Hand signals is part of the training I do, and it really helps dogs too. When a dog is far away in distance, they may not hear you well. When they understand what you are saying with your hands or body this does help in communicating with your dog.
Now that I have two senior dogs and if you have never had senior dogs, they really are awesome. They have been trained well, but now start to have problems. A little loss in hearing, the eyesight becomes dimmer. I find myself using both verbal and hand signals with them.
Hand signals does help, and I encourage clients to use them when they are with their dogs in everyday life. It helps now while your dog is younger and when they become senior dogs too, it really helps. The verbal cue may be faint to them because of hearing loss, or maybe the eyes have become dimmer. I am thankful I train my dogs both verbal and hand signals.
You can always test how well trained your dog is too. With your hands behind your back you can cue "sit" this would be a verbal test. Your dog should sit on cue. Then the next test would be to cue the dog with only a hand signal. If your dog appears weak on a cue, then set up sessions and work with your dog until it becomes fluent.
There are four stages of learning acquisition, fluency, generalization and maintenance. All of these stages are important, and we all must use that maintenance once a dog has learned. Use those skills to keep them strong, both verbally and hand signals.
Training is important!
© 2022 Mecca Curtice
Mecca's All Breed Dog Training, LLC.