Fit Dog Friday- How To Teach “Touch”

This week was Ike’s second Good Manners class. A fit dog has to keep his mind fit too!
In this class, we learned “Touch.” Touch is a targeting skill that helps get a dog into position without using any physical contact or force.

At first, Ike didn’t quite know what we were asking of him.

Then he got a little more instruction from the teacher.

He’s starting to get the hang of it. He even performed an over the shoulder touch, lol.

How To teach “touch”
1. Hold out your hand with an open palm.
2. As soon as your dog accidentally touches your hand with his nose, click
3. Reward with a treat
4. Move your hand around and repeat 1-3.
5. After three successful “touches” add the verbal command, “Touch.” and repeat the exercise.
6. Continue to move your hand around to different positions.
If your dog isn’t interested in your hand, make it smell like hot dogs or something good!

The dogs seemed to get the hang of this pretty well. Now the key is continued practicing at home. Have you taught your dog “touch”? How did it go? What real world applications have you found for this skill?

FitDog Friday is co-hosted by Peggy’s Pet Place, Slimdoggy, and To Dog With Love. Join the bloghop!