How to Train Your Dog to Stop Pawing

Max is a beautiful Golden Retriever, who is adored by his family and loves attention. When Max was young, he wanted to be petted all the time, have his ball thrown all the time, and just generally wanted attention--all the time! If family members did not pay attention to him, Max learned that he could put his paw on their leg, or paw at their hand, to get their attention. Because the kids in Max's family thought this was a cute and human-like gesture, they responded in the worst way possible: by giving attention to Max. Even though mom and dad tried to discourage Max from putting his paws on people, the kids, and guests responded positively to Max's pawing, so Max learned that if he just kept pawing to get attention, sometimes it would work. 

One day, a friend came over for coffee and brought her 3-year-old daughter. The little girl was sitting in the family room playing with some toys and mom was enjoying a coffee in the kitchen, when friendly Max went over and put his paw up on the child in an effort to get some petting, inadvertently scratching the girl's face. Max's owners felt terrible, the child was hurt and scared, and the friend... well, she hasn't been back for coffee since.

People use their hands to show affection, so it is easy to interpret a dog using their paws as cute and affectionate. But it is not! Dogs do not use their paws to show affection, it is actually a dominant behavior, and is an indication that your dog is not respecting your position in his pack. Dogs that use their paws to demand attention are not respecting your space. Besides not wanting to encourage your dog for being disrespectful, pawing should be discouraged as it can be dangerous. Young children or seniors with fragile skin or who have faces close to the ground can be easily injured by pawing behavior. The problem is, however, that if your dog has been rewarded in the past by getting attention for pawing, this will be a more difficult behavior to break. You will need to teach your dog that pawing does not get a pay off, ever, and that there are other more respectful behaviors your dog can engage in that will get rewarded.

One of the most important things to do to ensure success teaching your dog to stop pawing is to ensure everyone in the family, and friends and guests to your home, are on board.  If anyone rewards pawing behavior with attention in the home, they are setting up a variable reinforcement. That is, sometimes pawing is rewarded. This makes the behavior very difficult to extinguish, as the dog has learned that the behavior is worth doing, even if they do not get immediately rewarded, because sometimes it will work! This will require discipline and patience on everyone's part, to be consistent and not reward pawing. Using a clicker and treats to create alternative behaviors can be useful to redirect pawing behavior, and may be used in conjunction with efforts to extinguish unwanted behavior.