"Touch" Hand Target Training: Building Focus and Confidence

Hand target training involves teaching a dog to touch the palm of your hand with their nose. This can also be adapted to use other objects, such as a target stick or a cone on the ground, but using your hand is ideal because it requires no extra equipment — making it especially useful when working with a dog that needs careful handling.

The Benefits

Having a simple cue like “Touch” can be a useful strategy for distracting a dog.
Asking a dog to focus on touching a hand is incompatible with inappropriate behaviours such as staring, hypervigilance, lunging, and barking.
It keeps them focused and engages their brain, helping prevent them from going over threshold and reacting inappropriately.
Following and targeting a hand allows you to move a dog further away from the object of their fear.
It can be used alongside “Emergency U-turn” and “Come Away” training to reinforce those cues, and in pattern games to add variety to training.

The Training Steps

Hold out your hand so the dog can see it (without thrusting it into their face). Once they move towards it to investigate or sniff, mark the behaviour by saying “Yes” or “Good” and reward.
Drop the treat on the floor so they have to move back towards your hand for the next repetition.
If they struggle, smear something tasty on your hand to get them started. This isn’t cheating — it simply helps them orient to your hand — but you shouldn’t need to do it for long.
Repeat the sequence many times: dog touches your hand with their nose, you mark the behaviour, then reward.
Move your hand to different positions and distances so they have to travel a little further to touch it.
Once they are consistently moving forward and touching your palm, add a verbal cue such as “Touch.”
The sequence should now be: present your hand → dog moves forward → just as they touch, say “Touch” → reward.
Use the cue regularly to reinforce the behaviour.
Over time, practise in more distracting environments and real-life situations.

Hand target training, step 1. Reward investigation initially.

Training can also be done using a clicker, here’s how:

Before using a clicker remember to do some priming to remind the dog about the connection with the click and treat.
Hold out your hand so the dog can see it (without thrusting it in their face) and once they move towards it to investigate or sniff it, click and treat.
If the dog has difficulty, you can smear something tasty on the hand to get them started.
Repeat this sequence many times: Dog touches it with their nose. Click and treat!
Move the target (your hand) around and practise a little further away from the dog so they have to move towards the target.
Once the dog is consistently moving forward and touching the palm of the hand with their nose – add a cue (e.g. TOUCH)
Fade out the clicker (and the treat) once they are consistently targeting the hand when the cue is given, as in the attached video.