Hand Signals

[lillylau 0]

Hi can anyone help me I am looking into getting a spaniel pup and would like to teach hand signals could any one offer any help on where to learn this is it universal or does every one have they own. is there any site on the web to look at any help would be great

[paulus 26]

Hand Signals

Training your Springer Spaniel to hand signals is useful as it allows you to communicate with your dog in a noisy environment. For example hand signals are easier for a dog to respond to when a shoot is on.

In addition, using hand signals means you can add some directional instructions when your Spaniel is quartering a field.

First, decide which hand signals you are going to use. I use the following

Sit! Hand flat, up and open, by your shoulder, as if you were taking an oath.

Lie down! Arm out straight, with the palm up, as if you were signalling a car to stop.

Work to the left: Sweeping your left hand round to the left

Work to the right: Sweeping your right hand round to the right

For Sit! and Lie Down!, as with the whistle training, combine the handsignals with the verbal command, then reduce the amount of times you say the command until just the hand signal produces the desired results.

 

 

taken from here http://www.love-springer-spaniels.com/gun-dog-training.html

[lillylau 0]

thank you so is hand signals a person thing is there a right and wrong way of doing them or do you decide on what you wan to use and how you want to present them

[paulus 26]

thank you so is hand signals a person thing is there a right and wrong way of doing them or do you decide on what you wan to use and how you want to present them

as long as there consistant then whatever suits you best

[LaraCroft 863]

I do the standard ones for sit, lay down, right and left. For recall, both arms out wide, and then I have added a few other ones that are useful to me - barking on command, jumping, finding something on the floor etc. As long as you use the same one for the same thing all the time, and make it nice and obvious for the dog ( you can refine them later ) then the dogs catch on quickly. I've had a couple of deaf dogs, so hand signals are really part of my standard training now.

[Lancashire Hunter 22]

The best way to introduce hand signals to your dog get the trainning dummy tennis ball or what ever it enjoys picking up.

Start of just concentrating on either left or right hand signals first keep the dog on a lead to start with and either throw its retrieve to either left or right make sure your dog sees it being thrown and

Sit it up walk back a few steps not to far back so if it moves before being released you can stop it quickly and sit it up

Once its sat and watching you give it the get on command with a hand signal to either the left or right but make sure you extend your body with the signal and just keep doing this till it is doing it with out fail or faults then move to the other side.

As for the back command same princaple have dog on lead throw its retrieve out in front of you real helps if you have a long fence on one side of you so the dog can only go in a straight line sit it up and with the word back and moving your arm upwards at the same time send it back.

Just out of curiosity how old is the dog and what have you done with it trainning wise already? Atb chris

[pegleg33 134]

If you want to teach your dog left and right the easiest way is to sit it up with it's back against a fence facing you. Blow the stop whistle with a flat hand raised above your head Infront of you. Throw a dummy to your left or right ( if you throw to you right use your right hand, your left hand to throw it to the left) blow the stop whistle again with the hand signal, now move your arm to the side you want to send your dog and give a command such as fetch. I tend to over exaggerate this movement until the dog gets it so I'll take a sideways step in the same direction while throwing my arm to the side.Get the dog going to one side comfortably before trying to get it to do both. Once you can send the dog confidently left or right mix it up a little by either sending it for blinds or throwing one dummy either side of it and asking it to fetch the first dummy thrown (the dog will want to fetch the last).

 

Starting to handle your dog at distance is easier to set up aswell, get your dog working on it's left and rights at close distance. Once it's confident at doing this YOU move 10yds back and leaving the dog in the same place, carry on until you think the dog has got it and then move further back always leaving the dog in the same place. This also works when getting your dog to stop on the whistle

[hutch6 550]

Hi can anyone help me I am looking into getting a spaniel pup and would like to teach hand signals could any one offer any help on where to learn this is it universal or does every one have they own. is there any site on the web to look at any help would be great

 

Hi,

 

The signals that you use are your own personal choice, you could go down the route of the commonly used ones or you could choose your own if you are working your dog and don't want it crossing onto soemone else's commands.

 

With a pup there are two ways of teaching the commands. You can lure the pup and reward appropriately when the correct bheaviour is offered or you can do waht is called "shaping" - you wait for the behaviour to occur naturally and then reward appropriately. Either works just as well as the other.

 

The benefit of hand signals over voice commands is there is no harsh tone or change in pitch. The downside is you can't do anything if the dog doesn't pay attention to you when out and about.

 

You have to remember that a dog watches you 24/7 trying to gauge what you want it to do for it to fit in with you and the family/surroundings. All a dog wants to do is be part of something. If you are consistant in your conscious body language then we think we have it nailed but it is more likely that the dog will pick up on your unconscious body language. This is why so many dogs look as if they have been doing a routine day in day out where as really they notice little things. I know if I stand in front of the mirror and try to do my signals under self-observation then they are forced and I wil do things differently - I won't do anything but the hand signal. When I am out and about though or just messign about with training I may do little things/actions like raise a corner of my mouth, tilt my head back, inhale, shift my weight from one foot to the other or my fingers may come togther before givign the dignal. These may be unnoticeable to us as we do them day in day out without thinking abbout them (unconscious) and other people may not notice them but to a dog they are telegraphed and they are usually already halfway to the wanted behaviour before we even give the signal or open our mouths to start the voice command. Folk think the dog is amazing and knows what's coming without any communication but there is loads of communication going on that the dog learns to understand.

 

For me personally I use pieces of cooked chicken held in the hand giving the signals as this is the hand I want the dog to watch. For the standard "sit" I hold the chicken between my fore and middle fingers, offer it to the dog, as soon as the dog sniffs it I raise my hand to my shoulder and wait. I don;t force the dog into position as if I was teaching you to sit on a chair and you didn't know what i wanted and I started pushing you down, the chances are you'll push back against me. If you wait a little longer the dog will very likely sit down anyway. As soon as its bum hits the deck the hand delivers the reward. The same thing is repeated a few times and then the session is finished. A few ad breaks later and the dog is taken for another quick training session.

 

Shaping is a little different in that you have to be ready with the treat and wait for the dog to present a behaviour wihthout any cue at all and is immediately rewarded for the action. It is then rewarded without cue for a further couple of times beofre the hand signal/cue is introduced. It's not a fast-track method for the basics but is great for the things we come across that we find beneficial like putting a toy in a box - to them it is just part of play, to us it is tidying up and can be trained with a cue using shaping.