Clicker Training Izzy, Day 2. Hand Target

Today I fed Izzy her dinner by hand, and our goal was a nose bump to the hand.

Yesterday, all Izzy had to do to get kibble was move towards my hand. Today, I held the kibble in my hand until she sniffed it- click, kibble. Repeat.

Next, I moved the kibble to the other hand. She sniffed the empty hand (palm facing sideways towards her)- click-treat.

She repeated this many, many times. While's it a bit more difficult for me to determine intent in Izzy, as compared to one of my dogs, the fact that she returned to sniff an obviously empty hand a number of times in a row (>10) leads me to believe that she figured out the game.

Why is it hard for me to determine if Izzy's nose-to-my-hand is intentional? Well, a couple of reasons. She doesn't repeat the behavior rapidly. In fact, there is a lot of floor sniffing and looking around between the touches to the hand. In my dogs, once they have the puzzle figured out, the repeated nose bumps came quickly and with greater force. Izzy's nose bumps were sometimes barely there, but I clicked even a quick sniff to encourage the behavior. With Izzy, I think I'll have to keep a careful watch so that I don't change the criteria too rapidly.

Also, Izzy likes to be petted. Occasionally she went to my hand but ducked her head to get some petting. No click for that, but I did indulge in more petting overall during the session. It really seemed to keep her engaged.

I'm pretty sure that Izzy was targeting my hand for the food, with intention. I was able to move my hand to different places and once she offered the sniff/touch no matter where I placed my hand (still at her head level), then I tried turning my hand so that the palm faced away from her. That was a harder concept for her to grasp, or it could be that the vacuum running a few rooms away was too much of a distraction. (Yes, I have a wonderful hubby who vacuums the house. I'm so lucky!) I returned to the open palm towards her, and she resumed touching with her nose. I also tried to be sure I didn't present my hand until I noticed she looked up from the floor (where she'd eaten the kibble).

The kicker tonight: I put my hand just above and in front of Izzy's head, and she raised up to sniff it. Jackpot!