Contact Training with a Target Cue

We had a couple of sessions at camp where I was able to work with Dusty on 'hand touches'. A hand touch is a useful tool in teaching a number of skills. Kay Lawrence recommends using a hand touch as part of a 'here' command, believing that coming to touch your hand is a more precise behaviour than just coming, and therefore easier to learn and more motivating to do. Hand touches are also one of the 'Teamwork Building Blocks' that Helix covers in her CyberAgility courses. Helix gives participants eleven pages of notes on teaching the hand touch. (Her excellent notes are worth the price of the course alone - plus you get the opportunity to discuss your training with her via chat, and she provides feedback on your weekly reports, you can even submit videos for analysis.) Susan Garrett has hand touches as the first skill to learn on the way to training contact obstacles.

Teaching the Hand Touch

• Step 1 - Practice without your dog until you can present your target hand, click, reach for a treat, and deliver a treat with your target hand smoothly ten times in a row and time the session - with either hand.
• Step 2 - Get the behaviour, a nose touch to your left hand. Hold your left hand out, palm facing your dog. As soon as he touches your hand with his nose click/treat and put your hand back in the same position as fast as you can. You want a 'high level of re-inforcement', that is, you want lots of opportunities to get a reward. Don't wiggle your fingers or make kissy noises, let him be 'operant', that is make the decision to do what brings the reward. The goal is 10 C/Ts in 40 seconds.
• Step 3 - Get the behaviour, a nose touch to your right hand. The goal is 10 C/Ts in 40 seconds.
• Step 4 - Change the picture. Present the left hand in a slightly different position. The goal is 10 C/Ts in 40 seconds. Present the right hand in a slightly different position. The goal is 10 C/Ts in 40 seconds. Repeat with your hand higher or lower, further away. Mix it up, so that each time you left hand is is a different position. Then your right hand. Then either hand. Be clear about your criteria - you want a firm press, not an incidental touch. At each change the goal is 10 C/Ts in 40 seconds.
• Step 5 - Give it a name. Helix suggests that you use a cue like "touch". Others feel that the presented hand is in itself the cue, and that this signal can be used with other cues such as 'here'.
• Step 6 - Take it on the road. Practice in different situations and locations of increasing distraction.
• Step 7 - Make it harder. Have your dog at your side facing the same direction. Add movement so that he has to step to touch your hand. Increase the distance. Then add a turn-in-place so your dog has to follow your hand as you pivot. Eventually turn, take forward steps, take sideways steps, back up, zig zag and C/T your dog for coming to touch your hand.

As Helix says, hand touches are a useful life skill. They are an easy job your dog can do at the vet or passing the neighbour's lunging beast; they can maneuver your dog into startline position without having to man-handle him; they can warm him up and get the team connection happening; and they are a useful tool to teach other skills.

Once your dog has hand touches on cue, you can introduce a target. A small plexiglass square or disc is convenient and easy to fade, and it's neutral. The steps are the same as with the hand target, however it is even more important to practice without your dog as there is one more element to juggle and when you start with the target in your hand it takes a bit of dexterity to present the target, click, get the treat and reward the dog with the hand holding the target.

Teaching the Target Touch

• Step 1 - Practice without your dog.
  
• Step 2 - Get the behaviour, a nose touch to a target held in your left hand, then right hand.
• Step 3 - Get the behaviour, a nose touch to a target held in your left hand, then right hand with your hand placed on the ground.
  
• Step 4 - Change the picture. Remove your hand and C/T firm nose touches on the target on the ground just in front of the dog. This is not a distance excercise, the dog should not have to move to the target.
  
• Step 5 - Give it a name. Again some instructors say that because this is a transitional behaviour and not an end in itself, it should not have a cue other than the appearance of the target. I'm not using a cue word myself.
  
• Step 6 - Take it on the road. Practice in different situations and locations of increasing distraction.
  
• Step 7 - Make it harder. Your goal behaviour is for your dog to stand still, without turning or moving his back feet and to press his nose against the target repeatedly, until you give a release cue.