Hello everyone!

After a phone call with our group trainer to check in on how Winnie’s been doing, she mentioned two things we could teach her: “touch” and “turn.”

Touch is when you put a treat in between your fingers with your hand flat beside your body. The idea is that when you say the word “touch,” your dog will go to your hand, put their nose up against it, and grab the treat. Eventually, you can slowly move away by not having a treat in your fingers, and your dog will put their nose up against your hand, and then you give them a treat. This is another great way of getting your dogs attention, like “look” or “come.” However, this skill is different since the dog is not looking at you, but instead is physically coming to you and touching your hand.

Here is a video of me trying this skill with Winnie on a walk the other day.

 

Turn is when you put a treat in front of your dog and move it around them so that they turn in a circle. This is a little bit more of a fun trick than it is of an important skill. Although, having your dog always listen to you is very important, so continuing to implement tricks that enforces them to listen is great practice. Eventually the hope is to move away from putting the treat in front of her, and instead have her do it just from the command of “turn.”

The video below is my mom practicing this with her during the more early stages of learning this trick.