Field Guide · Glossary
Hand target
Skills and cuesA behavior in which a dog touches their nose to a person's open hand.
How it works
Most dogs investigate a hand held out in front of them without being asked, so the behavior usually appears on its own within a few repetitions. The hand is presented, the instant the nose makes contact is marked, and food follows from the other hand. When a presented hand gets ignored, the usual fix is to take it away and offer it again closer, rather than holding it out and waiting. Difficulty is added one piece at a time after the contact is happening every time: further away, higher or lower, then with the dog a few steps back, then somewhere with mild distraction. Because the presented hand can move, the finished behavior doubles as a way of getting a dog from one place to another without pulling on a leash, and as something specific to ask for when a dog needs an alternative to whatever they were about to do next. The word for it is added last, once the dog is coming to the hand consistently. A name attached to a behavior that is still unreliable teaches the dog that the word sometimes means nothing.
What it looks like
A flat hand is held out a few inches from a dog's nose. The dog leans in and bumps it, the contact is marked, and a treat is delivered from the other hand. After two dozen repetitions the dog crosses the room to touch a hand offered at waist height, and only at that point is the word touch introduced alongside the hand going out.
Commonly confused with
- Luring
- Luring means the dog is following a piece of food held in the hand, and the food is the thing they are moving toward. A hand target makes the hand itself the thing being touched, with food arriving afterwards as payment. A lure that never gets faded becomes a hand the dog only answers when it is loaded.
Related terms
Gear that helps
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Clicker
A clear, consistent marker your dog learns to trust. One click means "yes, that, a treat is coming," which sharpens your timing on everything else.
Treat pouch (clip-on)
You can't reward fast enough digging in a pocket. A pouch you open one-handed changes your timing, and this one has a magnetic close plus a built-in clicker.
High-value freeze-dried training treats
The paycheck. For reactive work the reward has to beat the trigger, so we keep these tiny, soft, and genuinely exciting, not everyday biscuits.
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