This article was co-authored by Pippa Elliott, MRCVS. She has worked at the same animal clinic in her hometown for over 20 years. If you try to make them work for 30 minutes or an hour, you'll both be frustrated. By using our site, you agree to our Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered.Remember to keep training sessions short. If you really can’t stand to see another ad again, then please We use cookies to make wikiHow great. Then you use those signs to train your dog as you normally would. Once it's comfortable with that command, you can start using other hand signals to teach it different tricks, like "sit," "stay," or "come."

To teach a deaf dog to read sign language, start by choosing a sign for the command "look at me" so you can teach your dog to look at you when you want to sign something. Try obedience signs first. Dogs have short attention spans, so try to work with them a few minutes at a time. Using obedience hand signals first is good because other dog trainers will know these signals, even if they don't rely on them solely. When it does, give it a treat to reward the behavior. This article has been viewed 28,975 times. "I feel this is great for deaf and hearing pairs (dog and man), and it's great that you can have sign language sowikiHow is where trusted research and expert knowledge come together. [2] X Research source The main drawback to using only obedience sign… She graduated from the University of Glasgow in 1987 with a degree in veterinary medicine and surgery. [1] X Research source For instance, a common hand sign for "down" is to hold your hand up at your shoulder with your elbow bent, then move your hand to the floor.

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\n<\/p><\/div>"}American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to AnimalsLeading organization dedicated to the prevention of animal crueltyFor tips from our Veterinary co-author, like how to come up with signs to use with your dog, keep reading!