The Hand Signal

This involves placing our hand (palm facing our dog) between our dog and the object or source of the disturbance. Since our dogs communicate mainly with body language, they learn anything visual very easily. This signal is easy to do and possible to do as often is needed in most situations.

We observed that the hand signal has a dog physiological impact on the dog. It permits the pulse to stan-by or decrease in case of a threatning situation because the hand signal is a neutral, universal language and non invasive gesture you can do towards the dog in different situations.

It has an interrupting effect and this signal can have different signification :

• I take the responsibility, you don’t need to take it
• You don’t need to be concerned
• It doesn’t concern you
• I'm coming back
• Please wait
• Not now
• ...

You can see a video of an example : 

Body language is an important element of non-verbal communication that can have a significant impact on how others perceive and interact with us. It is therefore important to be aware of one's own gestures and to use them effectively to reinforce the messages one wishes to convey.