned dog, and some training treats. I trained Ezra how to wave after he learned how to high five, and I recommend doing that. But even if you don’t know high five yet, that’s OK. You can still learn to wave following these steps.

Step 1: Train your dog to paw your first via food luring.

If your dog doesn’t know how to high five, I’d start here. Otherwise you can skip down to Step 3. In this step, you want a hungry dog and some patience! Start by:

• Sit your dog and grab some kibble.
• Hold the kibble in your fist and present it to your dog.
• Wait patiently for your dog to paw at your fist. He may lick your fist first but stay patient.
• Once he paws at your fist, mark the behavior and release the kibble for him to eat.
• Keep repeating until he is immediately pawing at your fist.

Step 2: Transition from a fist to your hand.

In this step, I basically do everything the same as with my fist, except with my hand.

• Hold the kibble in your hand. You can either hold it between your thumb and palm or in between your fingers.
• Wait patiently for your dog to paw at your hand. When he does, mark and treat.
• Keep repeating until he is immediately pawing at your hand.

Step 3: Stop food luring and pull your hand away.

In this step, you do everything from step 2 except you don’t hold any kibble in your hand. Instead, you will treat your dog after he exhibits the right behavior.

• Hold your hand up without any food in front of your dog.
• Your dog may seem confused, and that’s OK. Wait patiently for him to react.
• Once he paws at your hand, pull your hand away.
• Quickly mark and treat the behavior.
• Keep repeating until he’s getting it.
• Add the cue word. I was “wave” but you can use any word you want.
• Then keep practicing with your cue word.

I also begin shaking my hand as if I’m waving hello or goodbye during this step. It’s important to keep practicing wave and high five separately because your dog will definitely get them confused in the beginning. But that’s it – your dog now knows how to wave!

Conclusion

I love this trick because it’s really easy to teach your dog. It doesn’t require any fancy techniques or technical skills. It doesn’t require any special props. All it requires is a hungry dog and kibble. All you have to do is:

• Place kibble in your fist and wait for him to paw at it. Keep repeating.
• Then hold kibble in your hand and wait for him to paw at it. Keep repeating.
• Then stop holding the kibble in your hand and begin to pull your hand away when he paws.
• After a while of repeating, add in your cue word.
• Always mark the right behavior, praise, and reward with a treat.

And that is it! How long did it take for your dog to learn to wave? Comment and let me know!

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