Category: Getting Started, Advanced Stuff ¤
  Author: Dani Weinberg ¤
   Title: Touching a Target Stick ¤

Carrie, you ask:

>>I've heard a lot about people using touch sticks for all sorts of
training scenarios, and I'm curious about HOW it is taught, and WHY it is
used as a building block for further exercises.>>

A touch stick is just one kind of "target."  Here's how I explain
targeting.  Many animals respond to something new that appears in their
environment by orienting to it - either by just looking at it or actually
moved towards and maybe even touching it.  We do too!  Try it!  Have
someone choose an object, keep it hidden from you, and then suddenly bring
it out right in front of your face (not in a way that would make you
flinch!).  Targeting uses this natural behavior to orient a dog to an
object.  It might be a stick, or a hand, or a yogurt lid, or even the red
dot made by a laser pointer or the light spot from a flashlight.

You teach targeting by presenting the object - let's say you've decided to
start with a stick - in front of your dog's nose and very close to it. If
the dog looks at it, you C/T.  You gradually raise your criteria (by moving
the stick further away and/or off to the side), requiring that your dog not
only look at it but move towards and touch it with his/her nose (some
people ask for a paw touch).  Once the behavior is well established, you
give it a name, such as "Touch."

Now you can transform your target into a moving target and use it to teach
any moving exercise like heeling or the Finish.  Your dog will follow the
stick in order to satisfy your "Touch" cue.  S/he thinks it's still a
target, though you now think of it as a guide for movement.  People use
targeting to teach lots of things, including fold back Downs, Go Outs,
Gloves, tricks like Crawl, etc.


Dani Weinberg
Albuquerque, NM and
Crested Butte, CO