Touch - target training - Dog Training 

I recommend your videos. As a trainer of 32 years I always give you credit for videos I send clients to.

You are the best dog trainer I have seen on youtube. Thank you so much! So clear and easy to follow.

This worked within minutes!!! Brilliant simple starting point for me and my dog!

wow, I almost skipped over this video thinking this seemed like a pointless thing to learn but I can see now that it is the basis for so many different possibilities!!! Thank you for this!

Hi Emily, I wanted to let you know how much I admire you and the dedication you have to your trade. It is evident you really love what you do. You explain everything so clearly and patiently. Thank you

Touch was the first thing I ever taught my dog at 9 weeks old. It's become a very useful behaviour. Recently I've been using it to increase enthusiasm for recall while off-leash with good success.

many many thanks, I tried it with my 4 dogs, every one of the got it really quickly. (akita mor or less 10 years old, chichuahua 2 years old, border collie 2 and a half years old and a mini aussie 3 years old)

you have such a gift for making videos! such great information and was really fun to watch. MY GOODNESS how cute was that puppy?! and as for Tug I want him!! hahaha! he reminds me of Princess when he stamps his feet when he hears the click. what a cutie!!

I love how quickly he gets ahold of what to do! It shows how smart they are =) Great video

Really clear cut instruction. Thank you for that! Can't wait to start this with my 13 week old GSD today!

So grateful to Emily and Kikopup. Thank you for sharing your knowledge so we can learn and make their world a better place.

This is really awesome. Very nice demonstration and explanation without any room for confusion.

Just got our puppy three days ago and your videos have been wonderfully clear and very effective for training. He is taking to it like a duck to water which is so apt as he is an Irish water spaniel. Definitely the best of the clicker videos in my humble opinion. Thanks a milion

Wow wow wow this is brilliant I agree every dog to know how to touch. There are many great behaviors you and your dog can learn with touch!

Thanks for doing this with an actual puppy! All the other videos I've seen are with adult dogs so this was super helpful :)

@kikopup I can honestly say I believe you have one of the top 3 dog training channels on RU-vid. The quality of the content, video, visual demonstration and explanation are a excellent, thank you so much. Do you have any videos on overexcited when meeting other dogs problems please?

OH MY GAWD!!! This is Brilliant! Correct me if I'm wrong but, this drill will actually tackle several things at once. 1. Getting attention; 2. Getting them to move, spin, stand, jump, dance; 3. Getting them to follow. Fantastic. Question: how long did it take you to get your Collie to move so smoothly with your fingers...a week, a month? Did you have the same success with your small dogs?

thank you for the wonderful video. I will try this with my dog. I love all your training videos. They are easy to understand and easy to learn. Your dogs are so beautiful and smart. I really wish my dog can be like them one day. Thank you again.

Thank you! Your videos are great and straight to the point...some videos talk and talk and talk before they get to the point. SO FAR MY FAVE TRAINER!

This video is awesome. I never even thought about using touch with other behaviors like standing on two legs and heeling.... perfect! You are so great Emily!

@kikopup I never thought about using touch to get them to do freestyle types of behaviours. That was an excellent thing to show! In future I will definitely be teaching touch straight after the default leave it. Wonderful!

I love using the Touch command! I use it all the time with all three of my dogs and they love this game!

the little spin killed me. omg so cute!

Nice tips! Thank you

This is excellent, thanks for sharing, I know it is an older video but they are just as valuable and such a great refresher for humans as well as pups-tx, love our dogs! Peace and blessings.

The puppy in the beggining is just adorable :)

Thank you so much for your videos! My dog is learning alot and so am I

it's so helpfull... after few minutes teaching my dog this trick i feel like i found a new way to communicate with him. THX!!!

ok, now my dog touch my finger... he's creative and allways adds a few rolls and somersaults but I think that he is learning. YOur videos are amazing, I love your channel and also my dog!

Thank you! This was so easy to teach cause of your video that was explained so well.Great. vid

So excited to teach my dog this! Thanks for the great video!

