Use clicker training to teach your dog to touch or follow your finger. It’s called target training and it’ll help you deal with leash pulling, barking and many other challenges.
Using either a clicker or a clucking sound that you make with your tongue, click each time dog touches the target. Start by teaching him to touch his nose to your pointing finger. Soon, you’ll be able to ask him to look at, touch, or follow your finger. This exercise will help Fido focus on the target instead of obsessing on pulling on leash, barking at the kitty, or even jumping on visitors. Here’s the training:
- Get a fist full of tiny soft treats cut up and ready to deliver. Put them in your closed fist.
- Now, keep hand in a fist, but point your pointing finger. Hold the tip of finger in front of dog’s nose so she’ll be tempted to sniff it. When she does, click and treat OR make a clucking sound with your tongue and offer a treat.
- Do this several times. Then, begin to move your finger around and up and down, pausing to let her touch it each time.
- Once she “gets” it, you can use this new trick to teach her to:
- walk nicely or heel when out on walks.
- stay in one place at home instead of jumping.
- focus on your finger instead of barking at other dogs.
- teach your dog a trick like jump through a hula hoop.