Using Hand Signals For Your Dog

Voice commands are great because your voice can take on countless tones and you can form countless numbers of word commands for your dog. However, hand signals have some advantages over voice commands. First off, hand signals are silent. This is great if, for example, everyone is asleep or there is a party going on and so there is a lot of interference with sound. Also, hand signals are a great way for new friends of the dog. Dogs normally respond only to their owners voice and other people who they consider “masters” so to speak. It may take a dog awhile to warm up to a new person and obey their voice commands.

Hand signals are more advanced than voice signals and are best taught after the dog has learned basic things like sit, stay, and come. The reason for this is that when you are teaching your dog hand signals, you should do so in conjunction with your voice. Eventually, you should be able to drop the voice part and the dog will still understand you.

For example, my dog knows and obeys the “come” command quite well. I added in a hand signal for “come” by snapping my fingers and pointing to the ground near me. When I was first teaching her this. I would say “come” while using my designated hand signal. A treat or reward was occasionally provided as well. After some time, simply snapping my fingers, with or without the snap sound, was enough to get her to come to me.

Another hand signal I have taught my dog is to stay. I firmly raise my right hand and make the stop signal much like a traffic officer would do.

Teaching a dog both stay and come at the same time is a good idea since they go hand and hand. Both are very useful and I find that the hand signals get used more often because they are easier to perform.

Just remember that with any training, time and patience are the key.

How Body Language And Voice Effect Dog Training

The way you speak and move are very important in dog training. Your tone of voice and body language can actually be used as additional tools that can aid you in training your dog.

Dogs to not speak in words but do communicate to each other with an assortment of barks, grunts, yips, and growls. By using different tones we can mimick growls and yips etc. therefore conveying information to our dogs.

I will break it down into three overly simplified groups. The first is a high tone. This higher tone creates excitement in a dog. Excitement will encourage your dog to move and be active. This also you should use a high tone for praise. When you want your dog to come to you the higher tone is the best one to use. It creates the excitement you want which causes him to come quickly to you. It creates the needed enthusiasm you want for a quick recall.

A medium tone is what I would call a neutral tone. It is calming and is not really a reactive tone. This is the perfect tone to give a non moving command such as sit, stand, down, and stay.

Low or gutteral tones are usually reserved for stopping or reprimanding a dog for inappropriate behavior. It is the equivalent of a dog’s growl. It can be used as a vocal correction. Remember you do not need to yell, it is the sound of the low firm tone that tells the dog you are not happy with him.

Just as important is the way we use our body during training. When using body language you need to take your dog’s temperment into consideration. What may work for a dominant dog may overwhelm a very shy or submissive dog.

How To Teach Your Dog To Sit Stay

After you have taught your dog to sit consistently you can move to the sit stay command. See “How To Teach Your Dog To Sit“. When I say consistently I mean he will sit for you in a quiet house as well outside in the backyard with a bunch of people and activity. You always want to cement one command before adding on to it.

Now that you have a solid sit and he will sit under all circumstances we can move on. The next command is the sit stay. This is basically a much longer sit then just a sit command. Personally in everyday life I would never use a sit stay. If I wanted my dog to stay a good length of time I would put him in a down stay. That being said lets move on.

Start with your dog on your left. Sit your dog. Then with the leash in your left hand signal your dog to stay. To do this you bring your right hand across, palm open in front of your dog’s face and say “stay”. As you do this pivot around and stand facing your dog. Keep your arm straight out fingers pointing up palm facing your dog. It will look like you are stopping traffic. Count to 5 and return to your dog’s side the same way you left him. Make sure to keep your hand in front of your dog until you are back at his side. Praise and release. To release your dog after a command you can say “okay” and walk a few seconds with your dog. It can even be just a few steps in between commands.

I suggest you use a flat buckle collar to teach your dog new commands. For sit stay I would turn the collar so the clip is up. This way when your attach the leash and hold it above his head it helps convey to him not to move. The tension on the leash and the hand signal in combination help him understand what you want. If you did not use these your dog would instinctively want to move when you do. If your dog does move quickly step in towards him saying “no” and put him back where he was when he broke the command. When you say “no” say it quick kind of like a distraction. Sometimes I use a quick “hey” or “ep” sound. Right now we are teaching so do not be harsh with him. I use the vocal distraction to give the dog feed back so he knows where he went wrong so to speak.

When teaching commands I like to repeat the command. So as you step around in front of your dog with your hand out I would repeat “stay stay stay”. When you say “stay” you need to say it evenly. If you use a high or excited voice your dog will want to come to you. You also do not want to say it so firm as the dog feels that he is being scolded either. Some trainers feel like you should only say the command once and that is it. Now I do believe that once your dog truly knows the command you should not repeat it over and over. If you do he will learn that he does not have to listen the first time. But I think that has to do with obeying and that is a different phase then the teaching phase. As he learns the sit-stay command you need to phase out repeating “stay stay stay” . You will also test him with just a hand signal or just a verbal command. Use what you need as long as you need to. When he seems to understand the command but you are using verbal, hand, and repeating of commands reduce the repeating until you only have to say it once. Then reduce hand signal to a quick hand signal in front of his face in stead of holding your hand in front of his face the whole time.

Always start in a quiet place but change environment as he improves. When he understands the command add some distractions. this improves his attention to you and the command. After he really understands this command you can start to increase the amount of time he stays and the distance from you. The rule is not to increase both at the same time. You can start by going 3 feet in front of your dog but still keep it 5 seconds. Or you could stay in front of him but make it 10 or 15 seconds. Never increase either until he is perfect in the time or distance you have previously set. In other words if he can not stay for 15 seconds do not try to do 30 seconds. As always start in a quiet spot and test in a different spot with distractions before you move on to longer times or distances.