This useful behavior is one of the first we usually teach here at MESSY Dog Training. Get a head start with your dog by following along below! Once you've taught a hand target, visit this post for ideas on using it to make your life easier! 1. Capture the “Touch” behavior. First, you’ll want to capture this behavior from your dog. Many dogs will naturally gravitate towards our open palms when presented, we just need to catch them and reward them for doing so! I usually keep my fingers together and have my hand turned sideways, to differentiate from “shake,” but you can choose an alternate presentation as long as you’re consistent. Present your hand to your dog and when they show interest, such as reaching their neck to sniff, you will mark the behavior (with either a “yes!” or a click, if you are using a clicker) and follow with a reward from your other hand. At this point, it doesn’t matter if the dog is truly touching your hand since we want to start with approximations that we can build upon. Repeat this process until your dog is reliably poking their nose at your hand when it is presented. For dogs who are clicker training savvy, this usually does not take very long. If your dog is new to offering behaviors and training, you might split this into a few sessions until you see significant direction from your dog. If your dog absolutely doesn’t want anything to do with your hands, even when you’re waving it around and holding it relatively close to their face, you can try luring for 2-3 times. To lure a hand target, put a treat between your fingers (like your index and middle finger) and hold it just pinched between those two fingers. If you are doing this correctly, your hand should have the same open palm look to it that is our goal. Pinch the treat between knuckles on adjacent fingers, rather than holding with your finger tips. After showing your dog the treat and luring it 2-3 times in quick succession, present your hand the same way. Your dog will likely assume the pattern is the same and will look again for the treat. At this point, you want to mark the behavior and throw a little party to show your dog that you love that they continued the fun new game, and that treats will come afterwards, even if they weren’t presently in your hand. 2. Add Your Cue!
Now that are dog is excited about offering the targeting behavior, we want to add our verbal cue to the process as well. This will help us be able to call our dogs away from things or use it in many of the situations described above. To add the verbal cue, first you need to decide which word you will be using. Touch, target, hand, nose, boop, and palm are some options, but the choice is up to you! One of my favorite aspects of training dogs is that they don’t know our verbal languages, and I can assign whatever word I like to whatever behavior I am training. Using ones that make sense definitely help with our understanding and remembrance of our cues, though! You will want to say this new verbal cue right before you present your hand. If you start adding the verbal cue at the same time as you present your hand, you risk overshadowing your new cue and your old cue (the presentation of your hand). Dogs rely heavily on body language, so we need to help them realize the verbal cue by stating it separately and before the physical cue of presenting your hand. The process then looks like: saying “touch!” followed by presenting your hand, followed by the dog touching your hand, followed by you marking the touch and giving a reward. We want to continue to mark and reward at this stage of adding the new verbal cue. 3. Create Fluency in Your Hand Touch. Finally, we want to create fluency in the hand touch so that the dog learns to touch your hand from anywhere and in many situations. Some ideas to consider practicing include:
Keep practicing with your dog to create a fluent touch that you can take on the road and use to create your well-behaved dog in a variety of situations. What kinds of behaviors can you think of that would be easier with a hand target? (PSST - we did some of the work for you! Visit this post for ideas on how to use hand targets!)
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We all want to have a happy and healthy dog in our lives - if you didn’t, you likely wouldn’t own one! As much of our lives as we spend with dogs, they are still a different species. What things can you do to help make your dog even happier?
1. Let Them Sniff Some of us are stuck in having a dog walk right at our side when we go on a walk. If this is you, consider what walking your dog is really for - it should be to benefit your dog, right? If we didn’t want our dog to get something out of the walk, we could just go by ourselves! There are absolutely ways to take our dog on a relaxing and controlled walk where they aren’t pulling us down the street, and they are still allowed to sniff and explore and engage that natural doggy part of their brain. One of my favorite ways to teach dogs to walk on a leash that allows them the freedom to sniff is to teach them to respond to leash pressure. Dogs often pull and pull HARD when they are falling victim to the opposition reflex. If I push you, you push your body back to try and keep your balance. The same happens when dogs pull on the leash. Instead, you can teach your dog that when the leash has tension, they should come back closer to you. This will let you vary the length of your leash based upon where you are letting your dog sniff in order to keep them safe and well mannered but also allow their sniffing. Not only is sniffing a natural dog behavior that our dogs love to enjoy (After all, they have a sense of smell about 100 times greater than ours. We smell chicken noodle soup, and they smell each ingredient!) but sniffing also lowers a dog’s blood pressure, according to recently published research. This means that this is especially important for hyperactive or worried dogs. Try letting your dog guide your walk. Let them sniff along the way, and let them stop and sniff if they find something extra appealing! Don’t make your goal the distance that you travel, but the time your dog gets to be out of the house and exploring. 2. Ask for Consent to Pet Did you realize not all dogs want your physical attention? Many dogs actually prefer to train or play or just be around you without hugs or pats. You can try a consent test to see what your dog prefers! The Pat-Pet-Pause protocol goes like this:
