Hand Signals

Dogs have evolved to watch our body language. This allows them to understand what we are trying to communicate. When you take away our speech and look at how our bodies move, you can start to see how we might send confusing signals to our dogs. One of the goals of this class is to be able to communicate with your dog from farther distances. Clear and consistent communication is important for achieving this.

We will be starting the exercises close to our dogs and making sure our hand gestures are simple and easy for the dog to understand. The less talking you can add to this, the better. We want the dog to be able to make the choice for themselves and then reward. The more that you can achieve this, the easier it will be for the dog to choose the behavior.

Bridging: it’s called a ‘bridge’ because it bridges the time between when the animal gives the desired behavior and when the reinforcer is actually delivered. We will be using this technique to help our dogs along as we get more and more complicated with training.