Touch is a great behavior for anyone’s toolbox, all it is is a dog tapping his nose to your chosen target (in this case we are using our hand). With it you can shape new behaviors or redirect a dog from a trigger. It is incredibly versatile plus extremely easy to teach. Marker words are needed for this task so make sure to review my post on them.

Like with almost every new behavior we teach we start with a treats, We are going to use one of our hands for this and the other will be for holding some treats.

Here we go:

1. Hold you non treat hand out by your dogs face. Likely your dog will go and investigate it.
2. When your dog touches your hand with his nose mark it with the word “yes”, remove your hand and give them a treat. Repeat, mix it up a bit too by presenting your hand in different locations.
3. Hopefully have a good few repeats your dog is tapping your hand readily when you present it. At this point it’s time to add a cue! What that means is you’re going to start to say the word touch after you present your hand and before the dog touches it. Present your hand further away from your dogs face and say “touch”. Your pup will likely go and tap your hand when they see it presented. Mark “yes” and reward. Repeat

After a few reps many dogs will start to make the connection between the word and the behavior. You’ll be able to say “touch” to move your dog from place to place. It works great as a redirection from triggers.

Video coming soon!