Targeting is an important training foundation
You have so far taught your guinea pig that her world is safe and comfortable and that your hands are kind. Now, it's time to teach her that, not only are your hands good and bring treats, but that she can make them bring her treats by interacting with her environment! Targeting is a method of training where you teach an animal to touch a stick, your hands, a platform, or anything, really, with a part of her body (usually the nose or paws). It boosts confidence and is a great way to introduce training behaviors that make taking care of your cavies a lot easier! There are three basic targeting behaviors you can easily teach your guinea pig: Click the button link for in-depth how-to articles.
Target Stick
Train your guinea pig to touch and follow a target stick. You can then use the target stick to lead your guinea pig around the cage, into a carrier, up onto an object, and to do several tricks. You can use a target stick designed for a dog (sold online) or you can make your own with wooden dowels. Most animals find targeting to be a richly rewarding and fun task, so it's a great way to play with guinea pigs, too!
Touch
The next step is to train your guinea pig to touch her nose to your hand. If you have followed the steps from the "Hand taming" section of this guide and have successfully taught your guinea pig to touch a target stick, then she will pick up touching her nose to your hand very quickly! You can use this skill in the same way as you would use a target stick. However, more timid guinea pigs will always prefer you start training new behaviors with the target stick before moving on to using a hand target.
Platform Work
Training your guinea pig to hop onto platforms has several benefits. First of all, it is the foundation for the "load up" behavior and provides good practice for you and your cavy before tackling that extremely important behavior. Secondly, you can use this behavior to make weigh-ins easier and even build it to a nice lap-time! And finally, this will probably be your guinea pig's (and yours if you're new to clicker training) first introduction to the concept of shaping as a training method. Shaping boosts confidence because you are allowing your cavy to build this behavior at her pace and simply rewarding her successes.