ByAs a dog trainer, I’m often asked by new and experienced dog owners alike, “How do I teach my dog to touch on command?”
This clever trick is one of the easiest to teach and has so many practical uses, it’s no wonder it’s a favorite among dog lovers.
Once mastered, you can use touch to:
- Get your dog’s attention
- Guide them into proper heel position while walking on leash
- Initiate playtime with a nose or paw “high five”
- Help anxious dogs focus on you, not their fears
- And so much more! It’s endlessly useful.
So let’s dive into the step-by-step process of teaching this super handy trick.
How to Train Your Dog to Touch Your Hand
Training the touch command is all about shaping your dog’s behavior through positive reinforcement. Like all dog training, you’ll want to break the skill down into small, manageable steps to set your pup up for success.
Step 1: Prepare the Training Treats
You’ll need your pup’s highest-value treats for this training. Real meat treats work best. Have them chopped into pea-sized bits to keep your dog motivated and focused.
Place a handful of treats in a treat pouch or pocket for easy access during your sessions. You’ll be rewarding your dog frequently, so keep those treats at the ready!
✔️ Pro Tip: Adjust your treat placement depending on what paw or nose touch behavior you want to train. For a nose touch, treats go in your left hand. For a paw touch, have them in your right. This positions the reward closest to the desired touch point.
Step 2: Get in Position
Stand with your pup facing you and decide if you want to train a hand touch with their nose or paw.
If training a nose touch, hold your left hand out flat with your palm facing your dog around nose level.
For a paw touch, present your right hand instead, palm up near your dog’s shoulder height.
Either way, be sure your hand is low enough for your dog to easily reach. You can raise the criteria later after the behavior is learned.
Step 3: Capture the Initial Touch
Most dogs will naturally sniff or paw at your outstretched hand out of curiosity. The instant this happens, mark the behavior with a clicker or verbal marker like the word “Yes!”
Immediately reward with a treat from your other hand to reinforce the touch.
Repeat this capture and reward several times until your dog is deliberately touching your hand frequently.
💡 Pro Tip: If your dog isn’t touching your hand naturally at first, you can prompt him by rubbing a treat against your palm to get him to sniff and lick. Reward any paw bats or nose boops that happen from the prompting.
Step 4: Add the Cue
Once your dog is consistently and intentionally touching your hand, you’re ready to attach a verbal cue.
Say “Touch!” right before you expect your dog to reach out. Allow them to touch, then mark the behavior and reward.
After 10-20 repetitions with the verbal cue, try giving the cue without any hand prompting. Just present your hand and say “Touch!” Wait for your dog to respond and give a reward.
Step 5: Increase Criteria
Now you can raise your expectations little by little:
Gradually delaying the reward delivery so your dog holds the touch a second longer each time.
Varying the position of your hand so they have to adjust their body position to reach it.
Giving the cue from increasing distances so they have to move closer to your hand before touching.
Asking for more repetitions before rewarding.
Take it slowly and reward generously for each successful touch. Keep sessions short and fun for the best results.
Troubleshooting Problems with Hand Target Training
Teaching your dog to reliably touch your hand takes some coordination. Here are some common challenges and how to address them:
My dog won’t touch my hand.
Make sure you’re using irresistible treats. Let them lick or eat some first so they know what’s in your other hand.
Shape the behavior in tiny steps. Click and reward any eye contact with your hand at first, then head turns, then sniffs, etc. until you get to the final touch.
My dog just stares at the treat.
- Keep treats hidden until the reward marker. And close your hand briefly when marking to signal the behavior is over before opening it again to deliver the treat.
My dog paws at the treat hand instead of touching.
- Adjust your hand position so the treat hand is farther behind your back during the touch. You can also switch hands delivering the reward.
My dog won’t touch my hand unless I’m also holding a treat.
- Randomize when you give the reward. Sometimes reward after the cued touch, sometimes after two or three touches, and sometimes just give hearty praise instead of a food reward. This will teach your dog the cue itself is important, not just the treat.
