Target (touch) training

[Jerre]

Hi,

 

At my dog school we train the usual touch. But we do it with an object, things like the small cartons where you place beer on (cant remember the english name) or tops of big glass bottles, im sure you know what i mean.

 

My question is, whats more advisable to use? I can understand using your hand gives you an advantage of always having it with you, in reach, but using an object can also have it advantages, as they say in my school, like using it in later stages to let the dog go to certain places or teaching him stuff more complicated than just touching it.

 

What are your experiences with it?

[Mariji]

I'm assuming you mean a target as in agility?

For Myla i use a small piece of plexiglass. As it is easier to fade but sometimes i will use say a cut down piece of paper or cardboard that is like 2x2 cm. Myla is expected to nose touch to hand and target to object. In the case of sending them to a place you could use anything. A small piece of plastic, paper, cardboard or even a piece of plexiglass or wood. Depends what you are doing whether it tricks or agility.

[Root Beer]

I teach both. I do teach the hand target first, then I teach a target to an object in my hand, and then to target an object on the floor. Those are nose touch targets. I also teach paw targets to hand and objects. I also use a target stick on occasion for both paw and nose touches.

 

I also use both baited and unbaited targets, depending on what I'm training. I've used target boxes with food inside, as well.

 

The uses for targets are endless.

[pammyd]

I agree - the target can be anything and once they get the hang of targeting anything then there are so many fun ideas you can come up to

Its pretty easy to switch from different targets