• If you're a past member of the board, but can't recall your password any more, you don't need to set up a new account (unless you wish to). As long as you recall your old login name, you can log in with that user name then select 'forgot password' and the board will email you at your registration email, to let you reset your password.

Steps for Teaching "Touch"

Gracie's Mommy

Well-known member
Came across this method for teaching the Touch command yesterday and wanted to share. In Cavalicious' thread about the most important things to teach, one of the members said that they use touch very often and for a number of uses. I was intrigued and found these awesome instructions! Gracie and I are on Day 2 of the lesson and it's working great! I love hte way it's broken down into very small steps over a few days.

Hope others find it helpful, as well! :flwr:

http://www.agilityability.com/TOUCHT~1.pdf
 
Thats great, thanks! :D But I was wondering would it be alright to start saying "Touch" straight away instead of saying "Yes"?

Thanks for the great site Gracie's Mommy! :flwr:
 
Emily, in the instructions, the YES is meant to be a marker to tell the dog that the behavior they just performed is the one you wanted. If you are doing clicker training, you would CLICK instead of saying YES. Once the behavior is pretty reliable, you can start adding the word command to tie the two together. Before you use the word, putting out your hand is the hand signal for them to do the touch. We almost always use a hand signal to train a behavior first and add the word later. Hope that helps!

They learn touch very quickly! Here's a site that has some very short (minute or less) videos that might help too. There is one on touch and some of the subsequent uses. Have fun!

http://www.clickertrainusa.com/clicker-training-videos.htm
 
Thank you Gracie's Mommy! We used your instructions and I taught both Colin and Teddy touch. We are now slowly working on my hand being in different positions. And, now I have a trick to show at our last puppy class for Teddy!

Thanks again :D
 
danalynn said:
Thank you Gracie's Mommy! We used your instructions and I taught both Colin and Teddy touch. We are now slowly working on my hand being in different positions. And, now I have a trick to show at our last puppy class for Teddy!

Thanks again :D

I posted elsewhere that I use Touch as recall.... give it a try! As you expand on it try moving it outdoors. Within a week I had all four of mine running from all over the yard, trying to get to me first to Touch. I've found it to be much more useful that other recall methods I've tried. The other methods are okay, but Touch seems to work the very best.
 
dana...happy to help! Glad it worked so well for your crew! Gracie picked up on it very quickly, as well.

Barb...I believe your post regarding recall was what intrigued me to find some help teachign the command. Thanks for the tip!

No one can tell me that Gracie is not a super clever puppy! This morning she was over playing in the corner of the bedroom (about to pick up a rogue pair of socks, no doubt). I was standing in the bathroom doorway. I put my hand down and said "Touch!" She looked up immediately, ran over, touched ner nose to my palm and ran back to the fascinating things in the corner. I had to laugh...she did exactly what I asked! :sl*p:

Question...is this supposed to be only touch nose to palm? She sometimes will touch my hand with a paw, but I wait for her to touch with her nose. Is that the best thing to do?
 
I taught Joly to touch a plastic stacking toy to give him a target for sendaway. I gradually moved to away touch and then dropped the touch.

I haven't worked him for a while, but now find that he doesn't touch, when told to away. This is a good thing as, last weekend, an obedience competitor told me that some judges penalise touching the back marker.
 
Back
Top