The clock on the nightstand read 4:48 a.m. The sportsman turned off the alarm and slipped out of bed. The alarm was set to go off at 5:00 a.m., but he couldn't stay in bed any longer. He felt like he had looked at the clock on the hour,every hour, throughout the night. This happened every year. The excitement for opening day had not diminished in any measurable amount since that first season as a 12-year-old boy. As he sat on the bench near the back door, the family Lab came over, trembling with excitement. The man smiled; in true lab fashion, the dog's tail wagging started at the tip of his nose and worked back from there. As the hunter slipped on his hunting boots, he marveled at the difference in the dog's energy level. Every morning at this same time, he sat at this bench and put on his shoes to go to work. Normally, the dog would look up from the bed and thump its tail. Not on the mornings when he put on his hiking boots, though. On those mornings, the dog greeted him with great anticipation—fully aware that this was not a work morning; this was a hunt morning.
Placing the treat between your first two fingers and covering it with your thumb protects the treat until you release it for a reward. (Photo courtesy of Tanner Smedley) How Dogs Learn New Commands Dogs lean heavily on the information that they gather through their sense of sight. They are especially good at noticing patterns. Patterns help them predict what is going to happen next, and they adjust their behavior accordingly. In this case, the dog had noticed that hiking boots indicated that his owner was going hunting.
As a young man, I marveled at dogs that followed hand signals from their handlers. Always dreaming of having such a dog. This dream became a reality with my first Lab. Using a few books and videos, I was able to teach her to cast left,right, and back. I did this by following a few drills that helped show the dog a pattern between my hand signal and the location of the bumper that she wanted to retrieve. Through repetitive successes, she learned to trust my guidance. Shewould follow a whole chain of hand signals until she was successful in finding the hidden bumper. I was thrilled that I had taught my dog to follow these signals, as if I had shown her a whole new world. I now look at it a little differently. Our success was not because Ebby learned to follow cues or signals. Like all dogs, she had been doing that since she opened her eyes. Our success was due to me learning how to consistently and purposefully participate in this game ofcharades that she was already playing. This visual line of communication was a wonderful addition to my relationship with my dogs. I've now made it an important part of my communication, beginning in the whelping box.
Luring is a great way to teach a young puppy to begin following hand signals. (Photo courtesy of Tanner Smedley) Teaching a Dog Hand Signals In my puppy program at T's Doghouse , when my new puppies begin eating kibble (around six weeks), I begin feeding them from my hands. Soon, they begin looking at my hands with anticipation. Where my hands go, the puppies go.
I then start getting the puppies out in the shop where I have targets. In my case, these targets are tires with a plywood platform on top of them. I lure the puppies onto these platforms with the food in my hands. At first, the pups only put their front feet on the tires. I reward this action with a piece of kibble. I move from tire to tire, luring the puppies up onto each one. In short order, the puppies are keying on my direction of travel and running to the tire that I am walking toward.
Now that the puppies are going where I'm going and following my hands, we are ready to expand our ability to communicate. Remember, the important thing is consistency. I need a motion that I can consistently perform that is easy for the dog to recognize as a command. For sitting, I raise my closed hand in the air. Of course, it will take some work to get to that point. To begin, I take a piece of food and place it between my first and second finger. I cover it with my thumb. I then let the pup sniff and lick at it. As it works to get the food, I move my hand above its head, keeping it close enough that the pup can always touch it with its nose. This will put the pup in a somewhat awkward position, with its nose straight in the air. I will reward the pup for its effort a few times to give it confidence that if it keeps working, it will eventually get the food. As the pup works at getting thefood, it will try to adjust to get more comfortable. This will lead the pup to sit. The moment the puppy sits, I release the food into its mouth. The pup will sit quicker and quicker as I repetitively present food above its head. Gradually, I presentthe food at a higher level until I can raise a closed hand in the air, and the dog will sit.
I follow a similar procedure to create a signal for the dog to go to my right. With the puppy sitting in front of me, and a target (tire) to my right, I take a piece of food in my right hand. Then, starting at the pup's nose, I lure the puppy onto the tire. When the pup is on the tire, I reward it with the food. The pup will catch on fairly quickly that when I sweep my hand from in front of me out to my right, it should head to the tire in that direction, where it will receive a reward. I thenrepeat this process to teach the pup to go to my left, and back.
Using visual communication with puppies teaches their mind to look for the visual cues we give, enabling advanced communication later. (Photo courtesy of Tanner Smedley) The Benefits of Dog Training with Hand Signals At this point, I have shown the pup that rewards will be received when it goes the direction I'm moving, and the direction I'm pointing. The pup also has realized that sitting when I raise my closed hand will be rewarded. These will be a good foundation for our visual communication going forward. These signals will stay consistent throughout the pup’s life—though the rewards will change.
A great benefit I found as I began using hand signals as visual communication with my dogs was that I became more aware of when my dogs were looking at me. If they weren't watching me, they wouldn't receive my hand signals. My dogs also began paying more attention to me as they realized that I had become interactive in their visual world.
When I started to focus on the visual line of communication, I felt as though a whole new world had been opened up to me and my dogs. We became more united. I became aware that my dogs were also communicating with me. I'm not sure if they had always been sending the signals and I had not noticed, or if they began when they realized that they were being seen. Either way, I set out to teach my dog hand signals, and as a result, my eyes were opened to a whole new world of communication. One might say we both now have eyes to see.
