Recall Whistle Training

Hellloo!!

Am in the process of training Misty, and we are now at the point that whistle training needs to begin!

Was just wondering how anyone else might go about it!!


Sarah xxx

I whistle with my fingers in my mouth.

Works better with Jess than verbal recall.

If I could do that, I would! lol!

She's really good at verbal recall, but a whistle is louder than I can shout! If I wasn't going to work her, I wouldn't bother, but it will be easier on a shoot day when the wind is blowing and its chucking it down with rain! And the whistle doesnt bother the birds as much as me shouting would!!

Sarah xx

This is how i did it, start off in the house call her and as she is coming towards you blow the whistle 3 pips is generally recall and treat, do this untill she is coming to 3 pips no matter where you are in the house Move on to doing the same in the garden, and then eventually on walks, to start with only blow the whistle when she is coming towards you.

I will be honest, all ours are trained to the whistle, but we don't tend to use them when we are beating, because there are far too many whistles going off, in theory unless you are picking up, when working she shouldn't be far enough away from you that you couldn't call her

I use an Acme whistle. The accepted signal for recall is 3 short toots.
I train to the whistle like this-
start in the house. Every time your dog comes to you, whistle and treat. Do the same thing on walks. The whistle/come/treat all need to be together at first.
When she gets the idea, start close to her or when she`s already coming to you, put it in a more formal order - whistle, she comes, she is rewarded. Rewards should be high value.
Try to do this lots and lots, at intervals, rather than in one long session. Do it in different situations.
The object is to provoke an automatic response - hear whistle, salivate, gotta get the reward.
Never use the whistle when there is any chance the dog won`t come back. This will break the conditioning.

When you buy a whistle make sure you buy several of the same picth and keep a note of which one you have incase you lose one and then end up buying the wrong pitch and your dog stops responding!
Becky

Acme 210.5 seems to be the standard spaniel whistle. I bought 5 last time, now down to 2 , always keep one on the key ring. They do a pink one, double the price, but with a donation to Breast Cancer.

If you already have a reliable recall with voice or hand signals, tagging the whistle onto these commands should be quite easy. But its worth getting right – so only whistle when you know you’ll get a result – starting indoors is good advice.

I am a huige believer in whistles. And train differently to most.

I attempt to incite as many insitncts withint eh dog as possible to ensure a speedy determined recall. Liek this.

Get someone to hold the dog or somehow distance yourself slightly from your dog, but when the dog is not otherwise distracted.

Blow your intended recall signal. Run like ******y, your dog will chase you, when he arrives, praise enormously (without touching your dog) have either a massive high energy game of tug, or give a huge number of rewards thrown eratically all oce the floor.

Repeat umpteen times.

The whistle signal comes to mean this. I am ABOUT to leave you, at high spedd (pack instinct is incited), I am about to run and become a very interesting prey animal (predatory instinct is incited), when the dog catches you the game of tug (kill) and or the food (comsume) are natural follow ons to any chase procedure.

The natural motor pattern sequence in most dogs is some variatoon (and breeds differ) of orient, eye, stalk, chase, grab, bite, kill, consume. These are inbuilt drives which the dog is driven by, and which need to occur in sequence if they are to be full activated.

The problem with just whistling when your dog comes as in previous posts, in my view, and im always open to being told Im wrong, is that that process misses one of the primary and most easily trained motor patterns out. The chase. A hugely motivating and deeply inbuilt desire within MOST dogs.

Some dogs for instance wont bite or kill or comsume unles they have chased first. Some dogs wont consume unless they have bitten and killed. Its an inbuilt process which I feel should be utilised and exploited to the full to bring about a brilliantly responsive, fulfilled and happy dog.

When trainign gundogs or sheepdogs, the inbuilt motor pattersn sequence is deliberatly altered. Dogs which retrieve, or herd, or flush, are using different parts of the sequence, deliberatly stilted by training. With pet dogs whose recall is pf paramount importance, then personally, I go for getting the best out of the whole sequence.

Good luck with your whistle training.

