Mama's Monday: Touch

Only it's really Wednesday. Sorry about that!

Mama says this is my Tropicana look. I have no idea what that means.

In class Pooka has been learning the command "touch" - which means he bops his nose on mama's palm. It's a useful command because it can be turned into a game to relieve stress, and all you need is one of your hands, which, chances are, you will have with you. Haroo!

To teach it, have your dog on leash and then stick your hand out, palm flat and towards the dog, at some distance away. Dogs are usually pretty curious and your puppy should likely walk towards your hand to sniff it. If your dog doesn't seem to be sniffing your palm, try moving the palm AWAY from him, and wiggling your fingers, etc. If all else fails, rub a little cheese or hotdog onto your palm. As soon as your dog's nose comes into contact with palm, give him his marker word and a treat. Repeat until the dog grasps the concept of hand + nose = treat, then begin to add the command word, "touch," to the behavior as the dog is doing it. Make sure you use both hands, and change the way your hand looks, fingers pointing out to the side, or straight down, or hand held flat palm towards floor so that your dog doesn't create the idea that he only touches your palm when it looks only one way. Teaching this command is great because it allows you to give your dog a target for jumping games (which relieve stress) AND it is a cornerstone of a lot of tricks like teaching your dog to turn on a light switch or close the refrigerator.

We're also continuing to work on his recall, playing games like "round robin"...two or more people stand a small distance away from each other and one calls the puppy - puppy gets cookie when he goes to the person, then the second person calls the puppy and the first stops feeding, puppy gets cookie when he goes to second person. To increase the difficulty, increase the distance between you, and also have the first person continue to offer cookies while the second person calls the puppy away to them. Don't use the word "come" since the puppy isn't on leash and you can't make certain he obeys the call, just use the puppy's name.