Some dog owners may wish to have a dog that attends to both verbal and non-verbal dog training commands. Sometimes dog owners rely on non-verbal signals unknowingly, such as when tilting their head downwards upon asking “sit” or moving their body slightly backward upon asking a dog to “lay down”. Ok, these might not be daily occurrences but still, similar situations can occur. Hand signals are also heavily used when training dogs from a distance, such as in directing a hunting dog to retrieve a downed bird, training a dog to compete in a utility obedience competition, or asking a herding dog to move the flock. In dog training, the hand gesture in such a circumstance would be referred as to being “more salient” than the verbal command. If you make your dog sit by pointing your index finger as you say “sit”, chances are high that should you happen to only say “sit” one day without pointing, your dog may not respond because it has learned to rely more on your hand signal than anything else. It is not unusual indeed for a dog to pay more attention to a hand gesture than a command such as a sit. Ever seen how Rover is quick to read any of your slight body movements towards the refrigerator? Dogs are ultimately very well adept in interpreting non-verbal signals, and therefore do well, if not even better, when they are attending to hand gestures but why is that?Ī good part of this may be attributed to the fact that canines do not use verbal communication, and therefore, must rely a lot on body language in order to communicate with their own species and humans.Ĭonsequently, dogs have a certain aptitude for reading our body language and gestures.
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