I've got a pink one!! And a pink lanyard thing!! Am in the process of tracking down a pink slip lead, then I'll ready for shooting season!!
I've got a 211.5, because my boyfriend has a 210.5, a friend recommeded that we have different pitches, because normally, I'm his 'right hand man' in the line and the dogs might get confused if we have the same pitch. And we are both able to work our springer, so we don't want to confuse her if we are both blowing whistles!

She's okay in the house, and garden, haven't started in the field yet, because of the sheep! Once they have moved we'll be going out there. She has also been 'watching' Gracie an awful lot, so she understands what it means!

Sarah xx

I`ve got the fluorescent orange because I keep losing the dratted thing.

I pay a local gamekeeper, feild trial judge and trainer £70 a week boarding and training fees to do the job for me! Hopefully my ESS will be back from dog borstal in about 3 months fully trained and responsive to the whistle. He recommended that I purchase an Acme whistle at 210.5 pitch. At the time he said that there can be a field full of handlers with the same pitch but by the way you blow it, your dog will always be able to pick out which whistle is yours. I agree that 210.5 is a fairly standard pitch for spaniels. Lovin' the idea of the pink one! Must google that!
Zoe

Does this really work?

Also, does this mean you have to do this whole sequence every time you blow the whistle wanting him to come back, or can you just blow the whistle on it's own after you have performed this sequence a few times?

Sorry if I sound stupid!

We are trying to teach our dog to come to a couple of peeps from a whistle and it's working about 98% of the time, unless he's distracted by another dog, or he's chasing something. Then he doesn't take any notice of the whistle, us calling etc. We really want to let him off the lead, but his recall is just not good enough at the minute. :-(

No offence but training a working dog is all about working as a team and the handler must know what they are doing as well as the dog. My dog trusts me to direct him correctly to a dummy if he is struggling. He knows he can trust me because we've worked at this together and i've never let him down - the dummy has always been where i've directed him. He knows my commands and he knows the exact inflections on the whistle.

I dont see how you can get the connection you need if somebody else trains your dog for you :?

Misty took to the whistle quite well, and we successfully completed a shooting season with no major hiccups!

She was quicker to learn the stop whistle, but recalls and stops quite well on the whistle, considering she is my first gundog and I didn't really have a clue, just going on the advice from more experienced friends.

x

I've got a pale green ACME on a pink lynyard and a florecent pink slip lead.
I also have a black whistle on a black lynyard and a boring dark green slip lead if I need to be taken seriously

I've got the pink acme whistle, and pink lanyard from Black Gundog. I've got a pink slip lead too! I like to add a bit of colour to a shoot day! Am still trying to convince OH to let me have pink breek socks, so that I am all pink!

My lynyards are Black Gundog too.

They do the pink ACME's for Breast cancer but, they are £11 !!!!!!!!!

How old's your pup?

Unless you've got an automatic door opener, kennel opener, or someone else helping you, I'd find it impossible to prepare food and then whistle them from a distance, as I've got to open the kennel door they are there with me, so I can hardly recall them from my ankles. If I've put the dishes down elsewhere, it's pointless me trying to recall them away from their meal, they just won't come.

I have two older dogs that come to the whistle, so when my two come running, the pups generally do, so I whistle once they're on their way to me, and lots of fuss. But I only do it a few times a day, I don't want to push my luck with them, it's about them getting it right, and not having an opportunity to learn to ignore commands.

My older 2 really helped when I was training Misty, they gave her the general idea of what to do when I blow the whistle, but I use a different pitch and peeping sequence to what OH uses for Gracie and Hamish. I also did a bit of retraining with Blade when I got him, and Grace and Hamish helped there too!

I didn't start my 'serious' whistle training with Misty until she was just under a year, and she wasn't completely whistle trained when I started taking her on shoot days, but she did stay on the lead more often than not, but that was more to do with me being paranoid that she will screw up a drive and I'll be banned from beating/picking up!!!

My GWP is a rescue and hard mouthed so shes no good on a shoot. I hunt her with lurchers and shes brilliant.
My pals lurcher trained up to the whistle really easily just hanging out with my Lottie.