Dachshund I’ll admit something that probably disqualifies me from ever writing a serious dog training manual: I taught my dachshund to wave before I taught her to come when called. Priorities, apparently.
She was seven months old, ignoring her name with the confidence of a tiny aristocrat, and yet within four days she could lift one paw and flap it at guests like a very small parade float.
That’s the thing about the wave. It looks like an advanced trick. It isn’t.
Why the Wave Is Practically Built Into Dachshunds
Dachshunds were bred to dig. That means their front legs are doing something almost constantly, and paw movement is already wired into how they interact with the world.
Watch yours for ten minutes. You’ll probably catch a paw tap on your leg, a scratch at a blanket, or that dramatic pawing at the couch cushion before the sacred spin-and-flop ritual.
You are not teaching a new behavior. You’re taking one your dog already offers for free and putting a name on it.
The easiest tricks to teach are the ones your dog is already doing when you aren’t paying attention.
There’s also the body shape working in your favor here. Short legs and a long spine mean dachshunds sit very stably, with a low center of gravity, so lifting one front paw doesn’t wobble them the way it might a leggier breed.
What You’ll Need Before You Start
Not much, honestly.
Soft treats that can be eaten in under a second. Anything crunchy or chewy slows the whole session down and you lose momentum.
A quiet room without other pets, kids, or a window view of the neighbor’s cat.
Five minutes. That’s it. Short sessions beat long ones every single time with this breed, because a bored dachshund becomes a creatively disobedient dachshund.
Step 1: Get a Solid Sit
The wave only works from a seated position. A standing dachshund lifting a paw looks less like a wave and more like a pointer having an identity crisis.
Ask for a sit. Reward it. Do this three or four times so the sit is fast and automatic rather than something your dog considers negotiable.
If the sit isn’t reliable yet, stop here and spend a few days on that first. Everything downstream falls apart without it.
Step 2: Capture the Paw Lift
Here’s where it starts feeling like magic.
Hold a treat in your closed fist, right at your dog’s nose height, then slowly move it just slightly to one side and a couple inches up.
Most dachshunds will try their nose first. Let them. Wait.
Then comes the moment: they get frustrated, and they paw at your hand. That paw lift is the entire trick. Mark it instantly with a word like "yes" or a clicker, then open your fist and let them have the treat.
Repeat this six or seven times. Then stop, even if it’s going brilliantly.
If Your Dog Won’t Paw at Your Hand
Some dogs are nose-only problem solvers. They will boop your fist for a solid minute without ever considering their feet.
Try gently touching their front leg, just above the paw, while holding the treat. The light contact often triggers a lift.
Another option: sit on the floor and place the treat under your flat palm on the ground. Digging instincts kick in fast when something smells good and appears to be buried.
Step 3: Turn the Paw Lift Into a Wave
Now you fade the hand target.
Do the same closed-fist motion, but this time hold your fist a little farther away, maybe six inches from your dog’s chest. They’ll reach out and paw at the air instead of your hand.
That is the wave. Air paw, no contact.
Reward it immediately and enthusiastically, because this is the harder mental leap for your dog and they deserve a bit of theater from you.
Some dogs make this jump in one session. Others need three or four. Neither is a problem, and neither predicts anything about your dog’s intelligence, despite what the internet will tell you.
A trick your dog learns slowly is a trick your dog remembers. Speed is a bonus, never the point.
Step 4: Add the Hand Signal
Your hand is already doing something close to a signal, so this part is mostly cleanup.
Open your closed fist into a flat, upright palm facing your dog. Hold it at the same height and distance as before.
Present the open palm, wait for the paw lift, mark, reward.
The treat now comes from your other hand or a pouch, which is the key change. Your signal hand needs to be empty from here on, otherwise you’ll have a dog who only waves at food.
Ten reps, then done for the day.
Making the Signal Look Like an Actual Wave
Slightly wiggle your fingers when you present the palm. Dachshunds mirror motion more than people expect, and the wiggle often produces a bouncier, more animated paw.
You can also raise your hand a touch higher over a few sessions, which lifts their paw higher and makes the whole thing more visible from across a room.
Step 5: Attach the Verbal Cue
Say the word first, then give the hand signal. This order matters more than almost anything else in this article.
"Wave," pause for about one second, then present the palm.
Do it in that exact sequence, every time, for roughly twenty to thirty reps spread across two or three sessions. Your dog starts to predict the hand signal from the word alone, and eventually the word becomes enough on its own.
Test it by saying "wave" and keeping your hands completely still.
If you get a paw, congratulations, you have a waving dachshund. If you get a blank stare, no harm done: go back to pairing the two for another handful of sessions.
Step 6: Proof It Everywhere
This is the step almost everyone skips, and it’s why so many dogs "know" tricks they only perform in the kitchen.
Dogs don’t generalize the way we do. To your dachshund, "wave in the living room" and "wave in the backyard" are two genuinely separate skills until you prove otherwise.
Practice in a new room. Then outside. Then with one other person watching, then with three.
Expect performance to drop the first time you change something. That’s normal, not a regression, and it resolves in a session or two.
Common Snags and Quick Fixes
Both paws going up. You’re holding the treat too high or too centered. Move it lower and clearly off to one side.
Pawing hard enough to leave marks. Reward only the gentle attempts and ignore the aggressive ones. They’ll adjust the intensity within a few reps.
Standing up to wave. Reset with a sit, and lower your hand so reaching up isn’t necessary.
Waving constantly, unprompted, for no reason. Very common, and honestly a little funny. Stop rewarding any wave that wasn’t cued, and be patient while your dog tests whether you really mean it.
Fitting the Wave Into Real Life
Once the cue holds, use it. Ask for a wave when guests arrive, before meals, at the end of a walk.
A dachshund with a job is a dachshund with less interest in redecorating your baseboards.
Five minutes of thinking tires a dachshund more thoroughly than a mile of walking.
Two short sessions a week keeps the trick sharp indefinitely. Any less and it fades slowly, though it comes back fast once you refresh it.
And when someone inevitably asks how you taught such a clever thing, you can decide for yourself whether to admit it took four days and a fistful of chicken.