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Target Train your dog to Touch Nose to Hand

dog does not respond correctly to Touch or Hand to Nose targeting training command

“May I gently boop your nose?”

Is nose booping something that you do?

I don’t. In fact, the word wasn’t in my vocabulary until I got that comment on Instagram!

That’s ironic because I spent the last week encouraging Donna to “boop” her nose against my two fingers by herself. We were specifically training the Nose to Hand behaviour, also called Touch, which is part of Target Training.

What is Target Training?

In Target Training, the dog is taught to touch a specific part of his/her body part to a pre-defined spot. This could be her nose or her paw on a pre-defined area like the palm of your hand, your fingers, a target stick, a door or any other object that you have chosen to train targeting with.

But for us, we have mainly been working on the Nose to Hand.

hand to nose

Our version of Nose to Hand is really Nose to Fingers. We adapted it following a training video we saw because Donna is too used to reacting to an open palm with a paw-shake or a high-five.

Why should my dog learn the Nose to Hand?

Yeah, why would I want her to boop her nose anywhere at all? What are the practical uses for it?

Well, imagine Donna doing this:

practical uses of Touch or Hand to Nose command in dog target training

  1. It makes directing the dog to go to a particular spot easy.
    Just hold out your hand where you want her nose to end up at, and the rest of the dog will follow. Practical uses include guiding the dog onto the weighing scale at the vet. The nose to hand helps guide the dog voluntarily to where you want her to shift herself, without a need to tug at her lead.
  2. It can be used as a form of Recall
    If the dog has the strong habit of following the Nose to Hand command, it can be used as a form of Recall to get the dog away from whatever you want to recall her from.
  3. The Nose to Hand is also an introduction to more advanced Targeting skills
    The dog can be progressively trained to go through Canine freestyle routines, or even closing cabinet doors or ringing bells..

Whole Dog journal has a  longer list of more uses of the command here.

Is Nose to Hand difficult to train?

It’s not difficult or frustrating to train. The key is to set your dog and yourself up for success right at the start.

for hand to nose or touch target training, hold the hand very close to the nose so that the dog can't miss it

All you need to do is to place your hand/fingers a very, very short distance from the dog’s nose. The dog will naturally move to sniff it and that is the point to mark with a Yes or a Click and treat. Once the dog gets better at it and can offer the Nose to Hand when asked, you can then use it to reliably move the dog around and to refocus the dog’s attention back to you with the Nose to Hand command. (For more information, here’s a training video)

Of course, as like any other beginner, I did encounter some challenges. These are the lessons that I have learnt and am still learning.

How to keep the dog interested in training Basic Nose to Hand

1) Yummy treats get the dog interested in making the effort to learn something new
Donna did touch her nose to my fingers in the beginning when we were starting the Nose to Hand. But her eagerness to do so slowly waned and she grew reluctant to continue pretty soon. Once I switched to little pieces of meat instead of kibble, she was more interested in offering the behaviour.

happier to execute nose to hand with better treats

2) Keep training short and sweet, repeat sessions through the day
In a low distraction environment like our living room, I chose to use kibble as the reward. She was obviously not too impressed and as I persisted in trying to get her to repeat the Nose to Hand action, she started to stall for longer periods staring to the left or the right before doing the Nose to Hand. See previous post for details.

Keeping the training short and sweet would have prevented her from losing interest within the first session itself, and perhaps she will look forward to the next training session. Once I switched to pieces of plain boiled meat rather than kibble, I was able to sustain her focus and attention for a longer time.

stress signs in a dog
Tip | Donna sometimes curls back to vigorously nibble at her rump when she feels some level of frustration. Watch out for signs of stress that may indicate the dog is uncomfortable with the training. These may include whale eyes, lip-licking, ears pinned to the back of the head, scratching of face, turning away/sniffing the floor and not making eye contact. In such cases, it may be that the dog needs to go slower, get more encouragement via the use of treats to build positive associations with the exercise or it could be more productive to take a break from training for a while.

3) Keep the dog active
Another way that helped to keep my dog interested, is to throw the treat away so that she would run after it to catch it. It becomes an exciting game. She soon learns that every time she touches her nose to my fingers, she gets a treat delivered into the air.

treat delivery by throwing gets the dog excited to hunt kibble
Hunting the kibble that landed on the floor.

