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Dog Training and Hand Signals

by The K9 Guy, 09-07-17

With the ubiquitous amount of treat training in our society, I often see a lot of dogs that aren't learning necessary vocabulary. Some time ago I spent several months outlining "training challenges" that defined varied levels of obedience. In that series of articles, I didn't really address hand signals, so I thought a few thoughts might be in order.

Many owners and trainers will start teaching a dog a new command through luring - taking a treat in hand, and teaching a dog to follow that hand into a desired position. For example, moving the treat hand over a dog's head will usually get them to back up into a sit. And bending and placing the treat hand on the ground will help a dog move to the floor. While this is easy, I believe dogs are actually paying more attention to the treat than learning necessary vocabulary. So is this a problem? For at least 2 reasons, I feel it is.

First, I meet many well intentioned owners that are still bending, pointing, or touching the ground after months (or more) of work on a down. Even if the dog can do this without a treat (which many can't), do they really want to be bending every time they want a down from their dog for 10 or more years? If a dog actually understands vocabulary, there SHOULD BE NO NEED for BODY LANGUGE. In fact, real hand signals should be offered with owners standing upright, AFTER a dog learns commands verbally.

Another problem if dog's aren't learning vocabulary, is they see the process as "a trick for a treat". Many of these dogs will start doing multiple commands when the treats comes out. In other words, an owner may ask for a down, but get a sit, then paw, then down, then roll, etc. The dog has no idea what an owner is really asking, only that something will get the piece of food. So the dog offers all they know. Again, not really understanding vocabulary.

In the video below I offer a simple test to see if your dog understands a command verbally. I believe understanding vocabulary should be one of the first steps of any effective learning.