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POLL TIME: Hand singnals vs. voice commands


Guest Anonymous

Does your dog respond to Hand or Voice commands better?  

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  1. 1. Does your dog respond to Hand or Voice commands better?



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Guest Anonymous

or hand commands??

on my other thread on the deaf dog one, it seems lots of people use hand commands for their dogs and they listen better...

so what is it??

voice or hand??

Zoey will only do the command if i do the hand signal so it's like she's deaf too.. lol

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All my dogs have been taught with both, but respond quicker to hand signals. Actually DAL, there was a study done (Serpell, I think?) showing that hand signals are actually more effective than vocal commands because dogs are more attuned visually. Lemme dig through some archives and see if I can find it and pass it on to you :) .

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Guest Anonymous

DEFFENTLY hand! I use both, but the voice is basiclly for me :lol: :oops:

Dog's respond better to hand signals because that's how they speak to eachother mostly is through body languge, so of course it's only natural that they understand our body language over our voice commands :wink:

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well, I'll have to test this. As posted, Laurel responds better to hand signals. I dont know if they were used in field hunting training or not.
Freebee will respond to either, depending on if there's a treat involved (she respond faster to either with a treat. She responds better to hand if not) BUT....I have always "used my hands" to talk as well. (I cant complete a sentence without using my hands...that's what being brought up in an Italian family does to you :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: ) I find it easier to signal with my hands when I talk, but until now I never really thought about it. I'm sure they're not "proper" (obedience) hand signals, but they work ok. I find myself giving both the verbal command and the hand signal, but using only the hand signal if they dont obey the first time....hmmmm....


I also found myself giving the verbal command and hand signal, and when they didnt obey saying "WHAT did I just tell you?" using the hand signal again....Mom training coming at the dogs.......hmmmm.....

:o :o :o they know when they hear "that question" that means "pay attention NOW"....I dont train that deliberately, it just kinda worked out that way....

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Guest Anonymous

[quote name='Lokipups']All my dogs have been taught with both, but respond quicker to hand signals. Actually DAL, there was a study done (Serpell, I think?) showing that hand signals are actually more effective than vocal commands because dogs are more attuned visually. Lemme dig through some archives and see if I can find it and pass it on to you :) .[/quote]

wow really? i'd love to see it! Thanks!!



Divine- i know lots of people who own blind/deaf dogs and they use touch for commands.. it's amazing, one of them is even in agility!

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It depends on the exercise. For the recall, they respond better to voice. For the finish, they respond better to a hand signal (though I still usually use a verbal. Except for the right side finish with my male, which he will only do for a hand signal) Sit or down are nearly equal, but marginally better to a voice command; except when doing the drop-on-recall, where they respond best to a hand signal. Stand is a hand signal... I'm not sure if they even really understand the verbal command for that one, though I usually say "stand" when I'm giving the signal.

For the retrieving exercises, Elmo is so blasted literal-minded that not only do I have to use a verbal, I have to use the [i]correct[/i] verbal command for the object he is to retrieve! (a glove is not a "take it", only a dumbbell is allowed to be a "take it")

"Wind" and "unwind" (right and left spins) are hand signals (the verbal is for funny), but the command for Tully to lay her head between her paws is "Are you dying?", there is no hand signal for that. For Elmo to wave takes both a verbal and a hand signal, unless he gets confused and decides to just try waving to see if he can get a cookie that way. :wink:

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Most of the time I will use both a voice command and a hand signal simultaneously. However Indy will respond to either on it's own as we have practiced voice only and hand signal only commands quite a bit.

However since we haven't had Kira all that long I haven't yet been able to put the amount of practice in with her that I have with Indy. At present she responds best to hand signals.

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