Your Dog's Verbal Cues And Hand Signals: How To Effectively Train Both

Sit, down and come are three cues many people use to prompt their dogs to do something. But what happens when your dog can’t hear those words? They might be a distance away or have hearing loss. Enter the physical cue! People can really mess up their hand signals when training their dog, but physical cues can be easy to teach once you know the process.
In the episode you'll hear:
• What a physical cue is and how the training can get messed up.
• How physical cues overpower verbal cues.
• Why we want our dogs to have some physical cues.
• How stimulus creates behaviour and reinforcement sees behavior repeated.
• How to train your dog to go to a mat or bed.
• About generalizing a behaviour before adding the cue.
• When and how to add a cue for your dog.
• How I use a finger point as one of my physical cues.
• The reason I use "hop it up" for a verbal cue.
• Why to remember "new cue, old cue".
• The physical cue to use for your dog coming when called.
• How to test the cues that you use now for your dog.
• Why I don't have a verbal cue for a hand touch.

Resources:
Podcast Episode 44: Using Coincidences and Positive Associations in Dog Training - • Using Coincidences and...
Podcast Episode 6: The Art of Manipulation - • The Art of Manipulatio...
KZbin Video: Perch Work (Pivots and Spins) - • Susan Garrett’s Perch ...
Podcast Episode 85: Understanding Your Dog’s Sit: LWT - • Understanding Your Dog...
Blog Post: Dog Training Question ~ When Do I Add a Cue? - susangarrettdogagility.com/20...
*Large Raised Travel Bed: geni.us/pup-travel-bed
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Susan only recommends products she uses herself, and all opinions expressed here are her own. The link above is an affiliate link that, at no additional cost to you, we may earn a small commission if you decide to buy from it. Thank you!
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Dogs That is brought to you by Susan Garrett and the Say Yes Dog Training Team.
Susan Garrett’s interest in animal behaviour started at the University of Guelph where she earned a Bachelor of Science majoring in Animal Science. Since then she has developed into a preeminent dog trainer and canine sports instructor and competitor. Susan is one of the most successful agility competitors of the last three decades. She has won multiple Gold Medals at National or World Championship events with every dog she has ever owned over the past 30 years.
A natural teacher and an entertaining speaker, Susan is world renowned as a leading educator of dog trainers. Her understanding of how to apply science-based learning principles to both competitive and family pet dog training has been pivotal in changing how dogs are trained.
Susan is now helping many thousands of dog owners in 132 countries have the best relationship possible with their dogs. The real joy for her comes from bringing confidence to dogs and their owner through playful interactions and relationship building games that are grounded firmly in the science of how animals learn.
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[@lynng8655]

I got a chihuahua puppy years ago. He was the easiest dog i ever trained (i didn't have much experience training!). Got his CGC certificate on his first try. People at puppy class (especially the trainers) couldnt believe how fast he learned and how focussed he was (after all, he was a chihuahua!). He was amazing! A few months later i learned that Norman was completely deaf! Zero hearing according to the vet, born that way. Because of our relationship my puppy stayed focussed on me and apparently I made the same motions for every verbal cue I gave him! Once i learned he was deaf i began to clap 3 times (at the suggestion of my vet) to "call" him and Norman even had perfect recall! He sensed the vibration! My boy passed 6 years ago and I miss him so much. I never understood how he could be so amazing until i started following Susan! Norman didn't speak English, he was very observant though!

[@lovely1_mama]

We have an almost 18 year old dog who is deaf, but still has sight. Hand signals have been extremely beneficial. The suggestion to make important cues easy to see from a distance is so smart! Will be doing that with the next pup!

[@maikibordercollie]

Way back when I was a teenager, I taught my dog physical cues for a few of the most basic behaviours. Then I could ask him to do those things in either English, French, German or Italian (three languages I was learning at the time) and he would do them. The cues WEREN'T huge like you describe, they were relatively subtle, so I had all my school friends convinced that my dog understood four languages. :-)

[@rogehnimunoz4327]

I love watching your videos not only for me to learn from you but you make me laugh.😂😂

[@DogsThat]

Learning is even better when it's fun! 🥳

[@AnimalAccolades]

YES! Love physical cues, previously I have had two completely deaf dogs, they do EXCELLENTLY with body language and sign language. And I love planning for your dog to live to 20! Live it, love it! Thank you Susan for sharing 💜

[@learning2curve995]

I love physical cues but now I am learning that I can use words just as well. Again a show person here so not ultra focused on obedience until I got the dog shown in my pic. Boy is she hard work but I am learning its me that is hard work. Learning the snappy stand now. Will follow up in a couple of weeks as to how its going. Defiantly shaped by this dog :D

[@rachell4307]

