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"I'm ready Mom, let's go!" Whisky, one of my Sept. 12, 2020, Puppy Level, graduates

Hand cues, verbal cues, and embracing the whole picture

A couple of weeks ago a former student paid me a visit, with her little Yorkie, Whisky. She wanted to demonstrate how well Whisky had retained the skills learned in my training classes (sit, down, stay, etc.), so well, that Whisky could show them off in two languages. In fact, she'd had her little dog demonstrate these shock-and-awe moves, a few times, for her colleagues at work.

True to this claim, Whisky bounced into a sit, a down, and a stay, first in Punjabi then English, right there in front of me, that very afternoon. What I knew, however, but perhaps the co-workers did not, was that Whisky wasn't really paying attention to either the Punjabi or the English words, she was watching for her owner's body language and hand cues (the same in both languages you may have guessed). It’s a perfect example of how dogs perceive what we’re asking of them and how they interpret what we're communicating.

Interspecies communication is not restricted to dogs only. And it has its quirks. I used to have a beautiful little budgie named Fruit Loop, who, upon my “bedtime” hand cue, would dutifully climb down from the top of his cage, and enter his house for the night—as long as I made the request standing to the left of his door. If I made the same request from the right, he completely ignored me, or, more accurately, did not understand what he was seeing.

A similar example is when I send my own dog to the bathroom, which happens when I need to open the front door. When cued she will dutifully comply if we follow the same route down the hall. If I alter the route, she won’t enter the bathroom. For her, the composite of hand cue, verbal cue, and route must all align before I get compliance. To alter this dynamic, I would have to put a bit of extra effort into something called generalization.

Generalization means a dog understands a cue no matter where they are or where you are. You may expect that “sit, down or stay” should be understood by them, at home, at the park, at a friend’s, or down in the basement, beside the dryer, while you’re doing the laundry, but dogs are actually not very good at intuitively making this kind of a leap. They are capable of improving their generalization skills if you’re willing to work with them a little harder. The more places you take them, to teach them, practiced verbally and separately, by hand cue, the better they get at it, which is why I teach the same cues in different corners of both my classroom and the far reaches of the store, where I hold my training sessions. Generalization should be considered as an integral part of the cueing system.

For dogs, reading us or interpreting our requests, is more like reading a composite image. It’s not just one thing, it’s a whole picture of what your hands are doing, what shape your body makes, proximity to a piece of furniture perhaps, i.e. where you usually make a certain request, and what sounds and tone comes out of your mouth. If you are careful to use the same body language to communicate with your dog, you’ll get a much more consistent response. Clear, consistent hand gestures (cues or signals, in training language) are by far, the more effective means to communicate with them. Dogs will also follow verbal cues but it’s much harder for them, especially since humans tend to speak in sentences to their dogs, mushing the actual verbal cue in with many other unintelligible human words.

Pros and cons of verbal versus hand cues

One instance where a verbal cue (let’s say “sit/stay”) would be preferable would be when bringing in groceries if you're toting arm loads of bags.

Another highly successful strategy in using verbal cues includes counting to your dog. Hearing the simple sounds of numbers gets their attention. Perhaps, unlike words and sentences, numbers are clear and the same every time. There’s a rhythm to counting that’s predictable for them. I use counting to create an association between the last number of a “1,2…3” sequence, and the food reward that follows, when teaching loose leash walking skills. 

But while a dog may get very good at following your verbal cues, they may have trouble understanding someone else’s verbal cues since tone and inflection are an integral part of what they understand.

A dog can better follow hand cues, in the case of multiple people, such as several family members, or if a dog has hearing issues.

It should also be noted that dogs are nearsighted, something like 20/75 if you want to compare to human vision. In addition, their colour perception is limited. This makes hand cues very effective up to a certain point, after which, it may be hard for them to properly read the subtleties of a hand cue. If your dog is far away or out of sight you’d better have a back-up verbal or sound cue to rely on such as a clicker, a whistle, or a solid verbal recall using their name.

THE DOG BLOG is a great resource for tips on training and canine well being. Got questions or a topic in mind? Let me know via the comments box. I would love to hear from you.

Additional resources:

1) https://iheartdogs.com/ask-a-dog-trainer-verbal-cues-vs-hand-signals/

2) How to Speak Dog, Mastering the Art of Dog-Human Communication, by Stanley Coren