Hand vs. Verbal Signals vs. Clicker Training

How many of you have thought your dog tricks? What do you prefer? Hand signals or verbal signals? Or does the clicker work best for you?

I have tried clicker training but I've realized that a combination of verbal and non-verbal signals work best with Chooey. Some people still prefer clicker because it helps in perfecting the timing for more complicated tricks.

How about you?

 

When we first got Roman, he already knew the basics: Sit, down, come, and walk. He learned them using hand motions, so it took awhile for him and my family to communicate efficiently. As time progressed, we mainly did verbal signals. We then taught him new moves such as "Roll Over" and "Go Pee". All using different inflections with the voice. The only time that we used hand motions is when pointing.

 

I'm going to be honest:

Clickers annoy the heck out of me. I could never successfully use them because they would simply annoy me and being frustrated while training isn't a good idea.

So for me, verbal and hand signals work best. I think the combination of both works best, but I rely mostly on verbal calls now.

 

Well, Homer isn't very good at doing tricks...he is too independent to listen to me . But he sometimes reacts to verbal signals. Also, I don't know if that counts, but I have a habit of rolling up my sleeves before I stroke him (he is dirty) and he noticed it. Now, whenever I touch my sleeves, he runs to me wagging his tail, ready to be stroked

 

Misha is a performing maniac. Sometimes she does tricks when I don't even ask for them.

I have found with both dogs that I trained that a combination of verbal and hand signals works best. There are times when they can't see you and there are times when they can't hear you that well. She is getting very good at recognizing the universal hand signal for stop or wait and the household signal for go (as in "go, get over there right now!")

I have seen Clicker training demonstrated. As Jessi said, it got on my nerves to hear the sound. It seemed like it complicated training by adding another step that I would have to remember to do. Honestly, if I were training for a command and need a correction, I prefer to put my dog on leash and correct her through the leash.

 

Ah yes, I hadn't thought about that. Using a leash is another good way to work on training. I'm not sure if it works for every command, but it could definitely re-gain control and give physical signals of exactly what you expect.

 

I prefer verbal calls paired with the occasional hand signal. My dogs always responded well with verbal cues, so I stuck with them. I don't like the sound of a clicker for training either as I can see myself getting annoyed by it's noise too.