Brilliant!!! I’m so glad you posted about this because it’s something I think about and use to a small degree, but I did not consider introducing emergency recall and down gestural cues with big motions. I’m committing to starting that today! One gestural cue that I’m really happy I introduced is a flat palm+ outstretched arm for a wait. If someone starts talking to me during training/walks I will use it so my dog doesn’t start to get anxious/impatient, just another part of training. Also, many people have NO idea that dogs understand gestural cues as well, if not better than verbal ones, so we can do a lot of silent parlor tricks that people find impressive. I look into my puppy’s eyes and raise my eyebrows and he goes to a hot zone bed. Non-dog people think he’s reading my mind 😂! I also agree pointing is extremely useful as well. ❤️Thanks once again, Susan!

[@jeno264]

We had a dog who went deaf AND blind lived to nearly 18 I think. She was beautiful

[@sophiesmith5922]

I love physical cues so I dont have to interrupt conversation to handle my dog. I had to use physical cue over verbal to get my dog to proper form on a down (no butt sit first) because of poor early training. Also I forgot about early training of an emergency verbal cue and had to revert to that in the dark to recall my dog last night. (O Mighty Cat Chaser!) It works. It just works.

[@The1eviltemptress]

THANK YOU! I have always taught both verbal and hand signals. Dog #1 eventually lost her hearing and dog #2 lost both eyes to glaucoma. Both had no problem performing behaviors even with their eventual deficits. Now that I’ve listened to this podcast (I listen to them while driving or walking the dogs though I don’t play on my phone while walking 😉) I’ll only be marking until it’s solid. I’ll add the visual cue and only add the verbal cue once the visual cue is solid. Thank you so much for this clarification. I plan on adopting a deaf dog next so I’d love a deaf dog podcast one of these days.

[@ashleybabette250]

I love love love this. I've always trained all my animals (not just dogs) with nonverbal cues first because then I can cue them even during an asthma flare up or during high anxiety, when it's harder for me to speak. Turns out, my siamese cat lost his hearing around 14 years old, and it's been to HIS benefit that he knows hand signals in addition to verbal cues. He didn't miss a beat in being able to understand us when he lost his hearing and he's living his best old-man housecat life. (He just sleeps more soundly than ever because noises don't wake him 😅)

[@HITPHOMES]

Great info. Thank you.

[@johnnymarysabundantlife7565]

Great teaching as always. Do you have a teaching on teaching the transition from sit to down back to sit to stand etc and also incorporating distance? Also the back? Thanks!!

[@victoriamoore1294]

Thanks, great info!

[@wendylevine6076]

I can't wait to add new non-verbal cues to Bessie's repertoire. We already use nonverbal cues for sit, down, rollover, and come.

[@murwill1]

I love this subject thanks for talking about this

[@ionicamermaid1141]

Thank you so much! This is, just like always, super helpful!

[@johnburks90]

Wow you are such a blessing to owners and pets

[@Tangobutton]

I used to get laryngitis all the time after a cold so I *had* to teach all 8 of my dogs physical cues just to survive around here!

[@keelysings3]

Thanks for this video!! I have a deaf double merle australian shepherd border collie mix. He knows at least 30 physical cues, not to mention the ones I teach him without meaning to, like putting on a specific sweatshirt means we are going out to play. I am now more intentional with my physical cues for my other dogs.

[@suenorwood6699]

Great podcast! I use my hands a lot. I am trying to teach my dog to turn left or right over a jump and have been using a verbal and physical hand cue together. I don't know if this is confusing to my dog but he seems to be getting it. I am going to go back to just a physical cue and see if this makes a difference. I also liked your way to test your dog's understanding. I shall review Recallers Game day 24, Can you do it in a box. Very informative, as always. Thanks Susan!

[@sophiesmith5922]

I just rewatched this video to learn how to get my dog clearer on a few behaviors. I really love your demo that shows a person can train a dog even in a very small space. (This can actually be easier.) I enjoy my obdience games indoors a lot, especially during winter days. I do use place, which I think is a combo term of "plotz" and a specific location, just like "stay" likely came from shtay which is stand with the stay implied. Very weird how we change commands and meanings over time for different circumstances.

[@azogal53]

Some fun ideas here, and practical too for those of us with seniors 🍪 🍪 🍪🍪 🍪

[@nancyhooper1742]

About to try this now❤️❤️ But do do use physical cue for some things now . Great podcast as always ❤️❤️❤️❤️⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ They did Great and picked up on it really fast ❤️❤️❤️So wish I knew you long time ago and Al my dogs would had a Great life, God bless you ❤️❤️❤️❤️

[@fundip43]

Blanky is the best “place “ que it’s too cute not to use 😅

[@brenshober7417]

My guy knows it’s walk time when I grab his collar that’s on his special hook for leashes. I don’t say a word! 💜

[@susanshaver912]

This is great. I have many hand cues that he responds to, but now that he is losing his hearing and his eyesight is less the idea of making the cues to the side so he can see them better is great as many of them were in front of me. Before I realized he was losing his hearing, I was calling/shouting louder and getting frustrated thinking he was ignoring me. I now realize that is not the case, and if he sees me he does respond. My question. If he can't hear me and is looking the other way, how do I get his attention from a distance?

