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Dogs Can Sign, Too: A Breakthrough Method for Teaching Your Dog to Communicate
Imagine being able to ask your poodle, “Who’s at the door?” and having her respond, “It’s Katy.” Or asking your golden retriever, “Do you want a treat?” and him responding, “No, water.” Or asking your Border collie, “Which toy do you want?” and getting the response, “Stick.”
If you’ve ever wondered what dogs would tell us if they could, now you can find out. The K9Sign system teaches dogs to communicate to us –making it a first in any dog training book category.
Dogs Can Sign, Too is the first book dedicated exclusively to the K9Sign system for teaching dogs to communicate to their human companions using a vocabulary of gestures.
This extraordinary education tool, developed by the creator of AnimalSign Language exclusively for the canine community, teaches people and their pets a unique mode of communication that employs an extensive lexicon of specific signs. Sample signs range from general concepts, such as “Food” or “Play” to identifying special treats, such as “Liver” or “Cheese” and specifying a favorite toy, such as “Ball” or “Frisbee.” Signs also include useful questions such as “Who’s that?” or “What type?” to naming a particular friend or family member, or even indicating a stranger.
Learning and practicing K9Sign is a fun, challenging, and rewarding experience for both you and your dog that is sure to deepen the human-canine bond while expanding our ideas about interspecies communication.
If you’ve ever wondered what dogs would tell us if they could, now you can find out. The K9Sign system teaches dogs to communicate to us –making it a first in any dog training book category.
Dogs Can Sign, Too is the first book dedicated exclusively to the K9Sign system for teaching dogs to communicate to their human companions using a vocabulary of gestures.
This extraordinary education tool, developed by the creator of AnimalSign Language exclusively for the canine community, teaches people and their pets a unique mode of communication that employs an extensive lexicon of specific signs. Sample signs range from general concepts, such as “Food” or “Play” to identifying special treats, such as “Liver” or “Cheese” and specifying a favorite toy, such as “Ball” or “Frisbee.” Signs also include useful questions such as “Who’s that?” or “What type?” to naming a particular friend or family member, or even indicating a stranger.
Learning and practicing K9Sign is a fun, challenging, and rewarding experience for both you and your dog that is sure to deepen the human-canine bond while expanding our ideas about interspecies communication.
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 5, 2021
A bit tl;dr but there is some interesting stuff in here I will try.
June 14, 2010
Have you ever wanted to sit down and have a conversation with your dog? Or just ask your pooch "Why are you barking?" Well, that just might be possible according to Sean Senchal. In her book "Dogs Can Sign, Too", she presents a method for communicating with your canine -- a system of gestures that she calls "K9Signs" which could allow your dog to "talk" to you. The goal is to teach dogs to use this sign language to ask for things, to ask or answer questions, and to respond to your commands or comments.
Senechal has established an "academy" (the AnimalSign Center) where people are working every day with dogs and other animals to see just what their limits are as "language learners". The author emphasizes that it will probably be years before any definite conclusions can be drawn as to the ability of non-primate animals to communicate with us, but she offers a number of examples of what she has accomplished in working with her own pets.
One example had to do with her dog Chal who she has worked with for several years. Chal came into a room where Senechal was talking to a friend and tapped a storage drawer with her nose, then lifted her right front leg which is the K9Sign for an object. When Senechal made the sign for "What?", Chal lifted her right front leg and flicked it slightly, the sign for "keys". The author opened the drawer and there was the key to the yard gate; Chal immediately ran out to the gate and waited for Senechal to open it for her.
That story may not seem all that unusual or interesting; after all I had a border collie whose parents herded cattle and sheep and were able to respond to a wide variety of hand and voice signals. The main difference is that in Chal's case she not only responds to various signs, she offers her own canine signs. If you thought Lassie was brilliant, imagine a herd dog that could come to you and sign "Lamb caught under branch in gully over there; wildcat sneaking up on her -- hurry". That's the fascinating part of K9Signs; not just the ability to communicate but the complexity of the information that can be exchanged in just a few signs.
K9Signs training, as Senechal points out, is fundamentally different from obedience training. It calls for encouraging your dog to show creative behavior rather than obedience. Your dog has to be prompted to initiate communication and make requests rather than just respond to commands. Conversation implies a give and take, a two-sided method of communicating and that means your dog has to feel free to "talk back".
