Targeting training

[CATHERINE ASHTON]

Hi. My male cavapoo puppy is 15 weeks old which we have had since 9 weeks. He knows basic commands like sit and gives me his paw.  I was trying the targeting training which was kind of ok but he is a very greedy puppy even though he is fed very well with the best food but he goes absolutely crazy over food, any food. So when I was doing the targeting he got extremely excited. He was actually sometimes putting his nose on my hand but I think he was confused and also giving me his paws which was painfully scratching my hands. Is he too young to be doing this training and how do I manage when he’s so excited about the treats and also that he is giving me his paws. I am excited to work through the course but at the moment his greediness I think will make it difficult. Thanks, Catherine.

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Hi Catherine,

Welcome to the forums!

He's not too young for learning targeting, it's just that we need to find ways to moderate his enthusiasm and lower it down a notch so that he's in the ideal mindset for learning. It also seems like you are likely using a hand gesture to ask for paw and he's thinking that when you're presenting your hand for targeting, you're asking him to give paw.

Because giving paw has gained reinforcement in the past, it's likely something he's very eager to do

So here are a few tips ideas:

-Keep food out of sight. Keep it in you pocket, in your closed hand behind your back or next to you on a tall shelf so that he cannot see it. 

-Use kibble rather than treats for the time-being so that he's not that overly excited. 

-Try using a target stick or a ruler rather than your hand until he grasps the concept.  Your hand may smell like treats and cause him to get too excited.

-Keep the ruler or target stick behind your back and present it. This should cause natural investigation which may trigger a sniff that you can click/verbally mark and reward by tossing a kibble from you pocket, closed hand, or from the shelf. 

-Strategically time your after a meal in hopes that satiety calms his eagerness to eat a little bit.

-Once he grasps the idea of targeting the ruler or target stick, in the midst of several trials using these tools, start presenting your open hand and see whether he generalizes the behavior to your hand.

If not, take a more gradual approach such as using the ruler with your open hand right stuck next to it so that some fingers protrude a bit and when he targets that, he targets your fingers as well, and then move the ruler farther and farther back (which will expose your hand more and more ) until you can phase it out completely. 

-When he targets, toss the kibble at a distance so that you have some time to "re-set," meaning you can get that next kibble ready while he's distracted and he can focus on something else and come back fresh and ready for another trial.

-Make sure to make your hand gesture for paw and hand targeting as different as possible. Paw can be a cupped open hand with your palm facing up and targeting can be an open hand presented as if giving a handshake. If you can affix a verbal cue to both, this can further help your dog discriminate between the two. Simply say "paw" prior to presenting your cupped open hand and "target" prior to presenting your open hand as if about to give a hand shake. 

You can further help by presenting your cupped hand nearby your dog's paws when asking paw and the open hand nearby your dog's nose when asking for target. 

-In the background, start working on some impulse control exercises that help teach him that "patience pays" rather than seeking immediate gratification. These can take some time to teach, but take baby steps as young puppies have short attention spans and little patience.

Since your pup knows how to sit, I would practice some sits prior to going out of a door, and prior to meal time.

 https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/10-impulse-control-games-for-dogs/

I hope this helps, keep us posted on how it goes!

Happy training,

Best,

Adrienne