Tip | Treat delivery tactics like throwing the treat can build excitement in the dog, while holding it out to the dog on the palm is less exciting than throwing. This is good to know if you want your dog to maintain a certain level of calmness versus wanting your dog to feel more excited about the training.

4) Move around to vary the position of your hand/fingers so the dog gets used to moving in order to touch her nose to your hand/fingers
Donna’s default position when training is to sit. And when she sits, she doesn’t want to get up again.

rather than jumping, the dog would rather use her tongue to bridge the distance of the nose to hand

Instead, she would resort to trying to bridge the gap between her nose and my hand with her tongue, or scooching left or right on her backside to reach my fingers. So if I want to use the Nose command as a way of moving her to a specific location, having her on her butt and reluctant to move is not going to help.

So once she got reliable on the Nose to Hand, I had to make sure we move around. Every time she started to sit, I would throw her treat for her to fetch and that keeps her on her feet. Once she is on her feet, I made sure I myself move around so she gets used to moving after me to touch her nose to my fingers wherever I position them.

Mr P tells me I give Donna mixed signals, so here’s a video to review and spot the mistakes I make when I try to get Donna to do the Nose to Hand while moving around. The bad thing about taking videos is that half the time I’m distracted with how the image looks on the screen. :P Anyway, here’s awful video #1.

Training Nose to Hand while Moving Around from weliveinaflat on Vimeo.

Tip | Nose to Hand can be really useful when training other behaviours. We were training Backward Heel by taking steps backwards along a wall at the same time and the Nose command helped to get her back on her feet (whenever she sat down) and lined up against the wall again.

It also proved to be REALLY helpful at the agility trial session we brought Donna to this morning. Every time she got distracted trying to play with the other dogs, I used the Nose command to get her to focus back on me. It also helped to get her into position at one end of the weave pole before I try to get her to go through the weave poles.

5) Mix it up
Right at the beginning, Donna would often offer other behaviours instead of the Nose to Hand.

When she offers a high-five, a paw-shake, or when she licks my fingers, I consciously avoid saying “no” or making some other sound meant to correct her. From what I understand of Positive Reinforcement, this helps to build her confidence to try new things.

I wait for her to eventually offer up the correct action before I mark it with a Yes or a click and treat.

Can the dog get confused?

But as we moved along, I noticed that perhaps she was starting to be a little confused between the Nose to Hand and the Wave trick that she already knows. I started to reinforce her response to Wave and then alternated the Nose to Hand and Wave commands during sessions, hoping that she will start to differentiate the different hand signs and to offer the behaviours matching the commands accurately.

Being the smart and patient dog that she is, she did very well pretty soon.

More of Donna’s awesomeness and my awful training skills in Awful video #2 :P

Alternating Wave and Nose to Hand from weliveinaflat on Vimeo.

So what’s next?

We’re really just at the beginning of target training.

Here are two links that show the cool things that can be done if we ever get as good as that! :P
– Turning on/off switches, closing doors – http://vimeo.com/61318147
– Canine freestyle near the end of this one – http://youtu.be/RWSJVwZybwo.

Have tips for how we can continue with Donna’s target training? I’ll love to hear in the comments below! ;)

In the meantime, I’ll end this post with my favourite photos from the training sessions. ;)

donna running to recall in response to nose to hand command
donna running to recall in response to nose to hand command

More hand-targeting experience sharing at

 References

positive training blogAll photos taken during training sessions. Happy to be part of the Positive Pet Training movement with the Cascadian Nomads, Mr N the tenacious little terrier and dachshund nola.

 

All photos tinted with a sepia overlay at 50%. Joining OTHER SEPIA TINTED DOG OR PET BLOGS WITH RUCKUS ESKIE.

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33 Comments

  1. scarlybobs

    We use touch all the time! It’s great for tiring Zoey out, we have her sprinting around the room after my partner, touching her nose to his palm :) It’s also the way we taught both dogs leg weaves.

    • That’s cool. I remember your leg weave videos and I’m trying to do that now with Donna. The keyword here is “trying” :P Did you ever write a post on how to train leg weaving?

