One tool that I use and find most powerful in training is the use of targets. I use it in all
of my training. One of the most common behaviors you'll see is use of targets, where you send a dog
out and they get on a boundary of some sort. It's very, very helpful for clarity, for self control,
for directional training and much, much more. If you're not currently using targets in your
training, I highly encourage you to do so. In this video, I'm gonna teach you another type of target.
In this video, I'm gonna teach you a different type of target, where instead of the dog,
going out to sit on a target for a boundary, a physical boundary, your dog is going to learn
to go out and touch something with their nose. This is equally powerful with certain situations,
I've taken some footage from my online coaching program, UPX, the Unleashed Potential Experience
where I go live every two weeks through Zoom and coach and teach new concepts
in personal development and dog training. Enjoy! The first thing you wanna do is teach when you're
teaching targets is getting your dog to touch it. Now you'll notice, he's trying to grab it
a dog that has a trained retrieve they'll wanna start mouthing in at first. So he was all over
that. So I just took a couple of minutes or not a minute, a couple of things. And I just
in the trained retrieve, I, I can actually hold my dogs muzzle. So what I did is I just had it
sit there like that. And I just went break And I gave him food, super simple. I was like, what?
Just a couple times, right? I'll throw the food. They go to get it to come back. And then again,
I just had him calm. It was more to calm it, calm yourself down. Don't be too excited, cuz then
they can think better when they're calm and then break. And that's how I start just a few times.
Okay. Then as he runs away, I held that ball really close to my hand. I just hit the clicker.
I'm gonna use a clicker so I can talk to you. But when you hear that, it just means "break".
So where do I use a clicker? Out in public in the real world, I don't find it as practical
to be clicking and, and stuff. But when I'm doing deep practice exercises and a lot of repetitions
there you look, there you go. I can talk and my little dolphin can come out of the water and, and
touch the target. So get your dog. Here's what I wanna see. We'll get the different view on.
Then I take this target stick. You can put it behind your back or you put it wherever
under your arm. You see it this way and then you'd present it. Right? I'm gonna present
it. Oh, ready to go "Break"
And that's what would look like to you. Then you throw the food now, why am I doing it in here?
Cuz I, cuz I can throw the food. And when he comes back, he's gonna touch that, target, that ball.
Okay. And then I'm gonna a little bit further away. And I throw, so you see it's repetition.
Just like going to the gym. I notice I'm not speaking to the dog. I'm not saying come and
get it. Come and touch, touch, touch. I'm not saying nothing. Cuz I don't have a behavior
that I know I can get right away. I'm not in love with that. We're just having fun.
But it's something you can do literally sitting on your butt, okay. To shape all the initials.
So if you're in a wheelchair, whatever, just get the dog to go away. And I have the ball
right there, "Break" whatever it is. And then I throw it away. So you can do those things. That's
your first step. So then when you have a dog that's touching it Right. Then you can actually
do it a couple times. Then you can even put it a higher, over their head, a different position.
See him looking at me. Same thing. Not sure. Not sure.
Oh look, if you got it, you tried tails wagging a mile a minute. So see that change? Ah,
I'm gonna give you that. So that change of me going really fast with that target,
made him think harder. And all I did was change the criteria by two or three feet.
That's a really good explanation of how dogs are like, wait a minute. I'm not quite with you.
But notice he figured it out. The next step is to be able to. Now if you have a,
I'll tell you another something you could create. If you went to like the dollar store and you had
those little orange pylon cones, You can actually teach the dog to touch the top of the cone.
Okay. I've done this with my horses. And then I set the cone on the ground. When I set the cone
on the ground, right. He has to go and to the cone and sometimes I'll just touch the cone in my first
and now I step away from the cone. So I don't have a cone here, but I, I will, uh, I'm gonna
attempt to use this and the magnet. Now, remember when I took the target and moved it really high
and it changed his understanding of that for a second. So he thinks he's sitting there,
I'm just gonna release him. Okay, let's go. You wanna do some more?
Here you go. You're free. So he went to, uh, touch it. I marked just before he touched it.
Okay. Little early, sometimes that's to my benefit. So they don't punch it too hard.
Again. I just stand here. So now I stand here, but I'm gonna stand close to the target. The reason is
I was holding it. If I go too far away, the dog, it it's too big of a picture, but do wash cuz
this is what you can get your dog running back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. Now
I do have the food right here on me, but perfect. All right. I throw it for him because his drive is
not insane. He's not a maniac. So I always try and keep him as high as I can Look at that, good boy.
Okay, There you
go. Look up there. Now I take a step away from this target.
Okay? That changes a little bit. Look at that, but I'm not gonna move. I'm allowing him now to
struggle. So this is stress. This is struggle. And this is trying, how do I get the food? How
do I get the food? Boom. There's a very smart dog that fell off. There are no problem. Didn't hit it
that hard. I could see I'm gonna pay him. One. And guess what? Because that's a breakthrough.
Two. A boy. Three. Oh my gracious. You're such a smart dog and four catch it. Let's have some fun.
Okay. Now do it again and touches. But I'm gonna get a little further away.
