Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2007 12:52 pm Post subject: whistle training
We've been thinking for a while about whistle training Charlie and have finally bought one this morning.
I'm going to get a book but meanwhile I would like to start on the recall. I know it's 3 short peeps but do I whistle first to get his attention and then shout Charlie come or to I call him first and then whistle?
The whistle (acme) was the best thing ever for Lucy's recall, she responds much better to it than "LUCY COME"!!!
This is how i started using it, used to get Lucy sitting in front of me do 3 pips and then treat and 'good girl'. Simle as that. Do this every day for about two weeks. Maybe for a few mintues a day. You can also do 3 pips when you are about to give Charlie his Food, then put the food down and say good boy.
Then after that try it out while he is off lead in the park, do 3 short pips and he should return!
This is exactly what i did, they soon learn that the 3 pips means tasty treat!
Just a note you do not have to use 3 pips for recall, its just what some have suggested. I stuck with 3 pips just because it was what every one else did.
Is the whistle an acme?
As i started using a silent whistle before the acme and it didn't as well, she tended to ignore it!
But the acme has been great so far!
Ermmmm I don't know if I did it the right way, but I just got the dogs to associate the whistle with food. So with Oyster as a pup, I would sit her up then put her bowl down and 3 peep my whistle as a "Go eat it" comand. Then as we moved outside as she was coming towards me I would 3 peep and offer her a nice treat.....TBH Mojo just caught on by watching Oyster....and Tara is as deaf as a post so she just comes because the others do.
Now I just 3 peep and they come running (well most of the time ).
It is very easy to teach a dog to obey a whistle, in fact many dogs are more responsive to a whistle than to voice. The whistles used by gundog trainers most commonly are the acme 210.5 and the acme 211.5 It is a matter of personal preference, on sounds a little more shrill than the other. You can buy them, and a lanyard to hang them round your neck, from all good gunshops and from The Gundog Club (and other gundog) websites.
Start teaching the recall whistle by blowing it when the dog is already racing towards you (call him/run away from him). For the first few weeks never use the whistle when the dog is distracted as you want to link the act of running towards you very strongly with the whistle. The standard recall is a string of rapid pips…..pip.pip.pip.pip.pip; Dogs seem to find this easy to hear and pinpoint. Praise as usual when the dog arrives. A tasty treat every now and then will help make him think the whistle is a really good idea.
You don’t need a separate whistle for sit. The sit command is a single long blast. Start with the dog at your side and tell him to sit, followed immediately by the sit whistle. After a few session with lots of repetition, you will be able to try the whistle on its own. Dogs pick this up very easily.
Teaching a dog to sit at a distance is a progression of this and needs to be done in a logical manner. Post up if you want someone to explain.
We bought the acme 211.5 as I remember seeing on LF that it was the one most people use.
I've used it a few times in the garden and the house today and he already gets really excited when he hears it and can't get to me fast enough. I'm going to take it with me on a walk tomorrow and we'll probably go somewhere quiet and practice with it but not use it around other dogs for a while until he's really used to it.
I really hope he carries on getting excited about it lol
I use a whistle with Carrum and it much more effective than me shouting after him, he'll stop dead in the middle of a full throttle run towards other dogs, mind it helps that he gets a peice of carrot on return!
Its one of the best things we did Wendy, much better than "come" and consistent too (although Danny is still not perfect with it)... I used the technique described on Sheens' post - but have only just started the sit/stop whistle today (after our first gundog training session!)
I think Chas will get to grips quite quickly with it...
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