Dog Training Hand Commands Guide

by Winston Choo

As well as you teaching your dog to obey you through the use of verbal commands, you can also teach them to obey you when you only use hand signals instead. When it does come to you teaching your dog about such commands you will need to use them in conjunction with verbal commands in the beginning. In this article, we look at one of the ways in which dog training hand commands can be accomplished.

Teaching a dog how to obey hand commands rather than verbal ones can be achieved very simply. It will require some patience on your part, but having a few treats available when they do react in the right way can help things progress a lot more quickly and smoothly.

As mentioned before it is crucial that when you are first teaching your dog to obey hand rather than verbal commands you use the verbal ones as well. It is important that before you start the training you decide exactly what hand signal will represent what verbal command. Only once, you have decided which signal represents which verbal command can you then start your dog’s training.

In the beginning as you, say each command to your dog you should also very slowly and deliberately show the hand signal as well. You will need to repeat the verbal command and the hand signal several times in order for your dog to understand what it is you would like them to do. Then once they react the first time to you saying the word and doing the hand signal then you can reward them.

It is important that you continue to use the verbal and hand commands for some time, but very slowly you start to voice the commands far less and use hand signals more. At this stage, you should now start to only reward your dog when they actually respond just to the hand commands rather than when you say the word as well. It is important that you do not eliminate the verbal commands straight away, but rather gradually eliminate them. In the beginning, it is a good idea to do half the training when you do the verbal and hand commands together, and the other half just using the hand commands on their own.

Once you feel your dog is actually fully responding to the hand signals that you are using to control them you can now start to actually begin to eliminate the need to provide them with treats. However, as with the elimination of verbal commands, a dog owner should not stop providing such rewards immediately, but gradually and slowly start to eliminate them. Instead rather than offering your dog a treat you could praise them.

When you are going to be teaching your dog to respond to hand commands rather than verbal ones it is a good idea to start of with the most basic commands that you want your dog to respond to. Most owners will start of with the ones we all learn in the beginning with our dogs, which is sit, stay, down and come. Only once you feel that you and your dog are ready should you be moving on to commands that are far more elaborate.

Getting the right kind of advice when it comes to you, teaching your dog to respond to hand commands is easy to find. There are lots of books, videos and websites that offer sound advice and information on what are the right dog training hand commands techniques that one should be using.

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