Touch Training

[Desuryc]

On Jan 16 I attended an evening obedience trial at Hillsborough near Newcastle. There was a man trialling a border collie which heeled beautifully so I chatted with him about his training method. He explained that he teaches the dog to touch his hand at first, then moves on from there. If that man is out there, or if anyone else has any experience of this method, I'd really like to learn how to do it. I got all excited and came home to teach my dog, who now touches my hand on command but I don't know where to go to from there. :rolleyes:

Edited February 16, 2009 by Desuryc

[WildatHeart]

The way i did it. I got a wand thing (or a stick with something on the end of it) and held this close to my dogs nose she that she would accidently bump it with her nose. As soon as she did i marked with yes (or clicker if you prefer) and followed with a reward. i kept doing this and after a few minutes she knew what was happening. I then started to move the target around, and kept yes - treat. ONce she knew what to do i added the word touch just as she was about to do it. Repeat repeat, your dog should get it. If the dog starts biting at teh target, dont mark or reward. Just ignore those ones. You can try different targets, your hand, a lid etc. Hope this helps

[JulesP]

Not sure what you are wanting to use the touching for?

[TerraNik]

Not sure what you are wanting to use the touching for?

Ditto... That impacts on what the 'next step' is...

[Bully]

On Jan 16 I attended an evening obedience trial at Hillsborough near Newcastle. There was a man trialling a border collie which heeled beautifully so I chatted with him about his training method. He explained that he teaches the dog to touch his hand at first, then moves on from there. If that man is out there, or if anyone else has any experience of this method, I'd really like to learn how to do it. I got all excited and came home to teach my dog, who now touches my hand on command but I don't know where to go to from there. :rolleyes:

It's often referred to as Target Training Click on the link

[Kavik]

I think they want to use targetting to get their dog to heel?

[~*Shell*~]

The way I taught Zero to heel was to teach Zero to touch my closed fist with the command "touch" and then changed it to an open hand, and then to 2 fingers. To teach Zero the position, i then used those two fingers and held them where i wanted his nose while i was walking with him in heel and he would touch his nose to it. I would then tell him heel, click and treat.

If i put the two fingers next to me while walking, he will keep his nose touching my fingers in heel. It also makes up the silent "heel" command if i'm doing work with him without verbal commands.

I hope that makes some sense. It's target training and then using it to teach a different command. It's also how i taught Zero his paw tricks (he shakes with both paws, will high 5 and waves with both paws), except i used paw targetting.

[Desuryc]

Thankyou for your advice. Yes, it is ultimately to get a good heel performance for obedience trials.

[corvus]

Hehe, I'm target training with my hare. I've got him touching my finger wherever I put it as long as it's within the safety bubble of areas he's willing to move to without about 5 minutes of assessing if it is safe or not. Ultimately I want to use it to teach him to go into a crate, but first I need a wand or something similar. I can never find anything like that in his cage at 10pm when I'm normally working with him. In the dark. I am slow sometimes.