Many of us want our dogs to reliably respond to both verbal cues (“sit!”) as well as our hand signals separately. As humans, we primarily use our voices to communicate. Our dogs probably think we’re crazy just chattering away! I hope that Knox finds it endearing how much I talk to him, even though he understands very little of what I’m actually saying! Dogs, on the other hand, speak primarily through body language. That is why they pick up on our hand motions so quickly when we are teaching them sit, down, and other similar obedience cues.

Dogs can EASILY learn both verbal cues AND hand signals. In fact, based on studies, dogs can learn 160+ words through training and observation! But sometimes we get ‘stuck’, and our dog doesn’t seem to actually be learning the verbal cue separate from the hand signal. What is happening?

Typically what I see is someone saying “sit!” while lifting their hand. The owner then assumes the dog knows what “sit” means…. at least until they say “sit” without the hand signal and dog does nothing in response. What happened? Why didn’t Fluffy sit? She clearly KNOWS sit! When we give both a verbal cue and a hand signal simultaneously,  our dogs will only ‘hear’ one of those cues. This is called ‘overshadowing’. Overshadowing takes place when a certain stimulus (“sit!” is not noticed by the animal because there is a more salient (more evident) stimulus (hand signal) around.

So, what do we do about this? How do we teach our dogs both the verbal cue and the hand signal? Well, it’s pretty simple! You just have to separate the two!

First and foremost, if you have used a lure to teach your dog to sit, you need to get rid of the food in your hand AS FAST AS POSSIBLE. To teach a hand signal for “sit”, just move your hand *exactly* the same way as you did with the lure, but without any treats in your hand. If your dog responds 4 or 5 times out of 5, your dog is on his way to understanding the hand signal! Now you’re ready to add the verbal cue.

You will need to say your verbal cue first, without moving your body. Follow this immediately by your hand signal (without saying anything else). Once your dog sits, mark and reward! The verbal cue “sit”, becomes a predictor that you will offer the hand signal for sit, to which your dog will respond by sitting. Pretty easy!

If your dog is reliable at sitting when you move your hand up and back, and you practice successfully several times, then your dog should anticipate what is coming next. When you say “sit” she’ll anticipate that hand movement and sit before you give the hand cue. Now you’ve taught your dog what “sit” means!

Here it is again, in bullet points:

1. Say “sit,” then give your hand cue (move it up and back), wait for your dog to sit, then mark & Treat (M/T).
2.Do this in quick succession 5 times.
3.On the sixth time say “sit” and do not use your hand cue. If your dog sits give yourself a pat on the back. If she doesn’t sit repeat 5 more times with the hand cue/verbal cue combo, then the verbal cue only on the 6th time.

If this is easy for your dog just play along because what I want you to learn is that no matter what behavior you want to teach your dog this is how you do it – get the behavior you want, mark and treat the behavior, repeat until your dog is reliably offering the behavior, then add a verbal cue.

Remember that dogs don’t speak English, and if we start chanting “down,down, down” or “sit, sit, sit” before they know the behavior we’ll be associating the word with whatever they are doing at the time – staring at a treat, barking, humping our leg – whatever 🙂