Dog Training with Hand Signals
A lot of animals are able to perceive even the slightest movements of a person’s body and take it to be an instruction. Dogs are very good at this but I want to start by telling you the story of Hans, not a dog but a horse. A horse that could work out simple mathematical sums!
Given any sum like 3 +5 Hans would tap his hoof on the floor eight times. Given 4 x 3 he would tap the floor 12 times. This amazed all the people that saw him do it. He became a star. Many scientist, of the time, came and could not find how Hans was able to count. It was a psychologist who found the answer. To cut a long story short Hans was watching his owner as he tapped his hoof. The owner was watching Hans’ hoof and counting up to the answer and then looked up. The looking up was the cue the horse needed – Hans stopped.
So this can make dog training seems easy once the owner and the dog are on the same wave length. So how can you teach a dog hand signals? The first stage is to connect the hand signal and a spoken command. This pairing of hand and voice is repeated many times.
So now with a puppy you would start by giving the verbal “sit” command at the moment the puppy puts it’s bottom on the floor. Treat and praise. Keep repeating this making the movement and the sound “sit” fit together in the puppy’s mind. If you find your puppy does not sit by himself try this – use a treat right by the puppy’s nose so he can smell it but not eat it. Move the treat up and back between the puppy’s ears. This makes the puppy look up and the bottom goes down in to the sit. Treat and praise.
Now after working for a while your puppy will give you a sit on command. You now need to tie a hand movement to the “sit” command. The movement I use is a flat palm by the side raised forward and put along side my head with palm still open. Try that when you are facing the dog – say “sit” given the hand signal. Once the dog sits lots of praise ands treat. Keep repeating this as many times as necessary. Gradually you then start to miss out the verbal command occasionally. Fading out the verbal command is a steady and slow proces but the puppy will start to watch for the hand signal and sit on your hand command.
Next move onto the down command, the verbal command you could well have been teaching your dog from an early stage. From the sit position again use a treat on the puppy’s nose but this time move the treat down to the floor between the puppy’s front feet as the puppy’s nose nears the floor move the treat away from the puppy. Not too fast as you don’t want the puppy standing up. The puppy will follow the treat with his nose and go into the down position. At the moment the puppy is going into the down position introduce the command “down”. Keep repeating this until the puppy is doing it easily. Then try just giving the “down” command to get the puppy to lie down. If it fails go back to the treat. Once the puppy is down on command it is time to introduce the hand signal after you say the “down” command. I use a flat hand with palm facing downwards and push my hand towards the floor.
Repeat the process saying “down” and then giving the hand signal. Once down is mastered move onto other such as come and stand – one of these is easy the other quite difficult. Can you work out which is which? Imagine the magic you feel when you and your dog work in such harmony.
Distances you work with hand signals start short, and as you and your dog get on your wavelength, the distance between you can be increased.
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