This protocol helps keep your dog happy by showing your dog that you listen to them and understand what they are telling you. You can help your dog even more by having other family members and friends, or even strangers follow the steps. 3. Let Them Destroy! Just like how sniffing is a natural dog behavior, destroying toys and shredding things can be natural for many dogs too. Giving them an outlet for this behavior is good for their happiness and mental health, but can also cut down on destruction that we don’t want. Cheap stuffed toys from the pet store or even old thrift store stuffed animals can be a great way to let your dog exercise their destruction desire. Your dog should be supervised and you should always make sure that your dog is not eating the stuffing or other pieces. Give your dog the toy, let them destroy it, and pick it up and toss is when they’re done. Some of my dogs still enjoy playing with the fabric that originally contained the stuffing, so I will just toss the stuffing and insides and keep the fabric pieces for them to play with as well. Other items that you can give your dog to shred and destroy include:
You can create a special place you always let your dog shred items in if you’re worried about it backfiring and increasing their desire to shred. Put the game on a cue, make sure you give the items to your dog using the cue, and then play the game for a specified amount of time in the same area each time you let your dog shred and destroy something. These boundaries will help your dog learn that they do get to destroy things - but only when it falls into a certain situation and rules! 4. Build a Dig Box Another natural behavior that dogs like to partake in is digging! It’s also a point of concern for many dog owners, if their dog is digging up the garden or the yard. Just like with shredding and destruction games, giving your dog an outlet for digging can minimize digging that we don’t want in addition to giving you a happier dog! Dig boxes can be outside or inside, and the size varies depending on your dog. Outdoor dig boxes might utilize wooden barriers or even a plastic kiddie pool filled with sand or dirt. If you are wanting to make an indoor dig box, shredded paper or fabric scraps will still let them dig around and burrow. You can hide treats and toys in dig boxes to encourage your dogs to use them. For the tiniest of dogs, even a cat litter box might work well to create a dig box that is easy to clean and refill. If you are using a dig box to redirect behavior you don’t like, hiding treats and toys will encourage them to dig in the newly designated location. In addition, when you catch your dog wanting to dig somewhere you don’t want a hole, you can move them to their dig box and encourage them to dig there. Happy adventures on improving your dog’s happiness! What are some of your dogs favorite things to do? What do you do to keep your dog happy? What was the name of the first dog you trained? For me, it's Mya. I have worked with her sweet lab mix personality since I was just 11 years old and Mya was 8 weeks old. Now, Mya is 12. Still sweet, but it's apparent age is catching up with her between her arthritis and recent diagnosis of canine cognitive dysfunction. Mya's importance in my life is why MESSY has the M in the name - the M represents the dog that got me "into dogs," Mya. For my friend, Antonia, that dog was named Snickers. Antonia and I met in the 4-H Dog Project over a decade ago. While I was new to training dogs and figuring out what "showmanship class" even meant, Antonia and Snickers were crushing it already - they had been training and showing as a team for several years already and I remember wishing my own dog would just pay attention to me already! I'm grateful we had the chance to meet in the 4-H Dog Project, as it led us to a friendship as well as opening MESSY together. The second S in MESSY represents Snickers, the dog that got Antonia "into dogs." Antonia and Snickers showed me that reactive dogs aren't "bad" dogs. I learned that grumbly dogs needed a "bubble" of space, but also that training is a wonderful way to bond with our dogs. Even on rough days of training, I can still see Antonia smooching Snicker's face and saying "you bad dog!" in the most cheerful tone imaginable - teaching me to love and appreciate my dogs no matter what. I saw them have a lot of successes, and heard about others, including when they took the Champion at the State Dog Show in Obedience! As we graduated 4-H, worked our way through college and jobs and relationships, we always had our two "first" dogs. Those first dogs represent a journey that we've been on since little fuzzy puppies came home to us as kids. Along that journey Antonia welcomed Eden into her life - the E in MESSY. The other S and the Y represent the dogs our friend Kennedy owns and grew with through her 4-H project and beyond - Sammy and Ton(y). Even with the addition of other dogs, Snickers was always Antonia's constant. For the both of us, Snickers and Mya will forever be the dogs that all other dogs will be compared to and the dogs we will love for teaching us so much along our training journeys. Snickers and Mya represent our "crossover" dogs - the dogs that taught us to be kinder, to strive to be better owners, and to seek the most dog-friendly training methods. As any dog owner knows, our dogs simply do not live long enough. Snickers passed away on December 30, 2019. She was just a few months shy of her 17th birthday.
I've been reflecting over the past few days about all that Snickers and Mya have given to Antonia and me, and grieving for my friend who is without her constant dog; her always dog; her first dog. It is truly impossible to list all the ways that Snickers shaped who Antonia is as a person, her life path, and her friendships. I'm grateful to Snickers for bringing me a friend and a business partner for when MESSY was starting. Even now, in different states and with busy lives, I know I can bounce ideas for training and growing MESSY off of Antonia. I hug Mya and Windigo a little tighter now, appreciating time we get to spend together as it comes and not taking it for granted. Rest in peace, sweet Snick. Thanks for being a part of shaping my life, too. |
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