You know what else is cool. Remember how we don't don't distract my dog.
There's your restaurant, right? There's your, there's your plate look. Oh, so there's your food.
Ah, This might be too
much of a jump, but I don't know for him. He's pretty smart. He's gonna do it almost. I gotta
shut my mouth. This
This is dog training Attempt. He didn't smash it. I'm marking the intention. I'm marking and
rewarding the good intentions, cuz I can always up the criteria the next two times when I see,
I wanna build hope. This is a long session too. You, they start to pant. Stop.
End it with some party time. Put the dog away. I'm gonna sit right here. All right. Sometimes higher
value. Now that they try, higher value will make them try even harder. So if you want more speed,
more desire. Hey, find out what blows their mind at this stage of the game. Look, look, look, All
right. Now I'm able to do it sitting down and now I can move it further and farther away.
And then after about, by the end of the day, your dog's gonna be going
back and forth. What a good boy, right? Little bits at a time, soon, I'll be over there lying in
bed, training the dog. There you go. Look at you. All right. Ooh. Now why would we do this? Right?
This is getting your dog to think at a much deeper level. And they're having to try on their own
without my help. So I speak less. I talked a lot here. That's probably holds him back cuz I'm
talking a lot, but sometimes it's best. Some of the best training sessions you'll ever have or
breakthroughs are in behind closed doors, sitting down, doing nothing, waiting for that thing to
happen. How do you get growth? How do we get more competence and confidence? There's that loop.
I want to build some skills. Obviously we're building some skills and things now,
but then when I'm feeling it and I see the dogs there, it's time
to kick it up a notch. It's time to put another five pounds on that bar so we can keep growing
not 55 pounds. Right? So where is that next step? That next step could be distance. Like you've saw
that next step could be targeting to do different stuff. That next step could be just honestly
changing the environment. Look, little things like this, whatever it is. If it's getting the
dog to go and sit on a place board where you say "break", and then they come back to you,
he's getting on something. Or now it's a different space. Like, Hey,
it's no longer going to stand on a place. It's going to touch your nose to a target and you
know a target with the little like how they'll train. You can do so many things with targets,
but here's how you can get them to open and close the doors. I have a door here. Right? I can open
that door now. I've never done any stuff with him. It's stuff I will do, I can take a target,
touch it there. and notice the door moves a little bit. Now I pay him
Okay. And I do
it on the door again and see how it moved. Perfect. Touch again. Oh what a good boy?
Boom. Yeah. Yeah. So what I'm doing right now with this click, you notice is even if
he's going close, oh he's even touching it, anything just to shut that door. Woo. It's a
party! And after a while, you'll be opening the doors and the dog will run by and he'll
be shutting your door. Now you get the opposite to open. It's all done with the same science.
So now I'm gonna really make things different. We can have some fun. I'm gonna show you the example
of this food machine. Okay. Uh, for it's not great for raw feeders. Any of that stuff, Harraw works.
Okay. In it. Uh, smaller kibble is good, but I'm gonna put this machine here, cuz this is what we
were really working with. And when he sniffs it, when I make that beep, That little food machine,
I have a remote. And when I push the button, it goes, beep just like the clicker just like break.
And he runs over there and it puts food in the bowl. So watch this now.
He looks to me, I'm gonna release him. I just want him to stop thinking that
he might have to stay there. You never know. So now I just sit. Now he could,
I thought he may start staring at me again. That could be a problem. You can get yourself into,
but I just unblocked him. So sometimes your dogs just blocked. They're like, uh, Right.
See that. Now I can hang out with you guys. And I can train my dog, and there are no excuses that
I can't have people over for a beer, a coffee or a cup of tea or a game of cards or Bible study,
whatever it is. Look, boom, the dog is busy. Right?
This is a beautiful thing. But now how do you stop him?
I'll tell you. Huh? And you make it a little challenging, now it's a little higher now. I
don't know what's gonna happen. Maybe I jumped too much. I might have went too fast. Who knows?
It's quite a jump, but I'm going to let him struggle. Look. He's like what? Look at this
goes of food. Looks to the machine. Oh, I'm gonna, I'm gonna pay that notice. Yep. I'm paying that
because he tried to jump. He thought about it. When you have a goal in mind or you're trying to
achieve something, rate yourself on a scale of one to 10, how bad you want it. How committed are you
to really want that goal? What's important. Why is it important? All those things. When you have that
compelling reason, why there's a ghost in the room that just emptied the food bowl on him. Okay. So I
think this is a good session. I think that ended great. You're gonna stop right there. Good job!
Hey, so I hope you enjoyed the video as much as Koal and I enjoyed making it for you and that you
got some value from it. Give it a try and let us know how you make out. For more information on our
services and how we can help you head on over to dukeferguson.com or unleashedpotential.ca today.
You can sign up for free video series and much, much more. If you're interested in seeing
another video where I'm training Koal as a little puppy to go on to a target, like a place
with his body, then check this video out here. You'll get to see the training aspect
about halfway through the video. Thanks for watching. And I'll see you in the next video