Responding To Hand Signals

Watching a well trained dog responding to hand signals is a real joy for me. The handler who's taken the time to teach hand signals can easily direct his dog at a distance, and can do so almost without any noise whatsoever, save possibly for a quick 'peep' on the whistle to attract the dogs attention in the first place.

And the good news is that it's really no more difficult to teach hand signals than spoken commands. The way I do it is simply to include the chosen signal with the spoken command. Get your timing right, so that at the exact same moment that you give the spoken command you also make the associated hand signal.

The dog will very quickly come to associate the two and before you know it will respond to either the 'traditional' spoken command or the hand signal.

The even better news is that dogs are naturally inclined to respond to hand signals anyway because body language plays such an important part in canine communication.

Just watch two dogs that have never met before as they come together for the first time. It's not rocket science to tell that they've developed an effective means of 'talking' to one another that only rarely involves either of them making a sound.

The way they carry their tails says a lot about their intentions. Is the tail held high in the air, or tucked nervously between the legs? Or maybe neither - it could just be lashing back and forth in a very 'open' friendly greeting.

What about the way they walk? Are they strutting stiff legged or are the front legs bowed?

What's happening with the hair along the back? And what are the lips doing?

There are all sorts of subtle little intonations of their bodies that dogs use to send messages to one another. So, as a species, they're already pre-programmed to use, and to observe, body language. Take advantage of this fact by teaching your dog hand signals.

I teach my own dogs a hand signal version of all the following commands -

come here
heel
sit
down
go left
go right

In addition I also have a hand signal I use to praise them. So even if they're too far away for me to coo a gentle, reassuring 'good boy/girl' and give them an appreciative rub on the chest, I can still let them know they've done the right thing merely by giving them the 'good dog' hand signal.

In all the time I've been involved with dogs I've *never* come across anybody else who does this, nor have I ever read anybody else suggest it.

It's just yet another one of those little snippets of attention to detail which has always seemed both obvious and important to me.

It's because I don't tend to follow the crowd as a rule, I suppose.

I'm always interested to hear other people's advice and suggestions, but I never take it at face value. Instead I'll take from it anything that seems worthwhile, but chuck out all the rest.

I encourage you to do likewise. Just because someone says this way or that way is the correct way doesn't necessarily make it so.

It might be correct for their personality type and the temperament of their dog, but the chances are that you have a different temperament and so does your dog. So although something might work for one dog and owner combination it won't necesarily work for another.

The same goes for this newsletter. Although I freely give you my suggestions on ways to achieve certain things with your dog, don't be afraid to think for yourself. If you think one of my ideas would work better if you gave it a little tweak here or there then go for it! You'll always be a better dog trainer if you can think for yourself than the person who has to have his or her hand held every step of the way.

I enjoy cooking and over the years have amassed quite a collection of recipe books. One of the most inspiring that I own doesn't give any quantities at all. It simply gives lists of ingredients. The author says in the introduction that this is quite deliberate for 2 reasons.

First off he never cooks any dish exactly the same way himself anyway. So each time he does a certain dish it'll come out slightly differently from the last time.

And secondly because he knows full well that we're all different, so we won't all share the same tastes as him. So he encourages his readers to add a generous slug of wine if that's their style, but only a dribble if they're not big on that sort of thing.

Add great handfuls of herbs if they like the effect, but maybe only use a little pinch if they prefer their food a bit plainer.

He also ecourages his readers to experiment. So substitute sun dried for tinned tomatoes or fromage frais for natural yoghurt etc etc.

That whole philosophy tends to be very much how I live my life *and* how I train dogs. There are no hard and fast rules and nothing's black and white. Don't be afraid to experiment, and learn to think on your feet. You'll be a much better dog trainer, and you might even find that whole attitude starts rubbing off in other areas of your life too!

Recommended reading "Dog Training Blueprint To Success".

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