Never give up on your dog

I think it's quite common to teach them tricks in a combination of sign language and words though. Like: one finger up = sit

I've never seen that before.

It's how I taught my cat commandos :D

That's awesome. I always thought animals have a more auditive memory/response to commands. But I guess it makes sense that they watch gestures, after all we often open our hand when say "paw" and do a downwards motion for "sit" or "lie down" command without realizing it. I even taught my grandma's dog to put her paws up at a gun-like gesture and I don't even have to say "hands up" anymore. Then again the dog only does it when she knows there's food to be given, that little clever bastard.