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Shaped by Dog with Susan Garrett

Your Dog's Verbal Cues And Hand Signals: How To Effectively Train Both #113

Shaped by Dog with Susan Garrett

DogsThat

Education, Puppy, Recallers, Animalbehaviour, Dogs, Kids & Family, Pets, Dogtraining, Dogsthat, Petmanners, Susangarrett, Pets & Animals

4.8679 Ratings

🗓️ 1 October 2021

⏱️ 18 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Visit us at shapedbydog.com 

 

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 - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/44/
• Podcast Episode 6: The Art of Manipulation - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/6/
• YouTube Video: Perch Work (Pivots and Spins) - https://youtu.be/O6sj6fTJnFc
• Podcast Episode 85: Understanding Your Dog’s Sit: LWT - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/85/
• Blog Post: Dog Training Question ~ When Do I Add a Cue? - https://susangarrettdogagility.com/2018/09/when-do-i-add-a-cue/
• *Large Raised Travel Bed: https://geni.us/pup-travel-bed 
• Watch this Episode of Shaped by Dog on YouTube - https://youtu.be/QxCwNl3Wpg8

*Amazon Links Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

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!

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Sit down, come. Three really popular cues that people use to prompt behaviors for their dogs.

0:17.3

But what happens when your dog can't hear those words?

0:21.3

What then?

0:22.5

Enter the physical cue.

0:23.9

Hi, I'm Susan Garrow.

0:25.5

Welcome to Shape by Dog.

0:26.7

Today I'm going to share with you how people really mess up their dogs when they're

0:30.8

teaching physical cues.

0:32.3

Why?

0:33.3

It's really important that your dogs understand at least some physical cues and how easy it is to teach

0:39.5

your dog physical cues once you know the process. First up, what do you mean by a physical

0:45.2

cue? A physical cue would be a hand motion or a body. You can use any part of your body to

0:52.1

cue a dog to do a behavior. Now, here's the thing. A lot of times,

0:57.2

people inadvertently use these physical cues when they're trying to teach their dog a verbal

1:03.9

cue, particularly if they're luring a dog. For example, they'll put a cookie between on the top

1:09.7

of their dog's nose and put it over

1:11.2

their head while they're saying sit, sit, sit. And the physical cue of their hand going over

1:16.3

the dog's head actually overpowers the verbal cue because dogs are prey animals. They learn to

1:25.8

pick up motion a lot quicker than they pick up on verbal cues. And so,

1:32.3

it may be difficult to get your dog to sit alone if you've been doing sit with a hand motion.

1:37.5

Likewise, you might not be able to get your dog to sit on a signal sit alone because you've

1:43.0

paired those two together. We're going to fix all

...

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