Targeting Objects

Once the hand target is rock-solid, you can move the target somewhere else. Tuck a sticky note into your palm and mark the dog for bumping it. Then peel it off your hand and stick it on a wall, a drawer, a low button.

Touch is also quiet bravery training. Ask a dog to nose-bump the thing that worries them — a new vacuum, an umbrella, a stranger's shoe. The approach is their choice, the contact is brief, the reward is instant. Over a few sessions they relax around it, because in their experience touching it always pays off.