Revisiting this one as I originally used a lazy way of training it by using food in my target hand. My dog gets over aroused with this command (which I think comes from the early "mugging" behaviour i basically encouraged) and actually nips my hand instead of just nosing it. So will start again and teach some control before reintroducing the cue. I would like to use a new cue altogether, but 'touch' really is the most appropriate. Thanks again Emily.

Thank you for this brilliant video... It makes me more enthusiastic about getting a new puppy this summer. Keep up the good work!

This video actually just solved one of my problems I've been having with one of my pomeranians. She will not follow my hand or fingers as a lure no matter what I try. No treat, no lure. I'm going to try this method and see if it works. I have a feeling it will definitely work!

always great

wow, thank you for the amazing videos, i'll try that stuff with my german spitz, hope he's not too old for it and me too impatient :-)

A useful command!

Kiko thank you for these videos! Im getting a lab next month your videos should help so much!

EXCELLENT! Thank you so very much for this great information. Cheers, Linda & Geronimo

wonderful exercise for further tricks!!!!! nice one!

Great video Emily! I like the idea of 2 fingers instead of a flat hand for touch. Might have to retrain Slider & Elektra's "touch" to that hand sign!

what a great video indeed. makes perfect sense

Awesome, thank you for all that veeery interesting videos.

Brilliant explanations thank you for such great training vids.

Great video! I'm going to try this with my dog! Thanks!

So useful! I can't wait for your seminar in Seattle, Emily!

By the way your videos are awesome

Been surfing clicker training videos for my new pup. Yours stand out. Nice work.

@junkiobsessed . I think the best way if you want to avoid using unhealthy treats, use your kibble that your feeding him as treats.

Great video! I learned to do this in dog training class but she didn't teach us about the hand position or teaching them to follow. This is going to make my future training so much easier! I'm wondering if you would ever speak to the lengths of your training sessions -- your dogs aways look so bouncy and excited!

My Dog does this already we neaded it for agilitly but it comes in handy for other things to.

Love this! Clicker training is really awesome! Rilo learnt to "touch" in such a short time! :)

you are amazing

I look forward to teaching this to my puppy :-) This video was excellent, and I enjoy watching many of your other videos as well. I have to admit though, professionals always make it look so easy, and some how it never is :-P

You are my favorite trainer!

thank you for giving examples on what to do it your pup is nipping you when trying to teach touch! I will implement that now :)

Very Helpful!

That's fantastic!

Subbed, nice guide and tips.

Awesome and yet simple to do for beginners like me:) Thanx!

This is great! I thought Luxi 'point' and she will put her nose where ever your finger may be. Even if it is on an object. I will try to get her to follow now!

Omg stoppp he’s so cute when he gets excited

I love your videos thanks for sharing xx

awesome :D starting this tomorrow with my puppy!

This is my favourite trick!

Another great video, thanks. I already started using the word touch to make him stand up on a chair or object. I assume I will have to come up with a new word for this?

Great vid!! Thanks for sharing

thank u for all the info!I am reading up prior to getting a puppy in mid feb..i would luv to buy ur book via kindle..possible at all?thank u very much

Great videos.You're brilliant. My puppy hasn't got this yet but i think its more down to my timing than her intelligence🙈She gets easily distracted by the floor and walks off when i click before i get to give her the treat. What treats do u use?

Good video!! Hopefully this will help for agility!!

That can be transfered to anything - I did it to a ball to start my deaf dog to retrieve even though he had not instinct for it.

SUPER!!!

Hi Emily! First of all you're amazing! I have a question about training for touch....what if the smell of the treats was distracting the dog and they were paying attention to that hand instead of the hand they were supposed to be focused on (the hand they were to touch)?