[@kellyhayes]

I think you meant dogs are predators searching for prey animals but as always love love your podcast!

[@tonionline_au]

I have been looking for something just like this. Our rescue dog is now 14.5yrs and has been deaf for nearly 2yrs. His behaviour has slowly been getting less acceptable as we have been stuck not knowing how to give him new hand cue only commands. We both remember the basic hand cues from obedience training years ago, watch, sit, drop, come etc but I now need to train a few more hand cues such as 'go outside to toilet', on your bed, eat, in your crate, Break/Okay, etc and wasn't sure how to do that with a deaf dog. I would really love to know if there is somewhere that has a list of verbal & hand cues or a video showing them.

[@nadiadoubiany7587]

You’ve mentioned before that you don’t feed your dogs kibble. Can you talk about what/how you feed your dogs? I’d love your advice!

[@ammi_10]

My younger kids grew up with well trained dogs and after my old dogs all had passed away I began to take in rescue dogs to foster. I had to laugh because my boys thought all dogs just knew the commands and cues.😆

[@daphnerobert-hamilton3066]

Y.. M..C.. A. 😊

[@Jaivu-fo4rv]

The 16th minute was more impressive

[@alishagarcia5150]

Does new cue, old cue work for changing a cue word you have already trained. Example, I say free when releasing my dog, but I want to change it to break. Or I used to say free and throw a treat, now I'm following your program and saying search.

[@DogsThat]

Hi @alishagarcia5150, yes it does 😊 In Recallers and Home School the Dog we have a video on using "break" with the Hot Zone Game that will help as well.

[@justFreya5]

Also what do you do when you say break the the dog doesn't do anything but just keep sitting in their bed? Been working on that but he won't act until he sees me throwing the treat lol

[@Emma-fe6yt]

We've always struggled with down, mister takes his sweet time going into a down, maybe I need to try a stronger physical cue like yours because I really want an emergency down too! Also, what do you call that raised folding cot? I am only able to find the ones that fold in half, I like the one you have because it looks collapsible like a camping chair!

[@DogsThat]

Hi Emma, we've just added a link to the raised travel bed in the description of the video, if you want to check it out. Thank you!

[@Emma-fe6yt]

@@DogsThat you rock, thank you!

[@tonyaall73]

I just discovered your videos and I have enjoyed watching them. However, this is not working for my one year old Rottweiler. She looks at me like I'm crazy because she is so stubborn. What am I doing wrong?

[@DogsThat]

Hi Tonya, thank you for tuning in. It might be that there are layers before hand that will help your lovely girl. We have a list of our videos with training games in a playlist here on KZbin - kzbin.info/aero/PLphRRSxcMHy2TzttCtZVFwzwMGayAsaYe

[@watchmoivies123]

I guess if it was just my hand I wanted the dog to touch you don’t have to use the verbal but I use the touch to go run to a wall for a go out and then sit so I’ll have my dogs stare at the tape or whatever I use on the wall and tell him look and then I say go touch and he will run out and touch it and then I say sit If he’s gotten that far I also use the verbal touch for a lot of different things but I don’t know if I just want the dog to jump up and touch my hand

[@watchmoivies123]

So I do Fade out the word and I just use. GO And then sit

[@jneher2992]

Stop babbling..like that tip.very good 👍

[@justFreya5]

What do you do if they don't know sit? Cause ik you said you don't teach it to young puppys cause they don't sit properly so you wait until they do

[@DogsThat]

Hi! Susan has a video on teaching sit, here's the link for you: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jYGce4WdgLFlhc0 Happy training!

[@watchmoivies123]

OMG you used to do competition obedience? With the Jack Russells or. B Collies ? So what happened I just got to competitive why did you stop? Have you ever gotten an OTCH?

[@RaptorsGirl]

I got High and Trials with two of my Jack Russells and two of my Border Collies …I only competed in obedience with the four dogs. I did get a Canadian OTCH but I did not compete in the US very much in obedience, just at the World Series of Dog Obedience in Detroit (where I placed in the top ten with both with my Jack Russell and my Border Collie)

[@watchmoivies123]

@@RaptorsGirl THAT ,,,,,,is amazing. Love it. Hope THIS asks to do obedience , might just be her thing !!!