My dog touches my hand when I don’t ask for it.
- Only reward touches when you give the verbal cue. Ignore any other touches. You can also teach an “off” or “enough” cue to end non-rewarded behaviors.
With patience and consistency using positive reinforcement methods, you and your dog will master the touch command. And you’ll open up a world of training possibilities from this foundation skill.
5 Fun Ways to Use the Touch Command
Once your dog has the touch skill solid under distractions, you can incorporate it into all kinds of everyday activities. Here are some of my favorite ways to utilize it:
1. Play the “Touch” Game
- Hold your hand out in different positions and have your dog boop it on cue for a treat reward. See how many touches they’ll offer in a row without stopping.
2. Guide Loose Leash Walking
- Teach your dog to touch a target stick held in your right hand. They’ll learn to swing into perfect heel position as you walk.
3. Interrupt Anxious Behavior
- If your dog gets stressed by noises or visitors, have them touch your calm hand as a distraction. It redirects their attention and focus.
4. Practice Dog Sports
- The touch cue builds essential targeting skills for agility, flyball, musical canine freestyle, and more.
5. Signal Tricks
- You can shape adorable head tilts, spins, bows and other fun tricks by touching your dog’s nose, shoulder or hip as a signal. Get creative!
The touch command is enormously versatile for everyday life with dogs. Once trained, practice it regularly so both you and your dog get proficient using this handy cue.
Touch Training Games to Play with Your Dog
Once your dog is proficient at the basic touch cue, there are all sorts of fun games and challenges you can play together to keep polishing and proofing the skill.
Here are a few of my favorite touch training games:
Nose Touch Soccer – Gently kick a small soft ball and have your dog nose touch it back to you. See how many passes you can make without the ball stopping.
Touch and Spin – Ask for a touch then spin in a circle so your dog has to find and touch your hand again on the other side. Repeat in both directions.
Touch and Back Up – Cue a touch, then take one large step back. Ask for another touch, step back again. See how far back your dog will follow and touch.
Find the Hand – Put both hands behind your back, show just one, get a touch, then switch hands quickly. Can your dog figure out which hand to touch next?
Touch my Point – Point to different parts of your body like leg, foot, shoulder, and cue touch. See if your dog can correctly target where you point.
Playing fun touch games helps strengthen your dog’s targeting skills and keeps the training lively for you both. Tap into your creativity and get ready to laugh a lot!
Useful Items for Touch Training Success
While you don’t need much equipment for touch training, having the right gear can make the process easier and more engaging. Here are some of my favorite supplies:
Clicker – The sharp click sound marks the touch instantly. Easier for dogs to understand than a verbal marker.
Treat Pouch – Lets you access rewards quickly with both hands free for targeting. Attach it around your waist for convenience.
Target Stick – Allows you to cue touches from a distance.touch. Just hold the end of the stick out for your dog to touch their nose to.
Flirt Pole -A dog toy attached to a rope on a pole. You can cast it out for your dog to chase and touch. Loads of fun!
Post-it Notes – Stick these on cabinet doors, walls, etc at nose height. Removes easily but lets you train touches on various surfaces.
Bell on a Rope – For really precise paw targeting work. Suspended just off the floor, the bell encourages vertical paw lifts to hit it and make noise.
Equipping yourself with the right gear will set you and your dog up for touch training success!
How to Troubleshoot Common Touch Training Issues
Teaching your dog to touch your hand is usually a pretty straightforward process, but occasionally issues pop up. Here’s how to troubleshoot some common problems:
My dog is afraid of my hand.
- Associate your hand with treats first by feeding your dog from it. Once they see it as something positive, you can begin shaping the touch.
My dog nibbles or mouths my hand.
- Make sure you’re rewarding from your other hand. Also watch your timing to avoid rewarding nibbles. Reward only the specific touch behavior you want.
My dog leaps at my hand.
- Calmly pull your hand back and wait for them to settle. Reward only gentle touches with a calm body posture.
