Teach your dog to target
Urrgghhh! More snow! For a great indoor activity - teach your dog to target.
For great step by step directions click here. Thank you Stacy of Stacy’s Wag N Train for this wonderful article. She tells me it is 80 degrees there in California today!
Basically we teach the dogs to touch a target with their nose or paw. It is a lot of fun and will strengthen your bonds, while making your dog more trainable and a better thinker. Target training is the basis for lots of tricks, and agility as well as a great thing to know when your dog makes their Hollywood debut. If you can send your dog to a target, you can send your dog to their “mark” in their next movie. We (trainers) are also having a lot of success teaching fearful dogs to target as an alternative to fearful behavior.
Be sure to raise the criteria VERY slowly. Do not “cue” your dog with hand or body and let them figure out what it is you want and training will go faster in the future, and your dog will be a better learning partner.