Afternoon, I have been working for a while on hand touch with Hattie and Charlie. Charlie is doing really well as we have moved from room to room, my hand at different heights etc. but not outside yet. Hattie has grasped this idea extremely well and we now have the start of a 'silent recall'. When out and about on our walks I can hold my arm out with my hand flat and she returns touches my hand for a treat. I hope this will prove to be useful in certain situations. Thanks x
Thanks for that. I am always looking for new things to do with Molly. She already knows "nose", when she touches my palm with her nose. I will extend it into a silent recall (well that's the plan)
I taught Ripple touch very early on, I think I'll have a go at the silent recall as well. I'd also like to know how to progress to using touch to shut doors and particularly cupboards which Ripple is very fond of opening but never closes . I did read that you can make touch into all sorts of things but I'm not sure how to do it.
Thanks for posting this Helen , I am a firm believer in teaching hand signals as well as vocal , Charlie and Hattie are stars
TOUCH can be used with a cue stick too and is valuable for future RAlly training in particular, either with your hand or the stick. Good boy Charlie. I was just wondering though, is there a universal, or at least pretty common, hand signal for COME? Because the one we learned had us sweeping our hand from down by our side in a big swoop up to the opposite shoulder. The idea being your dog at a distance needs the movement to see the signal. Later the big swoop could be refined to a mere flick of the hand but sometimes that big swoop is handy. And the idea with refinement was so we could signal the dog and be subtle about it.. The big swoop is similar to what we all do anyway when telling a friend, "C'mon. This way." What's your hand signal for COME if it's different than charlie's or mine?
I like hand signals as well and not just rely on vocal, particularly if you're like me and leave whistle hanging on hook in utility
There's a little misunderstanding, I am teaching a hand touch, this is where my dogs see my hand, no vocal cue then come and touch my hand with their nose and get treats so it will eventually be a silent recall. I also use hand signals and a whistle too but in different circumstances. Sorry if I didn't explain this properly xx
LOL, sorry, I'm still confused. I got the idea you were going to hold your hand out as a silent recall. From your latest post I still get that idea. No? What will be your hand signal for a recall then? And how will you morph the nose touch to your hand into it?
My visual cue for come is both arms out to the sides. This just started when they were puppies and I'd drop to the floor and open my arms to encourage them back. My hand target wouldn't work at any great distance because it could be easily confused for a directional cue. They do have a fabulously strong hand target, though, because they view it as a great game; I've reinforced it with throwing things to chase. It works at about 20m or so, maybe more. In fact, the other day, I had a funny incident with it where Shadow was running full pelt at me to target, and couldn't stop himself in time, so threw himself up at me and pushed his feet against me to turn himself, like he was turning on a flyball platform. It was like something out of The Matrix I have one of these extendable target sticks (http://www.amazon.co.uk/DOGSLINE-Education-Training-stainless-UKDL11TS/dp/B00P8Y94W8) which is fab for teaching them movement patterns. I used it with Willow to encourage a "go round the back to heel". Once they know to target it, you can basically use it as a lure, so you could teach them an "under", "over", "round" etc, without having to get your hand to the places which might prove tricky. You could even use it for positioning them at a heel position, I guess, although not sure whether it would be any more effective than other methods. Still, alternatives are always good Hmmm, this has got me thinking on how I can use it more myself. Thanks for the post
A story I heard about 6 months ago totally changed my outlook on use of distance hand signals. Picture this scenario. Bloke walking down one side of a road with his spaniel Spots a friend on the other side. A conversation ensues Friend raises his hand or waved, which just happened to mimic the dogs recall hand signal. Dog launches, owner caught off-guard and the lead slipped out of his hand. Dog runs out in-front of a car and has an RTA True story according to the locals. Thankfully after a lot of fixing up the dog made it through. Food for thought!?
Pretty sure my two wouldn't respond to a recall signal like that from someone else while they were by my side. Either way, I'd say it was a culmination of unfortunate circumstances. The dog could have seen a cat and gone to chase it, with the same result. A car could have backfired and scared him. I don't believe teaching visual cues is inherently dangerous.
I did a recall learning lab at clicker expo - run by the wonderful Kathy Sdao - using a hand touch as part of a recall cue - it's extremely effective. Only, it's not a silent recall, it's used with an attention getting noise, and then a hand touch. If your dog is already looking at you then you can drop the attention getting cue. The thing is to be absolutely consistent about how you hold your hand. So you actually don't want to generalise it to be in all sorts of places and directions around your body, otherwise your dog may see his recall cue often. You don't want that. My recall hand cue is my arm straight down, and my hand held palm out but horizontal. It's a tiny bit uncomfortable and not a way I would hold my hand normally. It also has the advantage of only a small movement turns my hand to be in the right place to receive a dummy - so the dog targets my hand with the dummy. To stop the dog confusing a direction cue with a nose touch cue, you put nose touch off cue unless you say touch. Then you can safely move your hands about you.
Definitely a fan of visual cues here (as well as sound based). When my old dog became deaf we still had a full range of cues for communication with him. Would've been really hard if we'd previously relied on sound cues only. So, think ahead. My visual recall cue is big and obvious - arms swept up in the air in a Y shape (like the Y in YMCA). Has to be easily seen from a distance (especially if I'm standing against a non contrasting background) and it's also something I don't use for any other purpose.
Steffis - you can progress the hand touch to touch a postit sticker / or a bit of duck tape (in your hand to start with, but then move it places just like you did with the hand touch - then you can put the postit sticker on door/cupboards that you would like a nose push shut
I always teach hand signals as well as vocal commands as sometimes when they are very excited they will notice and pay attention to a clear hand signal. Its good over a distance. When/if they go deaf as they get older it works great too. Rory would eat the post its too. tried the target stick but he wanted to eat that aswell. Midge loves the target stick and it worked well with her
Shadow was a nightmare for trying to bite the ball on the target stick, but I just shaped it out using the clicker. I've not used the stick in a while,and brought it out this morning to do some work with it, and he immediately tried to eat the ball again. I might have to go back a few steps
I don't get why it isn't a silent recall. I do not use any attention noises etc. when Hattie looks at me, arm/hand out she comes back to touch my hand. I watched a Youtube clip sometime ago but can't remember the trainer, she demonstrated exactly as I did and she called it a silent recall.
Well, yes, it's a recall without you making a noise - nothing wrong with you calling it a silent recall if you want. So long as your dog is already looking at you, it's fine. But that's somewhat limited, really....if Charlie is already looking at me, I can just put my hand in my treat bag and he'll recall.
