Hand signals vs. verbal commands

I got my first dog 3 years ago and spent a lot of time teaching him commands - sit, stay, come, down etc. Being an Aussie and quite a clever one I might add, he picked up the commands very quickly. Although I had not intended to use hand gesters, I later realized that when I gave a command I also gave a gester. For example when I would say "sit" I would put my hand on my chest. When I would say "down" I would put my hands on my hips - I don't know why but I did. For the longest time I thought Kobi was trained to voice command. I eventually figured out that it was the hand gesters he was responding to.

I had to go back and work with my voice only and he did catch on. However he responds much more reliably to the hand signals. Personally I think hand signals are very important for a dog to learn. One of my neighbors dog is almost totally deaf (12 years old) and he has had to retrain her with hand signals. Old dog - New trick!

I almost always use hand signals first, and then add verbal cues once the dog is about 95% on the hand signals. 
 
I do this for a few reasons, but mainly because I use a lot of luring techniques during the learning phase of training, and the hand signals kind of mimic the lure.  Most dogs pick up the hand signals with in 3-5 reps. 
 
I wait to add the verbal cue because one of my biggest pet peeves is an owner repeating a command.  I hate it when I hear, "snoopy sit...sit...SIT....SIT.....SIT!"  The only reason one would have to repeat a command is if the dog really doesn't know it.  So I teach the hand signals first, and then of the course of a session attach the verbal cue about 3 weeks into the training. 
 
 
 

dogs talk to each other via body signals and gestures, not in sounds. It's much easier to teach a dog a hand signal, as you see. However, if you make no effort to fade out the gesture and truly teach the dog the verbal cue the dog will completely ignore any noises you make. Many people think their dog understands their verbal commands, but actually the dog is responding to body language. Try it-- ask a dog to sit while you are out of sight, or in an odd position (lying down, sitting, standing behind the dog, deliberately being completely immobile, or while dancing a jig), and most dogs won't have a clue. In fact, if you truly want your dog to respond to a verbal cue, you need to practice giving the verbal cue in this manner-- you out of sight, lying down, being immobile, etc. It's perfectly ok to have several different cues, both hand gestures and different words, for the same behavior. Dogs don't find that confusing at all. To add in the new cue, just use it right before the old cue, over and over again, until the dog starts responding to the new cue before you quite get to the old cue; then you can just not use the old cue. 

I use both hand/body signals as well as verbal, but I agree with what others have said that body/hand signals usually over-ride verbal cues.  It is especially true when doing agility.  My dogs will do what my "body" tells them over what my voice may say.  If tell Dasher "tire", but my body is not saying "tire" chances are he will not do the obstacle.  Agility has really made me aware of how my body influences what reaction I get from my dog.  I think its true when dealing with any animal, I ride horses and your body position plays a huge role in riding as well.  Usually I rely on my verbal cues in agility when I want to get my dogs attention, I may call his name softly while he is in the tunnel so he gets an idea where I am and will turn appropriately when he pops out on the other side.  

Thanks for all the replies so far! []
 
So, (out of curiosity) how difficult would it be begin teaching a puppy, using minimal to no hand signals?

I think that it would be pretty difficult to teach a puppy using no hand signals. When I'm teaching my puppy, at first I'll use my hand as a lure to show them what to do. Such as a finger on their rump and your hand in the air in front of them to have them sit. And I'll touch my hand to the ground in front of her for the down. It's also very helpful to have a hand signal for stay. So while I'll use my hand as a lure at first, it soon is their hand signal command. My 3-year old will sometimes have a hard time if I use only verbal commands and no hand signals, though I know that she knows them both. I can get her to do Sit, Stay, Down etc using only hand signals. That is, if she's watching me []

I would be very difficult! I always start out with a hand signal, and then add in the voice cue later. Getting the dog to be reliable to the first voice cue, in complete absence of any body-language cues, can take some time, but once the dog grasps the concept that those weird noises humans make sometimes have meaning, future voice cues come rapidly. It helps to not chatter at dogs-- they rapidly learn to ignore human voices -- ever notice many "natural" good with animals people are naturally very quiet? and you do need to practice giving your voice cues the same way, every time. To a dog, "lie down" and "down"  sound totally different and sound a lot like the (to the dog) meaningless "get down" you say over and over again as the dog leaps happily on people in greeting. Down said rapidly in an excited voice sounds totally different from down said slowly in a relaxed voice.

I've had my pup one day and he responds much quicker to hand signals than to verbal commands. Today I'm getting a clicker and am going to start using the clicker to train him as well.

Way to go dxmom.

I use both hand and verbal.

I immediately taught hand and verbal at the same time, and now that Peyton is getting older I am noticing that she responds to the hand signals right away, and the voice signal usually the second time I say it. It seems like hand signals are so definate and verbal signals can be changed with voice intonation. I like the hand signals because one of the areas that we walk has a lot of car traffic and I would have to yell to get her to sit at the curbs, but with the hand signals I can communicate in a loud area.

I teach my dogs both, but always voice first and once they've got that down perfect (to the point where I'm not saying "Tango sit, sit, SIT!" and only have to say "sit" once) I then teach the hand signals. If you were to take your dog to an off leash area or if you're simply just trying to get it to come inside from the yard and it responded only or mostly to hand signals, you'd have a problem. If the dog is running the opposite direction from you, it can not see your hand signal for "come" and it may not respond well enough to a voice command. Verbal commands are also more difficult to instill in a dog, as they communicate a lot with body movement so I think it's best to teach your dog/pup a voice command right away, with the hand signal following. Some choose to teach both at the same time, but I find that the dog focuses way too much on the hand signal than they do the voice and they don't learn as quick. This is my honest opinion, and others may feel differently but this has worked really well for me in the past.

My first dog was a German Shorthaired Pointer. I trained him with little to no help as my parents didn't want to pay for training. Still it worked out ok. I used both hand and verbal commands. I found that in a noisy room, or when on the phone and I couldn't "talk" to the dog, I could use hand commands and he responded to them just as well as he did verbal ones.

I have trained our new puppy the same way. Most of the time I don't need to even talk to him, but give a single. However, most of the time I use both until I'm sure he's got them down.

I use both with my dogs. Cory knows an abundance of tricks that he can perform using either verbal or hand commands. He is such a quick learner and is eager to please. I've found both methods of traning to be successfull but I think that more of my friend's are impressed when Cory can snap through about a dozen tricks while obeying only hand signals. It makes a mommy proud. ^_^

Kane is still learning, but I'm teaching him different tricks than his big brother. He responds better to hand signals than verbal, but I usually use both at the same time anyway.