      • scarlybobs

        Haha I’m sure she’ll get there XD

        No I haven’t written a ‘how to’ for leg weaves, but this is the video we used (I love Kikopup! :D )

  2. Great tips, I was told to do this for when I go to therapy with the dogs to tell them to look and have them look at the book the kid is reading. I haven’t done this yet but you have taught it very well I have to get on it.

  3. Nice! We went through the same with Hanzo and a clicker. He had it a little easier though – nose to palm, instead of nose to two fingers.

  4. I gave paw and wave instead of nose, too! I still haven’t quite got it…hehe.
    Sometimes I get nose-to-nose boops. No idea what that’s about, but my people are always happy when they do it!

    • That’s the most important and both you and the humans are happy ;) HOpe this week has been great for you so far, and that it will continue to be fabulous!

  5. Thanks for the wonderful tips!!!! Love them!
    I am SO going tot each this!
    I have the “look” command down, but not this yet!
    Thanks for sharing!
    ((husky hugz))
    frum our pack at love is being owned by a husky

    • I’m curious, what’s the look command?

      • Cascadian Nomads

        Having your dog “look” at your face on command. I use the word “watch.” One of our trainers used “ready” because it’s what she’d say to the judge as she entered a competition ring and it would get her dog looking at her.

        • I use “watch me” too. But Donna only looks at me when she thinks she wants some treats or when she is unsure which direction we are going and she is off lead, hahaha.

    • Super glad you found it helpful!! :) *hugs*

  6. Gracie loves to give the behavior that has not be asked for – she’s trying to discourage the human from making big obedience plans for her :-)

  7. Great training in SEPIA! Happy Saturday. Love the BOOP nose to hand training. My sapiens tried it a few time and I just want to lick it!

  8. What a lovely dog Donna is :) Your ‘touch’ is well executed too :) I like how you mention the things that don’t always work too, e.g when the dog gets confused, as it then helps others :) So great post!

    • Thank you for the encouragement! :) And yes! We never had a dog before so we’re pretty lucky to find her.

  9. Great instructions. We do ‘touch’ all the time and it’s something Maggie is very good at.

  10. Thank you for this!!! I understand the benefits of the command much better now. I’m pretty sure it is something Maya and Pierson can do. Now if I can only just get back on track with our New Year’s Resolution to learn more tricks this year.

    • Thanks for reading the long, probably a little naggy post! :P You have a trick list that’s longer than Donna’s! We’re playing catch up here! :P

  11. Cascadian Nomads

    Thanks for participating in the Positive Pet Training hop! This is an excellent post. I especially like your tip on how to deal with eager dogs offering the wrong behaviors. It is hard to stay patient and positive but it truly is the best way to get our dogs THINKING!!! I am really glad to hear that the nose touch is helping Donna with her back-up; ours had been the opposite. Wilhelm got me in trouble in a Rally Excellent run by touching my hand in a back-up and Brychwyn’s back-up learning has been tough because he lurches in order to nose my hand! But we learn from our mistakes- Huxley has a lovely back-up! :)

    • Thank you for hosting, Bethany! :) Maybe it works because Donna does not have the behaviour as ingrained as her “sit”!! That “sit” is always foiling up my awesome training progress! :P

  12. You should totally teach Donna to close doors next! I think we’re going to experiment with turning lights off. I didn’t think small dogs could do it but Nola did so I now to need to try it with Mr. N.

    • I’m trying to get her to do the leg weaving thing. And if I am not wrong, I will need to get her started on touching a sticker on my fingers so that we can transfer the behaviour to doors, but yup, looking at doors next! ; )

      Considering the height of our light switches, it would be hard for little dogs to reach them. Do you expect Mr N to jump up and touch it or do you plan to have things for him to climb to be able too switch on lights? Just asking cos I have no idea! :P

  13. NIce post, great photo’s. I have not worked on your method but I do use hand to chest for “come” all the time. Dogs do very well with hand signals.

    • They do! That’s something I need to work on, we do better with verbal commands for some behaviours and hand signs for others. So it’s not very consistent. :)

  14. Love the photos!
    My dog also starts to sit down and scratch herself when she gets tired. I’m getting better in stopping training before that, but sometimes we get carried away…

    • I totally get what you mean by getting carried away. I am so guilty of it myself! I love your avalanche SAR post!

  15. Excellent job. We have not trained any of these commands. May have to give it a whirl. :)

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