targeting Archives - Smart Dog University

Supercharge Your Dog’s Paw & Shake Skills (Video)

December 4, 2014

“Shake” and “paw” are pretty cool tricks, but your dog is capable of so much more!

Wanna supercharge your dog’s paw or shake skills? Teach your dog how to use his paw to touch different things.

Here are some of the cool things paw targeting can get you:

Ring a wireless doorbell to go outside (or come inside)
Turn on a push-light
Play a kid’s toy piano
Give you a high-five (or high-ten!)
Knock a cup over to reveal hidden treats
The sky’s the limit!

Now, doesn’t “shake” seem kind of boring?!

What you’ll need:

clicker
treats
large indestructible target (large margarine lid, plant “coaster”, 8.5″ x 11″ piece of paper, etc.”

Here’s how to teach your dog to use his foot:

Gather your dog and the supplies above.
Place the target on the floor and wait for your dog to walk on it with his paw.
If your dog is sitting or lying down, toss a treat to get him up and moving first. (It’s hard to put his foot on a target if he’s still.)
Click the instant your dog’s paw touches the target, and toss the treat a little bit away so the dog moves off the target.
Continue to silently wait for one of your dog’s paws to touch the target, clicking and treating each time.
Once it’s clear that your dog understands that touching his foot to the target means he gets a click and treat, start adding the cue just before the dog touches the target with his paw. Click and treat every correct response.
After 10 – 15 repetitions, begin to say the cue about one second before the dog touches the target with his paw, clicking and treating correct responses.
Continue to gradually move the cue earlier, clicking every correct response.
Then, begin to remove the target and ask for a different behavior (like sit, for instance). You’re helping the dog pay attention to your cues.

We’ll go further with paw targeting in future videos, so get your dog’s foundation targeting skills ready!

Talk back! How do you (or could you) use paw targeting with your dog? Leave a comment below and let us know!

Teach Your Dog to Close Cabinets and Doors (Video)

November 27, 2014

It’s the simple things, sometimes, that make a big impression.

If you’d like a little help around the house, use nose targeting to really up your dog’s “around the house” value. If your dog is good at the basic nose touch, and you’re gone on to a little more advanced targeting, you’re ready for the big leagues. You’re ready to “real life” this behavior. I say real life because that’s how I refer to behaviors that are actually helpful in real life, not just in a training session.

When you real life a behavior, you take it out of the training room and you put it to use in a helpful way in your real life.

Here’s how you’re going to real life nose targeting.

After teaching your dog how lucrative it is to touch your hand with his nose, and after transferring the touch to another target, you’re ready for the real life targeting. Here’s how:

Put a large target on a slightly open cabinet door. Targets can be clean margarine lids or even a couple pieces of painter’s tape.
Click and treat your dog when he touches the target with his nose, whether the cabinet door closes or not.
If you think the noise of the cabinet door closing will startle your dog, you can catch the door before it closes (be quick!), or put a towel between the cabinet and the door to help soften the noise.
After the dog is reliably touching the target on the open door, refine your criterion so that you’re clicking only when the door actually moves. Always click and reinforce, of course.
Continue to systematically raise your criterion so that the dog eventually earns the click for actually shutting the cabinet door.
When the behavior is solid, meaning when you’re ready to be $100 that the dog will do the behavior, go ahead and put that behavior on cue.
Invite your friends over and show off your dog’s brilliance!

Talk back! Tell me (or show me with a video!) how you’ve real life-d targeting with your dog!

How (and Why) to Teach Hand Targeting – Video

November 28, 2013

Hand targeting is one of the easiest dog training behaviors you can teach your dog.

Hand targeting is dead simple and is ridiculously useful. I wish I’d known about the many uses of hand targeting when I had my “bad dog” Lucky. That dog taught me so much about dogs, behavior, and dog aggression. I was relatively new to dog training when I realized the extent of Lucky’s behavior problems and while I did the best I could with him, I was still learning and didn’t have the depth of knowledge I now have.

Hand targeting works great for all dogs and it’s great for lots of different situations.

You can use hand targeting to keep your dog’s focus on you (instead of the jogger, bird, other dog, rabbit, etc.). You can move your dog around easily (instead of tugging on his collar and forcing him to move). You can make veterinary or grooming visits go more smoothly by being able to direct your dog’s head and body in a specific direction (instead of manhandling him into the perfect position). You can use it to help with loose leash walking (the dog can’t forge ahead if he’s targeting his nose to your hand). You can also teach your dog a neat trick like ringing a bell to let you know he has to go outside (the bells are the new target!).

For service dog training, we use targeting to show the dog exactly where we want him to push something.

For instance, if the dog is learning to close a cabinet drawer, it’s very easy to get the dog’s nose in the right position so nosing the cabinet closed is a cinch.

This week’s dog training video highlights how easy it is to teach targeting to your dog.

Here are the steps outlined in the video:

Step 1: Hold your hand out flat, palm facing the dog. Drop your hand right down in front of your dog’s nose so he can’t miss it. Click and treat the instant you feel whiskers, nose, or tongue on your hand.

Step 2: When your dog is successfully tapping his nose to your palm when it’s right in front of him, begin to present your palm slightly to the right or left. Then present a little higher or a little lower.

Note: If the dog doesn’t move toward the hand within 2 seconds, pull your hand away and put it behind your back. Get your dog’s attention and the present the hand again, very close to his face.

Step 3: When your dog is good at tapping his nose to your hand no matter if it’s high, low, to the right or to the left, then present your hand again and pull your hand forward a few inches as your dog reaches toward your hand. The goal is that your dog will take a step or two while following your hand.

Step 4: Begin to move your hand further so the dog has to take several steps to follow your hand.

Your Turn: There are lots of uses for targeting. What situations do you think you can use targeting with your dog?

Targeting – Your Secret Weapon

March 10, 2010

Sometimes the solution to a dog's behavior problem can be as easy as teaching the dog a brand new behavior, then asking for that behavior right before your dog starts the old, problematic behavior. We teach targeting in Canine Building Blocks group courses because it's a nice, simple solution to many behavior problems.

What is targeting? Targeting is simply teaching the dog to touch his body (most often his nose) to a specific target (your hand, for example).

Because it's so simple, many people miss the importance of this behavior.

I hear this a lot:

"My dog lunges at other dogs, what do I care if my dog touches my hand?!" or "My dog pulls me off my feet, how can targeting stop that?!"or "My dog barks his head off when he sees another dog – targeting's not going to help me."

Targeting can do all that. And more. Targeting is a powerful tool. Here's what it looks like. (Lily's good at targeting, it's one of her favorite things.) After you watch the short video, scroll down to read how I use it with Lily, who's reactive when she sees other dogs.

When I take Lily to the vet, we're likely to run into other dogs. If I don't give Lily something to do, she'll lunge, bark, and jump at any other dog at the vet office. She's not aggressive, but it looks like she is. To prevent her from displaying those lovely manners <ahem>, I simply give her something else to focus on — me!

We run through the touch game, as seen above, complete with clicks and very high value treats (think: steak). She's happy to engage with me and I'm preventing her from practicing the very ugly and inappropriate behavior of reacting to other dogs.

Even if your dog is super-duper friendly, not all dogs (or people) want a dog coming up to them. Use targeting to keep your pal involved with you, not with someone else or their dog.

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