So I decided to take Zinnia to the next level this week, I’ve begun training her to follow hand signals, no voice. It’s tricky because I have to get the dog’s attention first, I do this by making strange sounds so she will look at me.

Then getting her to recognize “come,” “lie down,” “stay” and “free,” all voice commands she knows and responds to. This training is important for therapy work, which sometimes needs to be quiet, and sometimes the times is more than a few feet away.

I prepared for this by using hand signals along with voice signals so she is familiar with them. Today is the first time I tried it. I was happy with the results. We are communicating very well together.

I’m going deeper into the training now, sharpening what we have learned and asking her for more. So far, so good.