Major taboos, right or wrongs on whistle "technique" ????

Going to start training the little man to a whistle, two reasons he,s becoming more confident and putting distance between us on walks, hedgerows and undergrowth are becoming a major attraction this is fine as there are no recall issues he comes when asked, distance recall is ok if he can see me he know arms outstretched means come here, but in bad weather (wind) and out of sight I need to be confident he can hear recall

The other thing is we will be going beating next season, and I dont want to be screaming at the top of my voice to get him to stay or stop...

I have a plan in mind of calls for stop/stay left right and recall, are there any whistle calls that are not acceptable or any that are standard when working a line ??

Just starting in this myself and from what I read the "usual" whistle commands are single blast for stop and a series of "pips" for the recall, I have read that you can use 2 "pips" for direction. The whistle commands can be accompanied with hand signals ie for direction: single blast (stop/sit) and cast arm in required direction or for a stop and sit: single blast and hold up open flat palm of the hand.

The only problem is all these signals and commands have to be taught and associated with the desired behaviour......unfortunately I am not aware of any dog that seems to instinctively know what the blooming whistle is for my three certainly don't and I suppose because of this if you choose a whistle command or signal and then get the dog to associate a certain behaviour that "you" want and the dog is under your control then that must be ok....I'm not sure if you deviate a little from the norm whether or not you'll be frowned upon though....perhaps the more experienced will let us know

Sounds good about going beating next season.....do you go often?

Steve

How do you get them to pay attention to the whistle? Buddy doesn't care one bit about the whistle, he doesn't even look to where it's coming from How can i get him interested? It's something i've wanted to do with him for a while but when i couldn't get him interested i suppose i just gave up Cause i've never trained a dog to a whistle so didn't really know where to start.
Hope someone on here can help
Sorry to boycott your post, but surely there's someone out there who can help us all *fingers crossed*

Very basically....try and include the whistle signal to a command.

If you "play" recall in the garden or in the house as well as saying "here" give a gentle series of pips on the whistle.....reward the dog for coming to you after doing this for a few days try using just the whistle. For the stop you just add a gentle single blast on the whistle to your sit command, again reward the dog for complying and after a while try just the whistle signal.

There have been a few very helpful posts on this before.

We're also working our way through whistle training too so I will be watching for the replies

Steve

We started Brodie off in the living room with giving him a treat when we blew the whistle and and told me to come here.

We then practiced this in the garden for a week.

Then when we felt confident enough we started using the whistle when he was off lead on walks. He got a treat each time he returned to the whistle.

Then the treats stopped and now he just gets praise.

I only use the whistle for recall and never let him go out of sight in the woods for more than a minute.

I like the acme gun dog whistle that Freya sells. Those cheap silver ones in the pet shop are rubbish, fall to bits, and are not loud enough.

I had the dogs beside me blew the recall whistle (that I would use) and gave them a treat - Did this about 5 times twice a day for 2 days

Then when they were in another room i blew the whistle and they came running (got a treat) did this for 2 days

Then took it out in the garden etc etc

(must work on mine as when out and about they come with in sight and say what and off they go to play again - my fault tho for accepting this )

Don't use a thunderer! There was a bloke on a shoot we used to go to who used a thunderer. He only used it when his quieter whistle didn't work - which was often! All you could hear through the drive, was him blowing his blasted thunderer!

I read that method somewhere and it's interesting to know it works. I seem to think it was in a clicker book?

I just train the recall to whistle by blowing it when they are coming towards me, they then get a treat.

Helen

There are a number of ways to introduce the whistle.

One way is with food - so prepare the dogs dinner with them shut out, put food down then blow whistle and as they know what you were doing they hurtle to food at the whistle.

Keep that going for a week or so initially calling from one room to the other and then calling from garden to house.

Another way with a dog that is already reliable on a verbal recall. Pip whistle with whatever signal you want, then immediately call the dog with your original cue (come, here or whatever) and as the dog is running towards you keep on pipping that recall whistle command. Huge fuss and tasty treat when dog arrives.

If the dog fails to respond don't keep pipping the whistle btw - all you are teaching it is that it is ok to ignore the whistle. So either collect dog or call it with the normal signal.

