This page on Command Training is part of the Advanced Course of the
D.S. Dog Training Workshop, and an element of the Dog Science Network
How to Teach Your Dog to Respond to Hand Signals
If your goal is to teach your dog hand signals, you will be better off if you wait until after the animal has mastered a given command verbally. For example, if your goal is to teach your dog to sit in response to a hand signal, you should begin by teaching him to sit when you give him the verbal command to do so.
It is a bad idea to attempt to simultaneously teach your dog both the verbal command to sit, and the hand signal to sit, simply because, when you are first teaching your dog any new command, you will need both hands free to move the animal into position until he starts to get the idea.
For that reason, you should wait until after your dog has mastered a given command in its verbal form, then, from that point on, whenever you give the animal that particular verbal command, you should also, simultaneously, give him the hand signal. Thereafter, your dog will begin to associate the word with the corresponding hand signal that means the same thing.
After enough time and enough repetitions have passed that you know for certain that your dog definitely understands the hand signal and the word to mean the same thing, then, you should begin slowly fading out the verbal portion of the command by gradually, over a period of many days, speaking the command in a voice that grows incrementally softer as it approaches the point inaudibility.
By the time you get it down to a whisper, your dog will be ready to respond to your hand signal alone.