Whistle training ??

**voodoolizard** · 04-03-2008, 06:08 PM

at the pet shop today to buy food, and spotted a silent dog whistle, it was only £2 so thought id have a play.

zeus is crap at recall.. total no interest at all.

got home and waited till they were outside, did the whistle and the both came running like mad !! got a treat and a big fuss..

had a day off work so thought id keep going, i hid behind trees in the garden, near the chickens, in another room etc.. blew the whistle dogs came !! treat etc..

gonna keep doing this every day, as im hopeing it will help with his recall !!

any ideas if i should try anything else ?? or is what im doing ok ??

has anyone else used a whistle ??

ta

dobegal · 04-03-2008, 06:16 PM

Let me know if this continues. I also see them at the counters and wanted to try. We sometimes have ADD when it comes to recall.

**sebsyd** · 04-03-2008, 07:06 PM

I agree, let us know in about a week if things are still going strong. A whistle that is silent is better than shouting out the dogs name at the top of your lungs!

**berkshire** · 04-03-2008, 07:38 PM

My dad trains his pointers with whistles (not the silent variety, though). They range so far while hunting that he can't always be heard. He uses two whistle commands. "Toot toot toot" for come, and "Tooooooot" for stop where you are and look at me. It's great - we've never had to question whether the dogs didn't hear us, just whether they were ignoring us.

**MIA** · 04-03-2008, 08:19 PM

Silent my butt! LOL I can hear them! I use different whistles for Mocha but I have a loud whistle all on my own and use my own talents to call her, works great!

LPacker79 · 04-04-2008, 08:38 AM

I've never used them, but I did talk with a woman the day before yesterday who bought our entire supply of them. She was sending them to her nephew in Iraq, as apparently there's a wild dog problem where he's at and the whistles deter them from coming too close.

That's the exact opposite from your experience for sure!

**voodoolizard** · 04-04-2008, 12:01 PM

Update, day 2.

Went for an off leash walk today over the local fields, we have only done this a few times and normally its luck if zeus comes back if we calll him ,we normally grab as he runs past when we need to put him on his lead again.

in the field doin zoomies, i belt the whistle and arms open, they came back !! treats and hugs..

in all i did this 3 times and every time it worked.

i will say that if someone or another dog had been around i would not have stood a chance LOL

but at least its geting better !

so ill keep working and update you soon X

**K9Jarko** · 04-04-2008, 12:42 PM

I use a whistle in lieu of a verbal recall and down guard command for French Ring - although the whistle I use is an audible one (Fox). When I began teaching with the whistle, I kinda taught it like you would using verbal and hand signal - paired the two together - then slowly removed the verbal (as you can't use BOTH for FR - only verbal or whistle).

Sounds like you and your dog are comming along pretty good using the whistle. Keep us updated please.