Nose Target Training: How to Teach "Touch"

A dog’s nose is an incredibly powerful tool. It is incredibly powerful, smelling volatile organic compounds that are undetectable by humans. This has paved the way for dogs to have jobs as cadaver dogs or in bomb detection, blood tracking, and even to alert if your blood sugar is high.

But dog noses can be used in communication methods that don’t require the sense of smell through nose target training. This post will cover a basic nose target skill called “touch.”

What is nose target training?

Nose target training is teaching your dog to touch a target with his nose. This article will detail how to train your dog to touch the back of your hand. But you can select any target you’d like. Others train their dogs to touch their arms or buttons like doorbells.

Why should I nose target train my dog?

You don’t have to nose target train your dog. However, some reasons you may want to nose target train are:

To obtain the AKC Dog Trick Novice Title
To housebreak your dog

Oftentimes, dogs will either cry or scratch on the door to signal they need to potty. Sometimes it’s hard to know if a whine is just a whine, or a cry to go outside. And not everyone appreciates dog scratches on their doors. So a great way to know definitively that your dog needs to potty without house damage is to target train. The best target for housebreaking is a button that makes noise.

You can use the same target if you wish to both housebreak or obtain your title. If you don’t want to nose target train for housebreaking, you can just use your hand or arm as a target for the dog trick title.

How to train your dog to touch

We will train to touch a target through food luring. All you need to train your dog to touch a target is a treat, a target, and a marker. Some trainers recommend training with a clean lid from ricotta cheese or yogurt you bought at the store to train this, and then transition to your preferred target. Since I am training for Ezra’s Dog Trick Novice Title, I trained using the back of my hand so I wouldn’t need to transition him later. The choice is yours, but the below steps will refer to your hand as a target.

Happy Bernese Mountain Dog cooling himself off by laying down in front of a fan.

Step 1: Position the treat, mark the behavior.

Grab a treat and put it in between your thumb and your palm.
Then take the back of your hand and put it a couple inches away from your dog’s nose.
He will sniff your hand first. When he does that, his nose will touch your hand. Then he’ll start licking
The moment his nose touches your hand, mark the behavior and pay with a treat. Mark the behavior before he licks.
Then repeat. Keep repeating at this distance until your dog is starting to understand that once he touches his nose against your hand, he’ll get a treat.
Then add the verbal command.

Step 2: Move the target farther away.

After your dog starts to understand the verbal command from a couple inches from his nose, increase the distance by a couple more inches. Your hand should be far enough away that he has to move forward.
Then give the verbal command. Your dog may not as quickly touch your hand. That’s OK.
Pause and let him think about what to do next. Stay patient and give him time to move forward to touch your hand.
If he makes a mistake, that’s OK. Try again. If he makes the mistake twice in a row, that’s still OK. It just signifies to go back to a shorter distance and practice a little bit more.
Keep repeating at this distance until he understands that he needs to move forward to touch your hand after you say “touch.”
Then make it a little harder. Increase the distance again, and repeat these steps.
Work your way up to distance you need him to be target trained on. For me, that’s standing up with my hand in front of me.

Conclusion

The basics of nose target training are really simple. All you have to do is select a target, grab some treats, and mark the right behavior in small increments. The first small increment should be just a couple inches from your dog’s nose. The moment his nose touches the target, mark the behavior and pay him. It’s that easy!

What targets have you used in nose targeting training? Comment and let me know!