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Dog Training Hand Commands Guide

If an owner wishes along with using verbal commands to control their animal, they can also use hand commands as well.  When it comes to teaching your dog the various different kinds of dog-training hand commands, you will in the beginning need to use verbal commands also.  In this article, we look at just one of the ways in which a dog owner can teach such commands to their dog.

Teaching a dog how to obey hand commands rather than verbal ones can be achieved very simply.  It will require some patience on  your part, but having a few treats available when they do react in the right way can help things progress a lot more quickly and smoothly.  

It is crucial when you first start training your dog to react to hand commands rather than spoken ones is that you use the two in conjunction with each other.  Also, you need to first decide what signal will represent what spoken command that you want your dog to obey.  Only after you have made a decision on each hand command can you then start actually training your dog to respond to them.  

When you first start your dogs hand command training you will need to say the word and show them very deliberately the hand movement at the same time.  This you will need to repeat several times to them before they start to understand what it is that you would like them to do.  Immediately you notice that they have reacted as you begin to raise your hand and say the word then this is the time that they should be rewarded.

It is important that you continue to use the verbal and hand commands for some time, but very slowly you start to voice the commands far less and use hand signals more.  At this stage, you should now start to only reward your dog when they actually respond just to the hand commands rather than when you say the word as well.  It is important that you do not eliminate the verbal commands straight away, but rather gradually eliminate them.  In the beginning, it is a good idea to do half the training when you do the verbal and hand commands together, and the other half just using the hand commands on their own.  

Once you feel your dog is actually fully responding to the hand signals that you are using to control them you can now start to actually begin to eliminate the need to provide them with treats.  However, as with the elimination of verbal commands, a dog owner should not stop providing such rewards immediately, but gradually and slowly start to eliminate them.  Instead rather than offering your dog a treat you could praise them.

When you are going to be teaching your dog to respond to hand commands rather than verbal ones it is a good idea to start of with the most basic commands that you want your dog to respond to.  Most owners will start of with the ones we all learn in the beginning with our dogs, which is sit, stay, down and come.  Only once you feel that you and your dog are ready should you be moving on to commands that are far more elaborate.

When it comes to getting advice on the right ways for you to do dog training hand commands there is plenty of places where you can get help.  The internet is a great source for finding advice and information on the correct dog training hand command techniques to be used.

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