My dog stares at the reward hand instead.
- Keep it behind your back at first. Once they understand the touching hand is what earns rewards, you can bring both hands in front.
My dog refuses to touch my empty hand.
- Show them a treat in your hand first, then close your fist around it before extending your hand. They’ll likely touch hoping a treat magically appears! Reward after.
With some tweaks to your technique and ample patience, you can overcome any training challenges that come up. Consistency and positivity are key!
How to Fade the Lure for Reliable Hand Targeting
Luring your dog’s nose or paw to your hand with a treat can be a helpful first step. But eventually, you want your dog to respond reliably to just the verbal cue, without needing the lure.
Here is a gradual process for fading out the lure:
Hold the treat visibly in your hand until you get consistent touches for several sessions. Reward from your other hand.
Next, loosely hold a treat in your fingers but don’t present it upfront. Only show your empty palm. When your dog touches, open your fingers so they see the reward.
Now fully enclose the treat in your fist so it’s not visible at all. Your dog should still touch your empty hand reliably. Reward from the other.
After a few successes with an invisible lure, switch to holding an empty hand out. If your dog won’t touch, you can show them a treat, then hide it again before extending your hand.
Finally, present just your empty hand while giving the verbal cue. Your dog should respond to the verbal cue alone without needing to see a treat at all.
Remember to reward intermittently once your dog understands the cue! Fading a lure takes patience but builds a much more solid behavior.
How to Train Touch on Different Body Parts
Once your dog understands targeting your outstretched hand reliably, you can build on this foundation skill by teaching them to touch different parts of your body.
This is useful for guiding your dog into various positions, like swinging into heel position for loose leash walking.
Here’s how to shape touching different body parts:
1. Start by transferring the hand touch to your other hand, rewarding your dog for generalizing the behavior.
2. Next, present the back of your hand for touches, then switch to your palm again. Vary between palm up and palm down.
3. After palm up and down clicks, present the side of your hand for targeting, then flip back to your palm.
4. Now you can start asking for touches on new body parts like your knee, foot, elbow, shoulder, hip, etc. Say your cue word and point to or tap the desired spot.
5. Over multiple sessions, build up a repertoire of different touch points all over your body that your dog can respond to on cue.
Keeping training sessions short, fun and rewarding will have your dog happily touching away in no time. With the basics mastered, the possibilities are endless!
Top Tips for Maintaining a Solid Touch
Like any dog training skill, the “touch” behavior needs regular practice and proofing to remain strong. Here are my top tips for maintaining a reliable touch:
- Vary your hand position – Have your dog touch high, low, angled, flat palm, back of hand, etc. This builds flexibility.
- Increase criteria slowly – Ask for harder feats like sustaining the touch longer, touching from farther away, touching smaller targets, etc. in small increments.
- Train in short bursts – Brief, focused sessions maintain your dog’s enthusiasm for training.
- Reward intermittently – Once your dog understands the cue, don’t reward every single touch. Reward frequently at first, then start randomizing when you give a treat vs. just verbal praise. This strengthens response reliability.
- Proof in distraction-rich environments – Practice the touch in places with environmental distractions your dog will need to tune out. Start easy, then work up to more challenging areas.
- Chain touching behaviors – Ask for a series of different touches in sequence, like hand touch followed by knee touch followed by floor target. Chains build memory and reliability.
- Test response at a distance – Back up after you give the cue so your dog has to move closer to you before touching. Increase distance gradually.
- Beware drift – Our dogs tend to naturally drift away from learned behaviors if we don’t refresh them regularly. Schedule refreshers before drift happens.
- End on successes – Even short training sessions should finish with your dog happily and successfully performing the behavior several times.
- Show your dog you value this skill – Touch will remain high on your dog’s priority list if you continue to reinforce its importance through play, praise and life rewards.
By incorporating these tips into regular short training sessions, the touch behavior will become a strong, reliable staple in your dog’s repertoire. Maintaining skills takes diligence but it’s well worth the effort!
