High five

The paw comes up high and slaps your upright palm in mid-air — the flashier cousin of a paw shake.

🐾🐾 · ~5 days · 5 min/session

Learn first: Sit

Step-by-step

1. A sit and an upright palm

   Ask your dog to sit and offer your hand upright, fingers pointing up, at their chest height. The difference from a paw shake is exactly this angle — there the palm lies flat and the paw rests in it, here it’s a wall the paw strikes. Keep your wrist relaxed but still.

2. Reward the first touch

   Hold a treat between your fingers behind your palm to hint at the target. The instant the paw leaves the floor and touches your hand, say “Yes!” and deliver the treat with your other hand. Early on, even a light nudge with a claw counts as success.

   💡 Don’t catch or hold the paw — the moment you grip it, the dog falls back into a shake and the new gesture loses its meaning.

3. Raise the palm higher

   Raise your palm two or three centimetres every few successful reps — from chest height up to muzzle height. Stop where the dog can still sit steadily. If their bottom leaves the floor, you’ve gone too high.

   💡 Never hold your palm so high that the dog has to rear up on their hind legs — that loads the lower back and knees. With a growing, heavy or older dog, ask your vet how far is sensible.

4. Add the cue “High five”

   Say “High five” half a second before you offer the upright palm. After a few sessions take the treat out of that hand and reward from your pocket. If your dog already knows a paw shake, train the two on separate days until the gestures are clearly separate in their head.

5. Stand up and show it off

   Straighten up slowly and offer the palm from above instead of crouching. Try it standing, sitting on a chair and with other people, so your dog generalises the trick. Finally ask for the other paw by switching hands and adding a second word — like “Other five”.

   💡 Keep the nails trimmed — one long claw turns a cheerful trick into a scratch across your palm.

Common mistakes

• Catching and holding the paw — the trick slides back into a shake and the dog stops telling the two cues apart.
• Holding the palm too high in the first days — the dog jumps or rears up instead of striking from a sit.
• Pulling your hand back just as the paw arrives — the dog starts swiping wildly and missing.
• A different palm angle every time, sometimes tilted, sometimes upright — the gesture has to look the same to mean the same.

Problems & solutions

My dog puts their paw in my hand and just leaves it there.

They’re doing a shake, because your palm is still half-flat. Turn it fully upright, lift it a couple of hand-spans off the floor and reward only a quick contact — if the paw settles, calmly wait and offer the palm again.

My dog jumps up at my hand with both paws.

Your palm is too high, or the moment is simply too exciting. Bring it down to chest height, ask for a calm sit and start over, rewarding only the single paw. Two-minute sessions keep the excitement manageable.

My dog only ever uses the same paw and never lifts the other one.

Every dog has a preferred paw, just as we have a dominant hand. Offer the palm on the side of the lazy paw and slightly out, so that one is the easier to lift, and reward the first attempts generously. If the dog consistently protects one leg, have a vet check that it isn’t sore.

Reward ideas

Small soft treats delivered with your free hand the instant the paw lands, plus a short game to close the session.