Excellent!!!

you got me super excited about training my puppy.. i just can't seem to get her most motivated to training her. sometimes she walks away well training. she is a 5 month old lab and sometimes has this avoidance when i speak to her. is there a way to restart training on your dog once she has started alittle bad habbits? plz pm on some tips that may help. thanks

Another terrific tutorial video. :-)

brava!very good

Wow interesting

you are so lucky to have access to that many dogs..I envy you

I'm currently teaching my dogs to target using a stick, and I was wondering if you had any advice on whether I have different verbal cues for touching my hand vs touching a stick?

im really enjoying trying your methods on my dogs!!! (trying at the moment to re-train myself to do kissy noise instead of NO!) I really want to train my dog to 'touch' but he just licks my hand - he starts licking about a foot before he reaches my hand so i cant click him just before he touches cuz hes already in full lick! - if you read this and have suggestions id love to know!!!

I'm guessing the puppy's a mix, but do you know what his mix is? Love when he does a volentary spin!

What's the click

How many tricks do you work on at once? Say I am teaching down, do I work only on down for a week or two till my dog gets it, then work on a new trick or can you work on multiples just in different sessions in the day? Thank you

how do u fade the clicker?

OMG this is brilliant! :D

@junkiobsessed In other videos, she has used hot dogs or fresh meat cut up in small pieces. I use raw meat or dried lamb training treats broken down into tiny pieces.

My new 2 month old puppy, Mango, is just starting to learn 'touch'. She seems to understand what to do but doesn't do it in distance. Any tips?

Help, kikopup! I taught my dog "leave it" using your video this morning. This evening I tried to teach him "touch" (something he had already learned a few months ago) and he had a very hard time learning it because he thought he was supposed to stay away from my hand..... he's pretty confused about when to do what. Any advice to make the difference more clear to him? I am sure to use the two finger gesture every time. Thank you!

Question: when training is successful, when are you supposed to remove the treats all together?

Hi, can you help me out? My dog just learned this cue… if I hold my hand out, and I say "touch" she does it perfectly (even if Im holding my heand very high, she jumps to touch!) But now for the second step… how can I teach her to stay in the "touch" position? I want her nose to stay "touched" at my hand. And for the 3rd step: that she releases her nose from my hand with a new cue.

I've been teaching my dog touch and i guess i started marking the wrong thing b/c she has learned to lick my hand instead of just put her nose on it. she's only doing what i taught her but i don't want this behavior. any suggestions??

I just tried this with my dogs who I've recently trained default leave it and "it's yer choice" games and what they did was sit and look at me, then within the blink of an eye give my hand a quick lick then backed away again. I clicked this and then quickly realized this is not what I want and getting them to just "touch" the hand with their nose, without giving it a quick lick, could be difficult... I didnt even have time to click before they touched it. And I don't want to make them more excited and moving even faster by playing keepaway.

Found your videos the other day. We got a 7mo. old Australian Shepherd about a week and a half ago. He's very smart! Hoping to start with the Touch clicker training and advance to others. He already shakes and high fives, and reluctantly goes into his crate for the night. He'll get his ball to go outside but drops it at the door and won't carry it outside. The same happens when we come in, he'll carry it to the door but drop it to come in. What video will help that? He also will go get the ball when we throw it, but runs back to us and runs round and round us, he won't give it up. What do we do for that? I hope you can point me in the right direction as to what video to "click"! I guess in a sense, you're clicker training humans that way! LOL! Thanks for everything! Hoping for a reply. Richard in Missouri with his dog Champ.

I have been using the word "touch" to teach my puppy to touch things with her paw. Should I just say nose?

Use whatever your dog loves - hotdog slices, liver treats, or the thing that they can't resist is boiled pig liver. that is usually so good it is distracting.

what kind of treats do you use when training? i usually use canine carry outs, but there are reviews about them not being good for dogs :T

Oh, btw you can go to Billy's (my mini) Facebook and ask to get invited. There he shows all his treadmill and stuff...just in case you wanna find out about him.

What’s the average leaning curve time for 4-5 month old puppies ?

Ah, worked so well for a few moments... and then Bonnie decided that 'Touch' meant 'bite', and once she thought of that, she seemed to think that was more rewarding. Did I maybe go on too long?