Hand Signals To Teach Your Dog

Hand actions or signals are an important tool to use when training your dog.

They offer the puppy a second chance if they didn’t hear your verbal command. Dogs don’t have very good hearing, well not when it comes to our voices. Their ears are designed to hear things from a long way off at a higher level. Wild dogs need to be able to find their prey this way. When you are training basic obedience your puppy may not be able to distinguish between words that sound the same, such as sit and stay.

If you use clear hand signals your puppy will be able to add what it can see to what it can hear and learn what you want quicker. Therefore it’s important to use different and distinct hand signals for each different command.

Dogs can see very subtle changes in our body language. This is why some owners will say their dogs know when they are sad. The dog doesn’t understand the actual emotion but it will be able to read the owner’s emotional state. I can warn my dog that he is stepping over the line with a single glance!

Use open hand gestures rather than single fingers. Again this gives your puppy more of a chance of understanding what you want.

Be consistent too. Make sure that everyone in the house is doing the same hand signals. This will not only help your puppy learn faster but will establish you as a reliable, trustworthy pack leader.