How to teach a dog to target, aka touch your hand

Touch is a convenient behaviour to have in your toolbox. I believe it's a fundamental behaviour to train a dog to do. You can use it for stationing, come, turn, etc. I teach sit, come, and touch in our group classes because these three behaviours will help you prepare your dog for your expectations.

Sit prevents jumping, running out the door, staying in one place, and can counter a lot of undesirable behaviours. Come can literally save your dog's life. Touch does the rest.

Here are the steps to train your dog to touch/target

1 - Gently bring your hand to the dog's nose and reward (R+). Repeat 20Xs

2 - Place your hand one inch away from your dog's nose.
If it leans in to touch your hand, R+
If it doesn't lean in, repeat step 1 another 10Xs.
Try placing the hand out again.

3 - Practice placing the hand 1 inch away from the dog 20Xs.
When the dog reaches for your hand 100% of the time, go to step 4.

4 - Start placing your hand further, but not too far that the dog refuses to do the behaviour.
Change hands and hand position.

5 - Move away real far or hide and ask for touch!
You are successful when the dog responds to 10 hiding/far touches.

6 - Take the behaviour outside in your yard or the front door. Don't forget to come closer because now the environment is distracting.

If you're having problems, Take a step back and reward the correct nose in the middle of the hand behaviour, aka touch. Once the dog has learned to touch your hand, be creative. Ask the dog to touch your hand under your leg or behind a chair or bench. The goal is to ask the dog to touch when you need it to focus.

Have fun training the touch behaviour.

Thumbnail details:
I asked Hariette for touch when retired Albear decided he was in too. Hariette gets annoyed when this happens. Being upstaged ruins her Queen Supreme vibe.

Cheers.
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I've trained animals professionally for 35 years and have been teaching animal behaviour for 12 years. I share training and behaviour videos with you to deepen your human-animal bond, and I do this without ever using lures.

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