How To Teach Your Dog Super Focus: The Magic Hand Game
Magic Hand is such a fantastic game to play with your dog – they won’t realise they’re learning anything, and yet you’ll actually be teaching them super focus, incredible walking to heel, loose-lead walking, and more!
What is The Magic Hand Dog Training Game For Focus?
Essentially you are teaching your dog to catch treats in their mouth as you release them one by one from your hand (before the treats hit the floor and roll away!)
How To Play Magic Hand For Focus:
Step 1:
Begin by gathering yourself a fistful of food that you can easily slip through your fingers, one piece at a time. At Listen Dog Training, we are massive advocates of ditching the bowl, so when we play the Magic Hand dog training game here, we don’t use treats – we just use our dogs’ dinner. It’s a far more interesting way for them to have their meal, and it means we can use that kibble to add value to working with us, rather than just adding value to their food bowl!
Step 2:
You may want to begin by practising without your dog, because getting the hang of holding a handful of food and seamlessly releasing one piece at a time is actually harder than it sounds – and mechanics are key with this game! Practise with an empty bowl underneath your hand and, one by one, slide each piece of kibble out and drop it into the bowl. Once you can do this reliably with just one hand, and at a decent speed, it’s time to get your dog involved!
Step 3:
Your dog may not be a natural catcher – that’s ok! To begin, hold your hand stationary above his head, and slip a single piece of kibble through your fingers, aiming for it to land on the tip of his nose. More than likely, it will bounce right off, and he’ll have to chase it across the floor. Let him do so, and allow him time to come back to you once he’s finished sniffing around – don’t call him, just be ready when he returns, to drop the next piece of kibble on his nose once again.
Step 4:
Some dogs get the idea really quickly and will soon begin attempting to catch, and subsequently get better and better at doing so! Others, however, may take a while to even work out that trying to catch the food is the best choice – all dogs are different! Just stick with it, and be patient. Play for 5 minutes a day, or set a goal that whenever you’re waiting for the kettle to boil, or the ad break to finish, you’ll give magic hand another go.
Eventually your dog will work out that the quicker they return to their position under your handful of food, the quicker the next food delivery comes – so catching the food is a no-brainer!
Step 5:
Once your dog is beginning to master catching, you can up your game – moving your hand! At first, move it just a centimetre or two forwards or backwards whilst you remain standing still, before you drop each piece. You’ll start to see what we call ‘the invisible headcollar’ appear on your dog before your eyes, as your dog moves with your hand in anticipation of catching the next freebie!
Step 6:
Once your invisible headcollar is looking sturdy you can really go to town with this – literally! Start playing magic hand on the move as you walk across the room, backwards and forwards. Your dog learns that they need to keep a razor-sharp focus on you – and that handful of food – at all times! One quick sideways glance and they’ll miss the next delivery, and the time it takes to search for it once it hits the deck is time they could be spending catching and eating at least 3 of those tasty treats! Once you’ve mastered this at home, you can try it out in the garden, at the park – nowhere is off-limits!
How Does This Improve Your Dog’s Behaviour?
Magic Hand is one of our absolute favourites here at Listen Dog Training. You can use it to teach loose-lead walking (why would they strain at the end of the lead when being beside you is so rewarding?!) You can use it to help manage reactive dogs in tricky situations, and you can use it to super-boost your recall (a 3-minute game of magic hand is a super reward to have up your sleeve for an awesome recall, and just helps to cement in your dog’s mind that being ‘out there’ is not where the big wins are.)
Ultimately, growing focus on you is an invaluable concept to add to your basic training – because if your dog doesn’t think keeping an eye on you is the best choice, then what hope do you have with training everything else?
If you’re totally new to Concept Training, you can read our Introduction to Concept Training article here.
To discover more concept training games that will help you transform your dog’s behaviour through the power of play, check out our pack of 30 powerful games and exercises designed to help you grow your dog’s confidence, calm reactivity, improve recall, develop awesome loose-lead walking AND MORE…
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