Hi all, I never would have dreamed up teaching the behavior of the touch command by myself. I saw Cindy do it in either still pictures or on video- can't remember which now or find it again either Anyway, training "touch" looked like a neat thing to try so I did. It was really fun and my dog learned it in one short training session. Now I'm wondering, "What good is the behavior?" I mean, it was fun to teach and really taught me that I was underestimating my dog's trainability, but what can "touch" lead to? Is it a step toward training a more complex behavior? Is it just good for the dog/human bond?
Sandy Moore Webboard User Reg: 07-25-2006
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I haven't found a good use for it but it's fun. Lear touches anything I tell him (with his nose) and maybe one day it will come in handy. Maybe it can lead to him learning to open a door with a rag hanging off the handle (a couple of other steps in between, like touch it, take it, pull it) but since he also knows "open the door" (door not closed completely or locked), I would rather let him figure out how to "open the door" without all the steps in between. In other words, let him figure out that to open the door, he pulls on the rag. I think that's simple enough deduction.
Maybe the touch it can lead to other things but haven't thought much about it actually.
Edited to add: just remembered that when he was a pup, I would have him "touch it" for things that were new to him. Triumph in his mind, mastery over the object
Thanks for the replies! I'd only seen Cindy have her dog touch the palm of her hand, so that's what I trained. I like the idea of training to touch objects. I searched (well, tried to search) for the thread Nora mentioned, but had no luck either.
I use the touch command as a reward, placing my hand up in the air and then the dog jumps to touch it. Movement is rewarding to a dog and of course this is done with excitement from me.
Reg: 12-15-2007
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I use the touch command instead of "come", because I always had trouble with Max jumping and biting when I told him to come.
So instead we use touch and he just runs in and touches our hand with no jumping or biting.
I train to touch my palm and use it pretty much like a target stick is used.
It also comes in handy to recall or redirect under distraction when Come would normally be ignored because it means the end of the fun whereas touch is providing a new thing to do without that association
I also find its not a hard leap from that to touching an object, and it comes in handy for luring new behaviors
To get over fear of new things I place my hand on it palm facing outward and have them "touch"
Nora Ferrell Webboard User Reg: 02-10-2008
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Below is a quote from one of Ed's articles on marker training. This may be what I was thinking about today when I posted that I thought it was in a thread.
"I like to start with the HAND TOUCH. This is an exercise where we offer our hand down at our side with the palm facing the dog. The dog must come over and touch his nose to the palm of our hand.
When this exercise is trained with markers it turns into a fun game for the dog. You only need to look at the photo at the top of this article to see that Cindy's dog loves the hand touch. There are many applications to use the HAND TOUCH. It can be used to redirect a puppy from something we would rather he not get into or it can be used on a walk to redirect an adult dog away from a person or dog we don't want the dog focusing on. As much as anything it's a relationship building game between you and your dog."
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Touch Command
Anyway, training "touch" looked like a neat thing to try so I did. It was really fun and my dog learned it in one short training session. Now I'm wondering, "What good is the behavior?" I mean, it was fun to teach and really taught me that I was underestimating my dog's trainability, but what can "touch" lead to? Is it a step toward training a more complex behavior? Is it just good for the dog/human bond?
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