Guidance in dog training

One way to teach a dog almost any command is to point. What is induction in dog training and how to use it?

Guidance may include the use of a treat and the use of a target. Guidance can also be dense or non-dense.

When hovering tightly with a treat, you hold the tasty morsel in your hand and bring it right up to the dog’s nose. Then you literally “lead” the dog by the nose with your hand, encouraging it to take one or another position of the body or move in one direction or another, while not touching it. The dog tries to lick the food out of your hand and follows it.

When aiming with a target, the dog must first be taught to touch the target with its nose or paw. The target can be your palm, a tipped stick, a mat, or specially made dog training targets. With a tight target, the dog either pokes it with its nose or touches it with its paw.

Tight guidance in dog training is used at the initial stage of learning a skill.

Next, you can move on to loose guidance, when the dog is constantly looking at a treat or a target and moving after this object, as a result, performing certain actions or adopting a particular body position. Loose guidance is used when the dog has already understood what you need from him.

Often, different combinations of tight and loose targeting with a treat or target are used.