Dog Training Hand Commands Guide

If an owner wishes along with using verbal commands to control their animal, they can also use hand commands as well.  When it comes to teaching your dog the various different kinds of dog-training hand commands, you will in the beginning need to use verbal commands also.  In this article, we look at just one of the ways in which a dog owner can teach such commands to their dog.

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.

As you continually repeat the commands and signals you should very slowly you should start to eliminate the verbal commands.  However, you should still use the rewards of food and praise for your dog when they respond to your hand signals only.  For a while as you begin to slowly eliminate the verbal commands you should when carrying out the training, use them half of the time, and the other half of the time just hand signals.  

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 teaching your dog to respond to hand commands rather than verbal ones it is best that you start of with the basics.  So therefore, you should spend time teaching them the hand signals relating to sit, stay, come and down before you actually try anything a little more difficult.

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.