Anybody Use A Whistle During Training?

[matt101 115]

Hello everyone,

 

Does anyone use a whistle when training your lurchers?

 

I bought a book called 'total recall' by pippa mattinson which focuses on building a very strong recall in lots of situations including those with distractions such as other dogs and new people. This book advises the use of a 'acme training whistle' but i was thinking that if im out with my lurcher it might be impractical to be whistling all the time, potentially scaring off quarry.

 

Any thoughts or past experiences with whistle training lurchers would be greatly appreciated. Any alternative thats are more practical to the lurcher enthusiast would be great too.

 

Im sure i saw a photo a few weeks ago of someone out with there lurchers and they had a couple of whistles around there neck???

 

 

Thanks

 

Matt101

[Chid 6,551]

yes both my dogs were trained to sit and come in on the whistle , i say were as i havent kept up with the sitting on the whistle ,

you dont need to have the dog doing everything on the whistle all the time , i use hand signals as well ..

 

and you'd be surprised how little the quarry is scared by a whistle going off

[BIGLURKS 874]

I do it with every dog I also click my fingers when training basic commands also train when to run with a hiss but I don't go overboard or train like I would a sheep dog though

[foresterj 1,096]

I've trained to the whistle for the last 25 year, not like using it for a gundog.+ older they get less they need it.weigh the pro's and cons between a single whistle or standing shouting a name.

[matt101 115]

Thanks for the comments everyone. Yeh now i think about it a whistle is a lot more inconspicuous than a human voice! Ok well that is good news as the benefits of the whistle mentioned in the book did seem to mount up (travels farther than voice, more consistent, does not convey as much emotion as voice etc.) i was just trying to think in terms of working lurchers when your out at night lamping etc and the whistle would be very obvious.

[BORDERSCOT 3,816]

Use my mouth - two tone whistle for recall...all my dogs come to same two tones...and a long single tone for stay...keep it simple...

[Big bald beautiful 1,231]

Lurchers yes, and hand signals.

My old Plummer dog would respond to a whistle but then he didn't ever bugger off.

[Ideation 8,216]

My lot regularly disappear out of sight. The whistle is a lot better (for a whole host of reasons) than standing in a forest shouting.

 

Edited to add - Not sure if it was me with the two whistles, but I use different ones for different dogs. Now, they pretty much ignore both equally At least when game is afoot, however, when in the mood, they respond better to their own whistles (in theory) allowing me to call in one dog and leave the other hunting. Which has its uses at times.

Edited May 25, 2013 by Ideation

[my hounds 309]

If you decide to have a whistle go onto the "acme" site look on dog training,with the acme sonic working dog whistle you can hear the different pitches,have your dog near the computer and see which of the different pitches he responds to best,hope this helps.