Dog Training Hand Commands Guide
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.
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.
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.
With this kind of training you will need to repeat the verbal commands every time you do the hand signals in the beginning, then as time progresses you need to start eliminating the verbal ones. Although you should be still praising your dog and offering them rewards these should only be offered when they actually respond to the hand commands and not the verbal ones as well. It is a good idea to very slowly and gradually stop using the verbal commands and replace them with hand ones only.
After a period of time when they have begun to purely respond to your hand commands then you can start beginning to eliminate the food rewards also. It is crucial that you do not stop providing such treats as soon as they start responding to hand commands, but gradually eliminate them and instead offer your dog praise instead.
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.
Actually getting advice on the right way dog training hand commands should be done is easy. There are plenty of sites on the internet today that can offer lots of practical advice and tips. Plus there are plenty of books and videos, which can help you with training your dog to respond to such hand signals.