jumping up to hand when doing 'touch' command

[tritonx]

I was doing some training this morning, getting Fraser to follow my hand walking beside me. He leaps up to bump my hand with his nose or mouth my hand (the treat isn't in it) and I don't want him to do that, just to follow the hand. How do I make him just follow, not jump up. He does follow, but with occasional jumps.

[Karma]

If a dog is doing a "touch" they should be touching the hand-target.  So your hand should be at the level you want his head...

If that is uncomfortable you can use a target stick (or we use a spatula, as it is a bigger, more hand-like, target, as Honey would push the target stick away).

If you are trying to acheive a nice, head-up, walking alongside you, you could try a "crane" approach.... have a handful of treats, hold them out above his head and walk along, dropping treats into his mouth... Honey loves this!!! (Can't imagine why!!!!  )

[tritonx]

Heh, Fraser's very fond of treats being dropped in his mouth. I'll use a stick then. That leads to the dog being able to walk alongside when off leash, right? It'll be possible to remove the stick and have him walk alongside?

[clairep4]

Are you clicker training him? If so, if you want him to follow but not touch your hand, you need to make sure you click before he actually gets to your hand (the great thing about clicker training is that you can really pinpoint what you want).

If the aim is to have him walking to heel and looking up at you, I would probably start with my hand in the position that was going to be my cue, eg a fist on the front of my hip. You can then hold treats in that hand, click him for looking up at the hand (before he jumps up) and drop the treat out of his hand.   Then he is learning the cue of looking up at your hand (and naturally if you're walking he will need to be alongside you to do this, if that makes sense?).

[Sarah1985]

Alot of trainers use hand targeting to get dogs to walk to heel but it falls down the min you have a small dog. 

I choose to seperate my signals for touch and follow as it made more sense to me at the time. I signal touch with a flat hand and follow with a fist that I can then hold my hip for heel work and the dog walks with its shoulder against my leg and head up looking at my closed hand

[tritonx]

Thanks, the advice is very helpful. I must find my clicker which is probably in a jacket I haven't worn for a while.

[Top Barks]

I lift my hand up to my chest and dogs still seem to follow without jumping, dogs will often jump if you leave your hand at a tantilising height, especially if you have had food in it or the dog is used to being fed from the same hand.

[Sarah1985]

I lift my hand up to my chest and dogs still seem to follow without jumping, dogs will often jump if you leave your hand at a tantilising height, especially if you have had food in it or the dog is used to being fed from the same hand.

very true. I didnt think about that (can you tell Ive not done obedience for a while ).

 My dog trainer always talks about the danger zone which is the area between your waist and the dogs mouth. If you leave your hand in this area too long and the dog tends to jump up. I guess they must find it too tempting 

[Top Barks]

Because of this Sarah, you can teach a small dog to follow a hand target, you just move the target.
I do it with puppies and little uns all the time