Dog Training Hand Commands
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 your dog how to obey hand commands is very simple and generally, dogs find it very easy to understand these along with verbal commands. Along with you and your dogs when you start this kind of training you will also need some kind of treat (food is ideal) that you can reward your dog with when they react in the correct way to the signal.
It is important that in the beginning when you are teaching your dog to react to hand commands is that you use the words as well. Therefore, you will need to decide which hand signals relate to which commands you will be giving to your dog. Only once you have made a decision on which verbal commands go with which hand signals can you then start your dogs training.
When you first start teaching your dog how to respond to hand commands rather than just your voice you should say each word very clearly and make the hand movement in conjunction with it. You will then need to spend time just repeating the word and the hand signal over a period of time until the dog actually understands what it is you require of them. Once you notice that your dog is responding as soon as you begin the movement and say the word then you should 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 teaching your dog to react to hand signals it is best to start of with the most basic commands that you would normally teach them. So it is best to start with sit, down and stay. Then when you feel able to and when you feel that your dog is capable you can move on to much more elaborate ones if you wish.
When it comes to getting advice on the right ways for you to do dog training hand commands there is plenty of places where you can get help. The internet is a great source for finding advice and information on the correct dog training hand command techniques to be used.
