Whistle training

Sometimes if they are deep in an activey they may not have heard the command or heard the whistle. Just like children and men

Make sure when you give the command that Obi is not too distracted (easier said than done). You're almost looking out for a head lift or head turn.

Millie was doing really well with 'come' but recently has got a bit lax. So I took it back a step or two. I'd stopped using the clicker as she'd grasped the command, but I reintroduced it for a day. I also called her back at easy times when she wasn't too far away ro remind her that 'come' is a nice thing to do. I have to say though, sometimes if she is totally ingrossed in a game of play with another dog who has really taken her fancy, all commands are gone! I simply have to go and get her but that doesn't happen to often. She is only a puppy and still learning.

I use a whistle with Flo but like Julie says sometimes she is so distracted she doesn't hear it so I make another unusual sound to get her attention then when I have her attention use the whistle.

When you are first whistle training only use it when you are pretty sure he'll come otherwise you are teaching him not to come when called and also whistle when he is on his way back so he knows whistle means come back - praise when he gets to you. It's only when they are well trained and more mature that you can rely on the whistle recall to work whatever the situation so don't expect too much too soon.

In this movie you can see her pretty much ignoring the whistle (by rights I wouldn't have used the whistle at this point as I know she won't respond) but once I have her attention with a silly noise she will happily return to the whistle.

http://s1217.photobucket.com/albums...losmovies/?action=view&current=Flowhistle.mp4

At 18 months she's pretty reliable at recall with the whistle and I usually use it to call her when she's disappeared off over the fields. I generally use COME ON for 'keep up or walk with me', HERE for 'come to me now' and the whistle when she is at a distance.

Whether you use a whistle, verbal or signal command, there's one golden rule, which is simply make sure you know your dog will respond. If you think they won't, don't issue the command, otherwise the only thing they learn is that they can ignore you, and over a series of this repeated type of exercise, they learn how long they can ignore you for.

A very good gundog saying, if you can't control your dog on lead and next to you, what hope have you got with your dog 50 yards away.

Another very good gundog saying, Labradors are born half trained, spaniels die half trained - bearing in mind the cocker part of a cockapoo, and how they like to get their nose down, you can see what a challenging little dog they are likely to be.

The only thing I focus on with training up until six months of age, is the recall, for 90% and heelwork/stop whistle for 10%. Recall is paramount, if you can get them wanting to come to you and focussed on you, then you've won more than half the battle.

If I get chance I'll dig out some videos of whistle training with my Labs, Tau's not bad, she'll stop and redirect from quite a distance, and hunt on command. Indie's a bit more of a giddy kipper, but she was working trials trained rather than gundog trained. So she could track you across a field, but not necessarily retrieve you, chuckle

Jedicrazy said:

Obi does like to keep his nose to the ground. Thanks

Click to expand...

It is part of the cocker trait, they are bred to be nose down and 'busy', like a weasel, the way they hunt up and flush game.

Hopefully, these are video clips of me training my dogs, I hope they work. The classic is, if you recall with no signals or verbal commands do they respond, so mine are trained to recall, stop, recall, stop etc, to try and enforce or ingrain this

Right, first video is both the girls, doing a sit, and recall....



And the classic handler/trainer error, how to set out a blind retrieve in the wrong place and have to redirect your dog on to it...



Hope that's worked right!

Any questions about the way cockers work, whistle training, please shout, I'm rubbish but I can ask the OH