If your dog does not sit, bring your arm down and lure him up with the treat in your hand. A second after your arm straightens, say your verbal “Sit” cue. Bring your left arm up in a circular motion in front of your chest with your elbow bent, then straighten it out to your left side, parallel to the ground, in a “ta-da!” sort of flourish. With your dog lying down in front of you, stand with both arms relaxed at your sides. Sit: Hold a treat in your left hand this time.You will probably be surprised by how quickly he does it. If he doesn’t lie down, do another dozen repetitions with both cues, and then try again with just the hand signal. If he goes down, Click! and Jackpot! That is, feed him lots of treats, one at a time, in special recognition of his ac- complishment. When he has done at least a half dozen downs without the lure, give the hand signal (arm raised) without the verbal cue. Repeat this exercise until he will lie down for the hand signal and verbal cue without the lure. If your dog does not lie down, lower your right hand to his nose and lure him down with the treat. A second after your arm reaches its full height, fingers pointed toward the ceiling, say your verbal “Down” cue. With your dog sitting in front of you, stand with both arms relaxed at your sides. Down: Hold a treat in your right hand.No one wants to risk having their dog miss the signal from across the ring! I encourage my students to start with big hand signals, like the ones most people use in obedience competition. Thus the experimenters summarize their data by saying "In conclusion, our data suggest that, when dogs are equally accustomed to responding to visual and verbal commands, gestural cues are dominant this supports the evidence that body language plays a major role, being the most important communication channel for dogs." So the take away message is, if there is not some special circumstance and you have to choose between a voice command and a hand signal, you will get a more reliable performance if you use the hand signal to tell your dog what to do.Here is how I initially teach hand signals for Down, Sit, and Come. There is no reason why this preference should not hold up now that they are domesticated and are interacting with humans. So canines developed a special sensitivity to reading body language and movement signals of their packmates. If the leader of the pack spots a deer, for example, and gives the vocal signal which is the canine equivalent of "Hey guys there is a deer over there!" you can be sure that the deer also will hear that sound and will use it as a warning to run for the hills. This makes sense because they have evolved from pack hunters who needed to coordinate their movements. We always knew the dogs were masters of interpreting body language. How to Tell if Someone Is Interested in You But what about in those situations where there are no environmental distractions and the dog's attention is directed to you? Do you yell "Down!" or do you raise your hand above your head to signal the dog to drop into a down position? Which command is the dog more likely to promptly obey? Alternatively, if your dog is looking away and not making direct eye contact with you, it seems reasonable to use a voice command. If you are in a noisy setting then perhaps it is better to use hand signals since your voice command may get lost in the ambient sound. Most dog handlers will tell you that which set of instructions you should select depends upon the situation. But when you have to choose just one form of command, matters become a bit more confusing. It just seems as if the combination of a verbal command and a hand signal seems to produce the most reliable performance in dogs especially when they are first learning. From their very basic beginning training sessions most dogs are taught to respond to both our voice and our hand gestures. It is one of those issues which can trigger debates that can go on interminably among dog trainers and obedience competitors. While the question seems like an obvious one, the answer is not.
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