How to train your dog to the stop whistle by Fran Ardley
Stop whistle training needs time and attention. It’s something that’s not always easy for the novice trainer to master, let alone the dog. But it’s worth persisting.
If you get the stop whistle right you will be able to control even the most wilful dog. If you don’t master it you could end up being seriously embarrassed by your dog’s behaviour and your failure to manage it.
You may also never get an invitation to that particular shoot again. (Read our FAQs on dog training with a whistle.)
One of the first things people train their puppy to do is to sit. A good way to do this is to lift a bowl slowly above the pup’s head at feed time – the bum can’t help but hit the floor. now introduce the verbal “sit!” command. Once the pup has cottoned on to that we follow it with a single short, sharp (not loud) blast on the whistle. Gradually the puppy connects the noise with the required behaviour which is to sit. This isn’t training, more like ‘conditioning’.
Why stop whistle training is so important
The stop whistle is the brake on your dog and when you use that single sharp blast the dog needs to respond immediately. It needs to stop running or hunting and preferably…
