Life With Beagle: How to touch: Hand targeting with your dog -- a Trick or Treat Giveaway Blog Hop

Friday, October 20, 2017

How to touch: Hand targeting with your dog -- a Trick or Treat Giveaway Blog Hop

Halloween is coming up fast! Who is ready to trick or treat?

We've joined up with Kol's Notes, Beagles and Bargains and more of your favorite pet bloggers for this year's Trick or Treat Giveaway Blog Hop!

We've got a great trick to show you -- and after you see our trick, you'll have a chance to enter to win prizes -- including a $300 PetSmart gift card!

DISCLOSURE: The Trick or Treat Giveaway Hop is sponsored by CleverPet, The Honest Kitchen, Planet Dog, and Health Extension. The opinions and ideas in this post are my own and are uninfluenced by any other person or business. The individual sponsors are responsible for their giveaway prizes including shipping.

"Touch" or "Hand targeting"

"Touch" is one of the first tricks Lulu learned that was really for fun, not for obedience. But "touch" has obedience applications too. It's really a versatile trick.

The basic idea is your dog touches your hand or fingers or an object when you give the command.

Obedience-wise, "touch" is a great way to get your dog used to human interactions that might make them nervous. Humans love to present their hands to dogs to sniff and so they can start petting. But it can also be something that makes a skittish dog nervous. So "touch" can help with desensitizing dogs and also building up confidence.

But one a dog overcomes basic touch, you can use the command to direct the dog toward other objects. Now they can use them to do things like -- turning on lights, for instance. My dog trainer uses it to have his dog turn on his video game console. ;)

Basic "touch"

"I do this, I get the treat, right Mom?"

Jasmine, who is learning basic "touch," will be our model for this.

A good stinky treat that's high value will keep your dog's attention as they learn.

1. Get a really good smelling treat -- something that will hold their attention through a new trick. Hold it in the hand you will use for your command so your hand has the smell on it. Put the treat in your other hand though when you do the trick. After all we're working with hounds -- they tend to be treat and scent obsessed.

2. Put your dog in a sit. I always do this so they know there will be something coming. It gets them in the right frame of mind to learn.

3. Hold out two fingers and ask your dog to touch. Make the command in a firm voice. Your dog should react by essentially sniffing your fingers. When they do that, give your dog SOME of the treat. Make sure your dog associates the word "touch" with the hand gesture.

Also, make sure to keep the treat away from your command hand. This way the dog learns to do the trick, and then look for the trick. This is important when you start doing advanced tricks with "touch."

4. Praise your dog. Always remember not only to treat your dog, but praise your dog... get that tail wagging. Make sure they know they've done good!

It's a tough picture to get, but here Jasmine gets her touch on.

5. REPEAT. Put your hands behind your back for a bit, put your dog in a sit. Then hold out the command hand with two fingers and ask them to touch again. When they do it, treat and praise.

6. Make sure they don't cheat. Lulu will sometimes just nudge her nose toward my hand instead of actually touching it. She'll also do sloppy targeting where she'll use her mouth on my arm or hand. Be firm -- the only way they get a treat is if they put the nose to the target -- in this case the two fingers.

7. Once they have it down, you can modify it. You can start moving your hand around, you can start increasing the distance. You can do it multiple times. It's important to increase the difficulty level so they have to focus more.

This is what it looks like when it's all done:

We've been working on "touch" the last week or so. It's a good trick to learn. Here's Jasmine on beginning "touch" pic.twitter.com/56N603JWac
— lifewithbeagle (@lifewithbeagle) October 20, 2017

Advanced "touch"

Now like I said, Lulu learned this trick years ago. But we never moved beyond the basics. So I decided to try teaching her more advanced "touch."

That includes targeting objects. To do that, I am using a sticker, so that Lulu knows where to touch.

Chose a unique and bright planner sticker I'm not using at the moment.

1. Put the sticker on your fingers. Lulu knows what touch means, but I want her to associate touch with the hand gesture as well. So I have the treat ready in one hand, and the sticker on the fingers in the other hand.

2. Ask your dog to touch. And this time, make sure they hit the sticker target. When they do, treat and praise.

I put the sticker on the wall, in a spot she has to reach for.

3. Move the target. For the next step, put the sticker somewhere at eye-level for the dog. I put it on the wall so it's easy to see.

These are tough pics to get! They are moving fast!

4. Point to the sticker with two fingers, ask to touch. By using the command and the gesture, your dog should be able to understand that you want to sticker touched. When they touch the wall, treat and praise.

This is what it looks like:

Lulu is learning a more advanced touch. She can use it to eventually push buttons and things. pic.twitter.com/5dBW6Ub58c
— lifewithbeagle (@lifewithbeagle) October 20, 2017

Once your dog has this down, you should be able to start moving the sticker around and get them to touch all sorts of objects!

Trick or Treat Giveaway Blog Hop!