Some time ago I worked with Lightning to charge the clicker, a series of click-treat pairs until Lightning realized, visible in his reaction to the click, that a click predicts a treat.

Today I used that work as the basis for a simple, fundamental skill: training Lightning to touch his nose to my hand when I present an open palm. No verbal cue is used, just the visual cue.

Training this skill is simple. I started by tearing up some pieces of sliced ham, since I wanted to use a high-value reinforcer. [I think training with anything less than a high-value reinforcer is a waste of time.]

Next, I sat on the couch in our TV room, where Lightning spends most of his days. Both of our family’s Goldens were nearby. Ryley was in his crate in an adjoining room, and Laddie was lying on the floor a couple of feet from Lightning and me. Both are clicker-trained and both like sliced ham, so I wasn’t sure we’d be able to work in that location, but they ignored us so it was fine.

The room is also littered with dog toys, but again, all of Lightning’s attention was on me. If he had been distracted, we would have moved so that we could work without distractions.

As soon as I sat down, Lightning came to a sit in front of me. He often gets treats in that location. He couldn’t see the ham, which was in a bowl on a table next to the couch, though he could probably smell it. In any case, he was fully engaged.

I started with a quick recharge of the clicker, three click-treats. He alerted to all the clicks, so we were ready to go.

Then I put my open hand a few inches from his face. It’s natural for a dog to touch your palm with his nose when you do that, and when Lightning did so, click-treat. I repeated that about twenty times, till I ran out of ham.

Of course I didn’t leave my hand in the same place each time. I gradually increased the distance, until he eventually had to stand up and walk over to me to touch my hand. I also used my other hand a few times.

I may not write more about this in the future, so I’ll mention a few points before I finish:

• We’ll practice this skill for the rest of Lightning’s life in various forms, greater distances being one goal, and also proofing for distractions of all sorts and for many different locations, inside and out.
• A time will soon come when I’ll reinforce Lightning for moving to my hand without actually touching his nose to it. At that point, my hand can be used to lead him into any desired position, such as bringing him around from front to heel, without physical contact.
• Similarly, he’ll soon learn to follow the direction of an open hand gesture with momentum right past my open hand. In that way, I’ll be able to use a sweeping gesture to cue him into his crate or thru a door in front of me, again without physical contact.
• With respect to field work, the visual cue, even for an advanced field dog, when you are calling the dog in either straight or on an angle, is one or both palms open toward the dog as your arm or arms reach down toward the ground. So Lightning is already learning a retriever’s handling cue, too!  :0)

The hand touch is a nice starting skill for a new clicker-trained dog. I’ll discuss others in future posts.