Maybe the most important thing to remember in K9Sign training is to make signing fun. If your dog is obviously having trouble understanding what you're doing and seems to be getting frustrated or losing interest, back up and try to break the lesson down into simpler steps and reward the accomplishment of each smaller step. Or go back to something your dog has already learned and enjoys (like playing with a favorite toy) and make that sign. Later you can go back to working on the new sign. Senechal constantly emphasizes the importance of patience, rewards, and slow, easy steps in teaching K9Signs.
I'm not sure I would have the patience for K9Sign training and really, like most dogs, my two already communicate with me without animal signing. For example my Lab will bark and let me know if someone comes to the front door. But if he and I could make use of K9Signs, who knows -- maybe he could tell me "Pat at front door, has pizza" or "Two strange men at front door, smell friendly". Or instead of simply moving around restlessly, maybe our Rottweiler could tell me "Feel bad - need go out and eat grass". It would require a good deal of time and patience, but maybe one of these days I'll work up the courage to give K9Signs a try (and find out what my dogs are really thinking).
Review by Paul Love
Article Source: Dogs Can Sign, Too - A Breakthrough Method For Teaching Your Dog to Communicate - By Sean Senechal
Senechal has established an "academy" (the AnimalSign Center) where people are working every day with dogs and other animals to see just what their limits are as "language learners". The author emphasizes that it will probably be years before any definite conclusions can be drawn as to the ability of non-primate animals to communicate with us, but she offers a number of examples of what she has accomplished in working with her own pets.
One example had to do with her dog Chal who she has worked with for several years. Chal came into a room where Senechal was talking to a friend and tapped a storage drawer with her nose, then lifted her right front leg which is the K9Sign for an object. When Senechal made the sign for "What?", Chal lifted her right front leg and flicked it slightly, the sign for "keys". The author opened the drawer and there was the key to the yard gate; Chal immediately ran out to the gate and waited for Senechal to open it for her.
That story may not seem all that unusual or interesting; after all I had a border collie whose parents herded cattle and sheep and were able to respond to a wide variety of hand and voice signals. The main difference is that in Chal's case she not only responds to various signs, she offers her own canine signs. If you thought Lassie was brilliant, imagine a herd dog that could come to you and sign "Lamb caught under branch in gully over there; wildcat sneaking up on her -- hurry". That's the fascinating part of K9Signs; not just the ability to communicate but the complexity of the information that can be exchanged in just a few signs.
K9Signs training, as Senechal points out, is fundamentally different from obedience training. It calls for encouraging your dog to show creative behavior rather than obedience. Your dog has to be prompted to initiate communication and make requests rather than just respond to commands. Conversation implies a give and take, a two-sided method of communicating and that means your dog has to feel free to "talk back".
Maybe the most important thing to remember in K9Sign training is to make signing fun. If your dog is obviously having trouble understanding what you're doing and seems to be getting frustrated or losing interest, back up and try to break the lesson down into simpler steps and reward the accomplishment of each smaller step. Or go back to something your dog has already learned and enjoys (like playing with a favorite toy) and make that sign. Later you can go back to working on the new sign. Senechal constantly emphasizes the importance of patience, rewards, and slow, easy steps in teaching K9Signs.
I'm not sure I would have the patience for K9Sign training and really, like most dogs, my two already communicate with me without animal signing. For example my Lab will bark and let me know if someone comes to the front door. But if he and I could make use of K9Signs, who knows -- maybe he could tell me "Pat at front door, has pizza" or "Two strange men at front door, smell friendly". Or instead of simply moving around restlessly, maybe our Rottweiler could tell me "Feel bad - need go out and eat grass". It would require a good deal of time and patience, but maybe one of these days I'll work up the courage to give K9Signs a try (and find out what my dogs are really thinking).
Review by Paul Love
Article Source: Dogs Can Sign, Too - A Breakthrough Method For Teaching Your Dog to Communicate - By Sean Senechal
July 19, 2014
I bought this because I had recently rescued a deaf dog. This book is ridiculous. I gave it two stars - one simply because words were put together as sentences and the other for the unintentional humor. I knew it was going to be very useful (sarcasm) when I read about having doggy class each day. The author recommends having them sit in their doggy desks for a different lesson each day. Between this and the sign for teaching a dog to go to the bathroom, I at least gathered some good story material to share with others. Needless to say, I did not go out to my backyard to squat to show my deaf dog what to do. What do you know, she figured it out anyway. Phew.
November 11, 2012
Great premise behind this book but it was not super well put together in my opinion.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews