Hi everyone! It’s been a while since my last post. It’s been pretty busy, so I wanted to leave everyone with something that is quick, yet useful. Nothing is quicker to teach your dog, or more versatile of an exercise, than nose targeting. If you haven’t already taught your dog to nose target, great, it’s time to get started! In this video, the wonderful and creative Emily Larlham asks the dog to target her index and middle fingers with the use of the word “Touch.” This is a very common way to teach targeting and extremely useful, when trying to guide your dog via pointing. However, another common method of teaching targeting is to have the dog touch his nose to the palm of your hand. I love to teach targeting this way for many reasons. Think of the inside of your hand as a magnet, and your dog’s nose … Read More
The Ultimate Jedi Mind Trick for Your Dog
What’s the most fun, versatile and quickest thing to teach your dog? It’s nose targeting, of course! Nose targeting means that the dog will touch his nose to your hand – or the tip of a target stick – to earn a reward, and it is one of the most basic building blocks of clicker training. Once your dog is trained to target and will follow your hand for extended periods of time, the sky’s the limit on the number of things your dog can learn. I love to tell my clients that targeting is like playing Jedi mind tricks on your dog. “You will come to me… Your nose will touch my hand… You WILL spin in a circle.…” All important and practical things for the Rebel alliance, yes? For me, the most fun thing about targeting is communicating with your dog without physical prompting or manipulation. How incredibly … Read More
Functional Cues: Get Your Dog “Away” From You!…
…And away from your friends, your family, the pizza on the kitchen counter, the ice cream cone in your child’s hand and the unstable neighbor dog. Great effort has always been placed on training your dog to come to you. It’s even very common these days to see training classes specifically dedicated to “Training a Great Recall,” or getting your dog to come to you on cue, especially amidst distractions. And rightly so. This could be the single most important thing that you instill in your dog, and could very well be a lifesaver in an emergency situation. With all the emphasis on asking dogs to come to us, I believe that it might be arguably as important to train your dog to move away. Have you ever been bombarded by a pogo puppy immediately upon entering the house from a long day at work? Boing! Boing! Boing! Have you … Read More