Whistle training

Hi All.

Looking into whistle training...I've heard ACME are a good make....do we agree or disagree?

And there seems to be different 'tones / pitches' ... which one is best to get for my pup?

Thanks in advance

Whistle training is really easy and enjoyable as most dogs pick it up so easily. I simply bought a whistle from my local pet shop (petsmart do the aswell). I don't think the tone really matters but to make it unique to you, just blow a certain noise, i.e. 2, 3 or four whistles, or short and long noises etc.
I started by waiting until my dogs were relaxed in a room and then from another room I would blow the whistle, which of course made them come rushing to see what it was. I then immediately praised them and gave them a treat. They soon picked it up.
Have fun and its a really useful training aid, because a whistle can be heard from far further away than a voice.

Ahh brilliant, thank you! I will have to pop into P@H over the weekend I think!

Well yes, Bella can get distracted, and we have slacked slightly on recall. So I'm hoping, when I'm re-introducing it, adding a whistle now should be the perfect time.

My OH also lacks confidence with Bella off lead, so I'm hoping getting a recall to a whistle will mean she will come to all of us

Thanks! x

I am inclined to buy a whistle. I was whistling normally in the lounge last night and Bella was so reactive to it made me think she would be receptive to recall training with a proper whistle, be interested to see how you get on

2 tonned whistles are good,especially if you want to use a whistle for more than one command,but a whistle with only one tone can be just as good.
I have a whistle for my beagle and he responds well to it,but it still takes time and effort(i am still working on recall).
When it comes to training it cant really be simpler,but that doesn't mean easy.
Firstly you need to accustom your dog to the whistle meaning come to me and good things happen and what better time to do this than dinner time!
Go out and make up your dogs dinner and blow the whistle and as soon as she comes put the food on the floor for her to eat up. It doesn't matter at this point if she is next to you or in a different room,its just the concept we want her to learn,that when she hears the whistle good things follow. Do this anytime you are going to feed her and she will soon catch on.After a week of doing this she should have learned the following,
- the whistle means come and something good will follow
- to come when shes doing something else
- to come if she is sleeping
- to come if she is out of sight
- to come even if she is with somebody else

Once that is established in the house then you can move it out into the garden and start again,this time use her dinner but split in into about 10 portions(20 would be better) and call you her name in a happy voice,bend down and blow the whistle. As soon as she reaches you praise her,smile at her and stroke her then give her 1 portion of food,but it must be done in that order,that way she will learn not just to come for food,but also for affection.
If she doesn't come make a big deal out of it and put the portion of food she could have gotten into the bin(or in her dog food bag) She needs to learn that there will be bad consequences to her actions as well as good ones,in this case she misses out on some of her dinner.
Continue doing this until she comes 9/10 times and then make it more difficult by adding a distraction like another person and then a dog etc. When she comes with all of that you can move into a field or forest on a long line,but the line is only in case you cant get her back.Do the same as i outlined above.
If you follow that then you should have a pretty good come!
Another thing you could do to further improve your dogs understanding of the whistle is to do restrained recalls.For this you will need a helper,a toy,your whistle and a harness if you have one.(it make it more comfortable for the dog)
Now have your helper hold your dog while you get her all excited and then your helper should walk back with your dog until they are about 20ft away from you. You should hide the toy behind your back and call your dogs name and then whistle and your helper should let go of your dog. You need to praise her all the way in an excited voice and when she gets to you throw the toy or play a game of tug for 30 seconds. One 5 minute session should be enough to get 2 or 3 recalls. Never train for over 5 minutes or you might bore your dog. Do about 2 or 3 sessions a day. Eventually you will be able to add distractions like other people and dogs but that requires some extra bits,and this comment is long enough as it is.

Oh and just to add,the signal for come should be a long solid blow of the whistle. Then in the future you can teach things like 'stop' and use 2 short blows to signal this if you like. If you want a good article on come then i can definitely recommend John Rogerson's 'the Dog Vinci Code',it is excellent and is what i would call the ultimate recall!!! It also has lots of other great things in the book and is definitely worth a read.

A whistle is only as good as the training you`ve done for it.
If your recall is iffy, start training it again using the whistle.

I bought the Acme sheepdog whistle - After having to watch various videos on how to get any sound out of the bladdy thing It works a treat, you can make it do various sounds (unlike a normal whistle) bit like you can when using your fingers

My dogs respond to it better than voice especially at a distance, they're now also learning the gundog sounds too of teo pips for recall courtesy of us training Lily I'm gonna have multilingual dogs at this rate

I train my dogs to recall on

Hand signal
verbal
whistle

Because you need to use the right one in the correct context

Once you have the verbal cue introduce the whistle BEFORE the verbal cue, wait a second and then use your verbal cue.

Soon your dog will anticipate that you are going to say "come" and will recall to the whistle.

This is why you ALWAYS introduce the UNKNOWN cue prior to the KNOWN cue.

Whistles are not "magic" but they have some advantages over the spoken word.

They carry further, they always sound the same, and best of all, if the dog disobeys at least you have not broadcast the fact to all and sundry!

It matters not that type of whistle you use, or pitch, use what YOU are comfortable with.

I teach whistle recall in my classes. We use Acme gundog whistles.
We spend two or three weeks simply conditioning it before we use it as a recall cue. Lots and lots of pip/treat in every environment.
It's effective especially for dogs over 18 months old. It improves every dog's recall but occasionally, despite heavy conditioning, environmental drift will trump it!