How Your Body Posture Impacts Your Dog’s Learning
You might not realize it, but your dog is reading your every move—literally. Dogs are masters of body language. While we humans lean heavily on words to communicate, dogs rely much more on what we do than what we say. That means your posture, gestures, and overall body presence can make or break a training session.
Let’s dive into how your body posture impacts your dog’s learning and how to use it to your advantage.
Magic? Or Body Language
At times, people are convinced that their dog can read their mind. How could they possibly know when I am approaching the door to take them on a walk versus leave for the day? The smallest of body cues give away our intention, things that are imperceptible to us are huge glowing signs for dogs. Maybe you stand faster, reach into a different area, or have a bigger smile on your face.
A study by the name of “Early-emerging and highly heritable sensitivity to human communication in dogs” highlights this. The researchers took 8 week old puppies and set them in front of two containers. One container had food, the other nothing. By simply looking or gesturing towards the container with food, puppies were able to follow this cue to the correct answer. Almost no other animal can do this. In short, dogs come ingrained with the ability to read human body language.
Hierarchy of Signals
- Touch
- Sight
- Sound
This is the order that dogs process signals. (Smell is probably number one, but we are going to ignore that for now as it is difficult to train with) The highest priority is a touch, followed by what they see, and finally, what they hear. To test this, tell your dog to down and raise your hand as if asking for a sit. Almost every time, the dog will sit. Why? Because the body posture and use of hands is more important than the verbal command for sit. This mixture of signals is known as:
Overshadowing
This is one of the biggest concepts I see people struggle with, including professional trainers. When you give two commands at the same time, which is more important? Our hierarchy of signals tells us the order, and most often it is the visual cue. The most clear and common example is when owner’s struggle to have their dogs listen. They say “He knows this!” while a dog clearly does not understand the spoken sit command. But, the second they move their hand in an upward motion, that dog sits immediately. I can tell you with 100% certainty what happened. When training sit, the owner said “sit” and moved their hand at the same time. The dog never even heard the command, it is overshadowed by the hand movement. Then, when the hand movement goes away, the dog has no idea what to do with the command “sit”.
For some reason, humans have a very hard time separating these two things. I have yet to meet someone who can correctly apply this concept without a good amount of practice. To this day, I record and catch myself still doing it from time to time. The correct sequence to teach verbal commands is as follows
Command: “sit”
Wait 1 second (I force new trainers to count one thousand one in their head before moving)
Hand gesture: Move hand up
Dog sits
Give food
The wait and pause between the command and hand gesture is incredibly important. Without it the dog will not understand what the word means, and only follow your hands. When signals come at the same time, the body cues will overshadow and the voice is lost.
Pressure and Space Matter
If you step into your dog’s space, that’s pressure. Step away or turn slightly, and that releases pressure.
- Leaning forward = pressure
- Turning sideways or leaning back = invitation
This is why changing your body angle can completely shift how your dog responds during training. Dogs who have issues jumping on visitors are often confused by this principle. Leaning away, turning, or bringing hands up are all invitations to jump, despite what words might be coming out.
Watch a Border Collie herd sheep, they are masters at managing space. Just close enough to move sheep away from them, and then jump back once the sheep get too close. They keep the correct distance with incredible speed and precision. So, if you move quickly towards them, they have a tendency to want to get away. Instead, back away from them and you can draw the dog to you.
Additionally, leaning over the top of dogs is a rude greeting. The body pressure is too much for some dogs, and they will lash out. I cringe and cannot watch the videos of this on social media, where an unsuspecting person greets a dog by leaning over or even hugging them. Unfortunately, this often leads to bites.
Instead, keep your posture upright and offer the back of your hand for a dog to sniff. If the dog is interested, then I pet them by placing my hand under their chin instead of coming over the top. Again, relieving any unnecessary body pressure.
Use Your Body as a Training Tool
Think of your body like a tool in your training toolbox. Use it with intention:
- Step into your dog to create a boundary
- Step back to invite them toward you
- Freeze when you want attention on you
- Point or look at items you want them to interact with
- Pause between verbal cues and body cues
Final Thoughts: Be Mindful, Not Robotic
You don’t need to move like a robot to train your dog well—but you do need to be mindful of your body language. Dogs are always watching, always interpreting. The more intentional you are, the clearer you’ll be—and the faster your dog will learn.
So next time you’re training, don’t just ask yourself, “What am I saying?”—ask, “What am I showing?”