Contacts #2 - Targets

Tools of the 2o2o Trade - continued

The "Touch It" from: www.nosetouch.com
(Click on the link to learn more)

Pictured above is the "Touch It" nose target. The "Touch It" is an electronic device that emits an electronic "beep" when the nose target is pressed, telling handler and dog that the dog has touched its nose to the electronic target. Invented by our friend, Mary Lou Hanlon, (website above and to be added to our links section), this is an ingenious little device, that can eliminate a lot of error when it comes to rewarding targeting behavior. You may notice a plastic covering on the touch pad pictured above, this is to prevent any moisture (damp noses, wet grass, etc.) from interfering with connectivity. Any thin plastic will do.

Mary Lou Hanlon's: "Touch It" - showing the whole unit.

In this picture above, you see the nose target on the floor in front of the travel plank, and the battery-operated electronic unit (connected by wire) hidden and out of the way, under the travel plank. This is also the way you would use it on stairs.

The "Hit It" also from: www.nosetouch.com

The "Hit It" board, also invented & made by Mary Lou, (website above), is another electronic training device that can be used for training of running contacts, advancing stopped contacts, and/or any other creative use you may think up. The "Hit It" also emits an electronic beep when a dog steps on the yellow board. The picture above shows the wired connection, with on/off switch, and the electronic unit the board plugs into, (identical to the "Touch It). The electronic unit is battery operated. Not only have people I've known used this device to train running contacts, but I have have seen some nice results using it to build drive into a release command, and getting a food-motivated dog to drive away from a contact as quickly as he drove into position.


Targets

Targets pictured above from sizes 4" square and round to 1" square.
Clicker shown for size comparison. These targets are cut pieces of clear Plexiglas. Some were purchased from agility supply store: Clean Run (click on the link, go to: "store" to learn more). Targets as shown above are used at the ends of contact trainers and stairs as a target for the dog to nose touch.

The Palm of Your Own Hand

The place where the nose touch training begins - the palm of your own hand. Many people would rush past this step, thinking it the least important, the least "fun" with all those attractive training tools I just showed you above. Don't be lulled into skipping this step. Without a good hand touch, you will only short-change the dog when it comes to getting good, reliable nose touches.

This is one place I really saw the "Princesse" in Bungee - she only wanted to touch my hand with the most delicate, soft, little nose touches possible. It took a long time of working this to get her pushing my hand firmly. We'll talk more about that later.


Clickers of various shapes & sizes (also the most dangerous tool in the arsenal!)

The 3 clickers shown above are each a little different, the two on each side have raised buttons that make it easier to use when wearing mitts or gloves. The black one at the right is an early version of Karen Pryor's "I-Click" It's greatest feature is how easy it is to click, making it ideal for a person with limited dexterity. Both raised clickers greatest danger is making it too easy to click accidentally!
To the left side you see another shot of a stack of Plexiglas targets.

Why would anyone call a clicker dangerous? Due to the degree of accuracy required in timing a click (to train correctly), it is very easy to time your click incorrectly, telling the dog it is correct when it is wrong.
Use clickers with caution!

While I still use clickers for many different things, they are NOT necessary to train great nose touches or contacts and this time around, I won't be using one for nose touches. In fact, if you are not well-prepared with your mechanics, they may just be an extra piece of equipment to fiddle with, get in the way, and mess up otherwise really good contacts! If you insist on using them to train your nose touches, it would be ideal to keep a video camera running to double-check your timing for accuracy, making sure your click is precisely as the dog pushes the nose to the target. It is also perfectly acceptable to start the behavior with the clicker and eliminate the clicker quickly after that. But it is definitely not necessary, and can just be risky business all together. This seemingly simple behavior is actually a very precise behavior, making much room for error on both your parts with the smallest of mis-steps - such as an ill-timed click.

Happy Training!