It usually doesn't take them long - Mugi picked it up quickly but then got confused as to which was his whistle and which was Dexters - Debbie uses a different pitch whistle. He soon learned to distinguish though once he only got treated to my pitch whistle , he sometimes tries it on and as an old lad he often now cadges a treat by looking cute .

Get one whistle command really solid before trying to move onto the next.

I have gone from recall to stop and now am starting with directionals for Chase. Mugi just does recall and sometimes stop .

Thanks for that, got the no thunderer message, Steve havent been beating before been invited to go next season by a girl at work who,s father in law is in charge of the shoot

I trained under R and H

Added a fun bit too.

When they got the recall bit or the coming back to it but thunder past, I would switch direction, act the loon and pip as they returned. They got giddy, I got dizzy

One other tip, is when you have it, use it or lose it and I use a "this way" for less nagging. The whistle is a "HERE NOW"

I use an 11.5

Oh and I trained them to the whistle for the same reasons as you, plus OH can't whistle

hi walkingmate2 karl here.

what we do is when pups are very young we bang the food dish for the pups as we give them there food ,we then after thay start to come running for food we blow the whistle...(we use two pips ) all the pups soon get the idea that the whistle means food is on its way..

i know its abit late for this but you could try this as you feed your dog he/she will soon know two pips means food....!!

The only thing i will say is that on jakes 1st shoot he just ran round chaseing the other dogs...!And when he did find game that was it he was off...!! and would the oops come back.I think that a bit off work on stop and come back on live game would help you.,after all the last thing you want is being told off for the dog going into the next drive....!!!!!

I use 2 pips for comeback..

1 soft pip for stop/sit and a hard blow if hi sticks 2 fingers up at that one ...!! it took a long time but he is ok at them now...

must say that rabbitts r a oops on a shoot and if your dog is not going to stop/come back it will poss be this that he/she will mess up on i found it very hard to stop him on this...oops...!!! Trust me he/she is bound to find one...!!!
on a shoot.

As for hand signals/turn pips i think it depends on the shoot....eg the ones i work on have very heavy cover so you carnt see the dog anyway...if you have one with open space then thats diff...i use 2 pips and a hand signal for left or right..i personaly do not think that turn signals on dogs 1st beating day is worth it recall and stop would be 1st on my list...then progress onto turns

I thinks that most of all enjoy the day and if he/she has a bad day then try not to feel bad we all had to start at some point the more you do it the better he/she will get....just make everyone aware its the dogs 1st time out...it goes a long way i think + you may get ome tips off other beaters...

One last thing sorry for going on how old is your dog and how is he to gun fire???
Its poss this could have an effect on the dog to what with all the other fun going off!!!

Good luck and have fun ....And pls if you have a bad day just keep going it will all come good in the end.you are vital in keeping the sport going,and what your dog loves!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! doing..

Hi
Karl the pups just short of nine months he will be 15 months when the seasons starts, the plan is to familarise him from August, the girl at work will introduce us to her F-I-L who,s the shoots gamekeeper, see how he goes with the "bangs" but theres nothing to indicate he is overley timid

I have nothing to justify this ,,, but he appears to have a natural nose and works well in undergrowth hedgerows and copse,s he has put up a few phessies and once up he just stands and points, he does this I havent trained him

The beating thing is just taking the opportunity of a days in the country which I feel he/we will enjoy, the girl at work said that most shoots are desperate for beaters.

Cheers WM2

I have the advatage here as a breeder all my puppies know the recall before they leave us at 8 weeks.

We use 4 quick pips and then give them their dinner ( easy peesy when your a puppy and your whole world revolves around food )

1 long blast for sit in the distance and a short one for when they are by my side

2 pips for the turn

They are given all the whistles right from the word go ( as soon as they are allowed out )

We teach whistle followed by the command then the physical action.

For example Blow the sit whisle then say sit then put them into the sit you know push the bum down ect.

You're doing well if you can get a stop on flush.....because of my allowing too much free running I have three chasers excellent in any cover and if there's a phessie about they nearly always find it and put it up but stopping arghh no not at the moment



Just thought there is a whistle that is fast becoming bad form....................................






The "wolf whistle"............so we're being told

Steve