Target Stick - Spatula (Patreon)

Once the dog can do a nose-to-hand touch, one thing I like to train is a nose target behavior off my body that can eventually be used to push doors and drawers closed, press buttons etc.

That behavior starts with training them to touch a target stick. Here, I use a large pancake spatula as the target. This is because he literally bit everything else I presented him, and the large surface of the spatula makes it less likely for him to bite it.

You'll notice he sometimes doesn't hit the flipper part exactly. I can refine that over time. Right now I just care that he touches it with his nose and doesn't bite it :)

Filmed 11/26/24