Advice on whistle training?

At the moment, all I am using a whistle for is recall, but I would like to try other stuff with Jake.

For recall I am giving two blasts. I also put my hand up to the side, then bring it down in front of me when he is getting close.

Now, though I say it myself, Jake is fantastic at this, even if he is running the other way he immediately turns and flies at me However, because he IS so good, I am a bit wary about confusing him. For instance, if I wanted him to wait for 1 blast, and he ran at me. Much as I'd like to do more, I don't wont the recall to suffer.

I hope that made sense.

Hmmm - I'm quite new at it and I'm still trying to work out whether Louie comes better to a long blow or two pips.

I know Leanne has her's trained to come at 3 pips, and I believe 2 pips is "This way" and a slow blow means sit for Flynn - he's brilliant at it - I was in awe!

At first I didn't want Louie to do anything other than come to the whistle - so I've ruined it and am now paying the price and going back to re training it.

What you could try is getting someone else to command him the wait and have you blow the whistle - so he partners the command to the whistle - I'm not sure if it would work but it worth a try if no one else has any suggestions.

Good luck

I do a whistle for Stop!. That`s useful in lots of situations. I use one short blast and a raised hand. I expect the dog to sit and stay, watching me. Down stay is good too. I just want the dog to remain still.
I train the dog to sit to the whistle (I use hand signals as well as voice so it doesn`t take long for them to get it with just hand signal + whistle).
Then I do it when they are a few paces away, then moving. I find a really good wheeze is to pretend to throw a ball, then when they spin round and glare at me, do the Stop then.
It`s good for the end of a send away as well.

btw the reward I use is the toy - usually I throw the ball as a reward.

One long blast on the whistle (and a raised hand) for Flynn means stop (and preferably sit but he isnt a natural sitter and doesnt always do it but stopping is good enough for me so I dont force the issue if I dont need a sit).

I started off by sitting him on the whistle when he was next to me. A good way to do it is to walk with the dog in the heel position and blow the stop whistle. As soon as you do you then stop, hopefully the dog stops with you and you follow that up with the sit command.

Of course, it's one thing for the dog to sit on the whistle if it's already stationary but it's another thing if you want the dog to stop and sit whilst it's running! It took a long time for Flynn to realise I wanted him to stop and sit as soon as he heard the whistle, no matter where he was. He had a tendency to run back to me and then sit but that was my own fault for being impatient and missing out some crucial steps.

A 'turn' whistle is useful and not only for hunting breeds. It's mainly used if a dog is quartering and it's perhaps ranged too far and you want it to turn back across the pattern. I do find it very useful if Flynn is heading in a direction that might not be safe, perhaps towards a train line or a road. I dont need to recall him but I do want him to change direction so he's moving back to safety so I just pip the whistle twice and he does an almost 180 degree turn. I started off training that by changing direction myself, pipping the whistle and saying "this way!" The breed of dog I have will naturally continue to run past me once he's caught up with me so I change direction again and do the same thing.

To make a clear distinction between the turn whistle and the recall whistle I use around 7 pips for a recall but as long as it's 3 or more he understands what I want.

To help avoid the dog getting confused, only reward for the behaviour you want. If you blow the stop whistle and it comes running back to you dont reward that, dont even acknowledge it. If it comes back to the recall whistle fantastically then give lots of reward. A dog should soon give up any behaviours that arent rewarding for it. However, if you start training the stop whistle from the very start and dont miss out steps (like I did!) then the dog shouldnt get confused.

IT matters NOT what type of whistle you use or how many pips you use.

There will be people who say "these are the rules" but there are not any, just common practice.

I NEVER use hand signals with a whistle for a recall or a stop, as it is not necessary. My dogs are trained to come and stop with a whistle OR voice OR hand signal, depending on the context.

So, what signals you choose to give your dogs is entirely up to you.

My dogs do a slow and a fast recall, a stop, a left and a right to the whistle. But for pet purposes you only need a stop and a recall.

So the choice is yours.

I was taught to use hand signals in conjunction with voice by an ex-army handler. He used them for covert work. I find them useful in many situations. I also find it keeps the dog`s attention on you.

I use a long blast for a stop and two short for turning while quartering----mainly because that is what the gundog man uses with his.

I don't use it for a recall.

I am not going to use it for the ball herding either as I can see one of us getting confused! Word and arm signal will have to do for that.

rune

I was taught to use hand signals in conjunction with voice by an ex-army handler. He used them for covert work. I find them useful in many situations. I also find it keeps the dog`s attention on you.

You would NEVER use a whistle in covert work for fairly obvious reasons.................... !

I doin't want my dog's attention on me when it is going AWAY from me left or right, it should be looking where it is going, not keep looking at me for a hand signal, that is the whole point of whistles, they can keep on going in a straight line until they HEAR the command!

I want my dog to pay attention to going where it should be going, in a straight line, not coming off it to look round to see what my hands are saying!

Thank you all for your replies.

SB, I can understand what you are saying about hand signals. When training for something new with a whistle, would you use voice commands to begin with, and if so, before or after the whistle? (Presuming it is a command they already know of course.)

With the recall, I already used to put my arm up when calling him, so he kind of grasped that really quickly.

When you want to introduce a new cue for an exercise you always use new cue, wait a second and then old cue ie:

Whistle, wait, then say "come".

This means that your dog will quickly learn to ANTICIPATE that the next thing that happens after the whistle is the command to recall. This speeds up association.

You should NEVER do two at once ie hand signal AND whistle, or hand signal AND voice; as the dog obeys body language much more often than what it HEARS, and this is where people make mistakes.

You test dogs knowledge by using the verbal and whistle cues out of sight, if the dog does not respond, then you know it is obedient to the laws of learning, ie it is cued by BODY language!

Hope that makes sense.

So if you want to introduce a hand signal, you follow the same process.

Hand signal, wait a second, call come etc.

Then you have a dog that will respond to hand signals, verbal cues and whistle cues equally!