Hey all, In one of Nando Brown's videos he talks about teaching a prolonged hand touch (not minutes at a time but building up gradually to around 5 seconds). I'm working on this with Harv at the moment but I'm having some trouble. He is fine with the initial hand touch (we taught this some time ago) but as soon as the duration goes to 1 or 2 seconds he does this weird head toss that throws my hand upwards. If I do it with him in a Down the situation is much improved (less scope for head movement) but I'd like to be able to do it when he is sat and when he is standing. Any ideas? (I briefly contemplated doing it under a coffee table but I can see that ending badly!) Nando Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maRMcxIhdv4
Huh, interesting. I wanted something similar - I wanted Charlie to stand with his nose in my hand at the vet's (unsurprisingly, he is a bit reluctant to have vets poke around at his rear legs these days, and tends to sit down very firmly with a "leave me alone" expression). I tried to train kikopup's calm chin rest. I like my hand touch as it is, because he enjoys it and also follows my hand nicely. Charlie just didn't like doing it - he just wasn't keen on it at all. It felt like an uphill struggle, and so I quit. Must think of something else... I suppose the standard answer to your question is you have to mark before he moves his head and then progress on in millisecond increments. I always find that a bit difficult. Be interested in how you get on, maybe it'll help me with the chin rest. On another point - do you see Nando Brown doing the whole chest rub thing with the dog at around 3 seconds? I always watch the dog very closely when people do this, the dogs often do not like it, I think. See the dog yawn? I don't think he is enjoying that....it's an odd thing for humans to do to dogs outside who are working, I think.
I have no ideas other than Julies suggestion. You could try asking Nando though he's pretty responsive on FB. I've wondered about teaching this too as a way of parking my dog off lead but I have so much to do I haven't got any further. Will be interested to see how you get on
Nope it's not the name! Dexter loves chest rubs...hates head pats .....I'd have said the same as Barbara,he's really active on Facebook and does answer people's questions...he's quite brief but you might get some help.?...
Sorry, I definitely can't help but just wanted to say thanks for sharing the video. I'm so new to all of this dog stuff, that's the first time I've heard of this (although I had seen Julie's post about trying to train Charlie's chin rest). A very interesting concept that I might look into once we've got a few more of the basics under our belt ☺
Just out of curiosity, can you tell me why people teach this? I mean what is it used for or does it lead to?
Getting a dog to target something and keep their attention on doing that seems like a pretty useful thing to do - like a sort of physical "watch me". You could use it in the vet's (as I intended to use calm chin rest), as a distraction in stressful situations, or even to get your dog to stand still in the show ring. Lots of different uses for it. Presumably it would also make the behaviour of following your hand very strong (moving a dog by moving your hand - as they target your hand - is incredibly useful). It means you can get lots of behaviour to train new things just by having the dog target your hand.
Thanks. It was the stationary / prolonged aspect of it that puzzled me. I can see the point of teaching your dog to follow your finger, and have done this, but if you wanted the dog still wouldn't it be easier to use sit or down, or even stand still. But perhaps the prolonged touch is intended to lead to standing still.
I think targetting is generally quite a powerful thing. I think perhaps it retains the dog's focus in a way that sit or down don't really - for sure, Charlie's strongest and easiest cue is a hand touch. If he can't do that, he can't do anything. You could potentially use a prolonged target remotely too (although you'd need a target not your hand for this). ie go and put your nose on (whatever) and stay there. That's quite cool. Not a lot of practical use, but quite cool to use in tricks I suppose.
Your post came at perfect time! I was trying to work out what I could do with Ella while she recovers from her desexing. Today we started on step one of the prolonged hand touch. Was great to see her thinking through what I'd asked her to do and it's a perfect exercise while she recovers. I hope you manage to overcome your speed hump as I'm sure I'll be asking you for help when I get to that step! ☺
Well, as Barbara suggested, I got in touch with Nando on FB and this is what he had to say: Hey, Forget the duration for the moment. Now he's pushing the hand try ignoring the first push and wait for him to place his nose back on your hand of his own accord. Mark that and reward it. Once you have that start introducing your distractions. Good luck. I'll see how we get on and report back in a few weeks.
Huh. Well, it's nice of Nando to reply....but where does that get you? How will not rewarding the first push, but rewarding the second work? Not that I doubt the advice, I'm sure it's great..but why will it work? Ooo - you have to try and tell us! Vid please!
I suspect part of the rationale is that we are deliberately not rewarding the first 'faulty' touch, but I'm not sure and I don't want to pester the chap after he was kind enough to reply. At this stage I'm prepared to take a certain amount on faith and see how it goes Unless I can prop my phone in place somewhere I doubt there will be any videos - clicker in one hand, aiming for Harv's wet nose to touch the other
