Hi all, I started teaching my puppy 'touch' when they're suppose to touch your hand with their nose using a clicker.... But the problem is how to get her to continually touch with nose not open her mouth to my hand.... Any ideas? Thanks
It sounds as if you may have inadvertently been rewarding for this behaviour - it is very easy to mistime a click. To create a longer touch you would normally delay the click and reward by a second or two at a time so gradually building the hold in much the same way that you build a sit/stay or any behaviour where you want duration. If your pup is consistently opening her mouth I would just drop the 'touch' training for a week or so and then start the exercise again from the beginning. Last summer I had my girl pulling a post-it note off the cupboard door instead of a prolonged nose touch because of a couple of poorly timed clicks
Thanks. Yes its hard to get the timing right! Also when I first started training her this, she didn't touch with her nose..so it very rare when she does the nose touch. Maybe ill wait a week like you say. Do you think when i get back to it I'll just start by marking the movement of her nose to my hand...
How old is your puppy? Luna did this at first but mostly coz she was so excited. She's 17weeks now and hardly ever does the touch exercise with an open mouth. If she does I cross my arms and say no. But maybe do as suggested above. Or put you hand closer to her for now so it's less exciting? Xx
I allow an open mouth touch, because I'm lazy and it doesn't bother me. Hand targeting is one of my dogs' favourite games, and I don't ask for an iota of calmness. J called Shadow from a distance with a hand target a couple of days ago and Shadow punched him so hard in the hand, he (J) had to shake it out. Love it But, if you want to train it out, then calmness will certainly help. I would also take it back to the beginning, clicking a movement towards your hand (don't ask for a full touch at this stage), but only click if the mouth is closed.
Try lowering your hand down from above so it's flat and parallel to the floor. That will increase the chances of the nose contacting your hand before the teeth. Like in the pic:
Hi @Me and my dog there is a lovely video on You Tube by the fantastic Nando Brown to help with training the hand touch. I hope it helps
We did it in the kitchen as the light was better but I was worried that he'd be camouflaged against the cupboards
Thanks for posting this vid @Jojo83 - I have seen it a long time ago, but have forgotten all about it. Coco is great at doing a fleeting touch, but I really want to increase duration, and I've been a bit stuck. I'll use this video to help me work on it. Much appreciated.
Glad I could help @edzbird . I frequently point clients to this video as it is so good (in my opinion that is )
