Pets and Sign Language: YES!

As you probably know, pets give us a great deal of peace and joy every day. During these turbulent times, being with our pets is calming. How about learning the signs that they represent? We can also enjoy teaching them some signs too.

Cat - With one hand or two, pretend you are drawing whiskers onto your face.

Dog - Snap your fingers and pat your thigh.

Bird - Using your index and thumb in front of your mouth to simulate a beak opening and closing.

Frog - Drag your clawed index and middle fingers across and under your chin.

Horse - With two fingers, index and middle forked up and down at the ear level.

Mouse - Touch the tip of your nose with one finger with twitching tapping motion.

Rabbit- With two fingers, index and middle, pointing up on each side of head, like ears

Turtle - Put one hand cupped over the other, let the thumb pop out -like a little turtle head.

Now, that you know the signed names for your pets, how about teaching them some signs?

Some words that you might want to say to your pet might be:

Walk - With one arm stretched out across the body, have the other hand and fingers walk across that arm.

Stop - Open one palm and bring the other hand down across it in a cutting motion.

Come Here - With index fingers motion inward and downward

Eat - Fingertips of one hand to the mouth.

Let's Play - With the thumb and index finger up, wiggle the hand side to side

Sleep - Closing one hand down the front of the face and while closing the eyes.

Whether walking, playing, feeding or just watching your pet, treat then well and they will give your hours of enjoyment and of course, love you!

Download GraceSigns apps to learn more words and phrases in sign language. Share your new language with your

friends, family and pets.

And most important, have fun!

This post is lovingly dedicated to my sweet dog Jackson who passed away just four days after writing this post.

He was my devoted companion for 13 years.

Love on your pets every single day;

they are truly gifts from God.