How to stop dog from pawing?

[CheerfulYank]

We've just gotten a three year old rescue beagle.

He is lovely despite a rough start to life (lived out on a chain and was only interacted with to be fed for two years :( ) He lived in a foster home after that with one single woman and a dog and was thoroughly spoiled :) He steals food off the table, jumps on the couch, and paws at people.

I'm working on one thing at a time and he's basically done jumping on the furniture, but I'm not sure the best way to stop him from pawing. It's not a worry for me because he's small, but I have a toddler and watch another and I'm worried about him pawing them in the eye or something.

He's still a little timid and I don't want to frighten him. What's the best gentle way to get him to stop?

Is he doing it to get attention? If so, you ignore him when he does it and make not doing it the most rewarding thing ever.

I think so. If you don't respond he puts his other paw up and then tries to half climb into your lap.

Just treat it like you would jumping up...shove him off, don't speak, don't look at him, wait till his paws are on the ground and then give him the positive attention.

I mean shove in the nicest way, btw, not throwing him or anything, I just have a big dog, so I need to shove if I want him to actually move, lol...push is probably a better word for a smaller dog.

You could also try off (or whatever command you use for getting off furniture) my dog interprets that as paws on the ground when he tries to get in the couch one paw at a time, but, you don't really want to be reinforcing attention seeking with attention.