Whistle recall incident.

[Slubberdegullion]

I've been really pleased with how well the new puppy (now 4 months) is doing with recall. Recall to name is pretty good, recall with the whistle though is fantastic. She will come back to me from anything (people, other dogs, a game, even her dinner ) to the whistle.

Was out on a walk today with a friend who by chance uses the same ACME whistle as me to recall her dog.

It never even crossed my mind that this might be an issue.

We'd just crossed over a bridge of a usually quite quiet river - now rather swollen and fast flowing with all the recent rain.

Elsie was walking to heel (off lead) when my friend had to double back over the bridge to get her dog and she whistled for her.

It was one of those slow-mo moments when you drop a glass but can't do anything to stop what's about to happen.

Puppy crashed through the undergrowth to recall to my friend's whistle and leapt straight into the river.

Thank God puppy is a pretty good swimmer already and kept herself afloat as she swam to the otherside (still doing the recall! gah!).

My friend somehow managed to scramble down the bank to hoik her out.

Bloody Hell.

Still feel a bit wobbly, if she'd been swept down the river much further I think I may have lost her.

Am preparing for a flaming as I feel I've fucked up somewhere with her training.

Blimey! You've not fucked up at all. You have a brilliantly trained, if not slightly dopey, dog.

no you havent fucked up, these things happen, but if you are going to be walking with this particular friend then maybe get yourself a lower or higher decibel whistle. Acme do a few in different pitches.

Or could you (if you dont) give her a tiny treat so that she associates the whistle with only you.

I feel your horror!

Glad she's ok. I had a puppy fall into a swollen river years ago. Terrifying.

You haven't mucke dup at all. It was just an unfortunate combination of events.

A suggestion, though. Perhaps better to use a complicated 'signature' tootle on your whistle, rather than a single toot? Long-short-long or whatever. Then likely to be unique in your area.

But when I called her name (she may have already been in mid flight into the river so this may be a moot point) she ignored that and was going for the whistle.

lol @ signature tootle, but yes that is a brilliant idea Eleison.

I could get another whistle but the man in the gunshop gave me the serious talk re changing whistles.

I opened this smiling as I knew it was going to be you and I was looking forward to Elsie's exploits, that soon turned to

Really glad she is OK. You haven't fucked up in the slightest with training, she's brilliant. A cautionary tale and one I need to think about because we could have the same issue with the whistle. I think I'm going to teach an emergency stop. Goodness knows how but trainer was talking about that so will quiz her when we get back to training.

Not surprised you're wobbly, I would be after that. Chocolate and wine tonight I'd say.

Wynken I'd really like to hear what your trainer says about how to do the emergency stop, and how to get a stop command/whistle to override the recall.

We've just started on wait, but that's a very sedate sit-wait and a down-wait. Have no idea how you'd get my cheese obsessed dog (whistle = the Holy Grail of Treats: cheese) to come to a full halt mid cheese recall.

Maybe I have to up the ante with the cheese?

We have 2 whistles, an Acme "peeper" like yours for recall, and a "thunderer" for stop and drop immediately.

cor the thunderer sounds onomatopoeically excellent.

Do you have a link for one Drusilla and how did you train stop and drop?

Blimey Drusilla, that sounds highly impressive. Would also like to know how to get them to do that ?

We're back to training on Thursday Slubber so will ask our trainer what she advised but I like the sound of Drusilla's one !

I think I'd just like to own a whistle called The Thunderer tbh

Have left a message on my trainer's phone asking how to train an emergency stop. We can compare and contrast methods

I found an emergency 'lie down' was fantastic to have. My (previous) dog used to drop to the ground as soon as she was given the signal, and it avoided many issues arising.

I taught her to drop when she was next to me, then progressed to drop when she was moving away from me, only finally did I attempt drop when she was coming towards me.

Wombles were your drops and downs different? Or was your drop just a speeded up down?

We can do a down but oh my life it's the slowest most laborious effort you've ever seen. I could sing a verse of kumbaya before her belly finally hits the floor.

I realise it's early days as she's only 4 months but as a stop might be the difference between her getting hurt or not I'd quite like to make a start on it.

I'll go back to the Gun Shop and ask for the Thunderer if you do Slubber

Think I'll defrost some liver cake and give Wombles method a try, sounds good to me.

Have a feeling that the 'down' at a distance we were working on before holiday and spaying got in the way, is supposed to ultimately be an emergency stop.

Ah, I have just googled, could always cheat and buy the Thunderer online if I'm not brave enough to go back to shop !

You need a gun training book! They all deal with this as it's vital that dog goes down when gun goes up. But really, it's just the same as getting them to recall to whistle - i.e. verbal or hand down command and then introduce the whistle as he does it etc. Then practice it getting slowly further and further away from him. He has a hand command for sit, which made it easier to introduce the whistle. Some thunderers here! Our pup is 9 months but grasped it as easily as whistle recall.

Oh I'll go back to the gun shop anyday. I see to give it its proper name we need to call it the ACME thunderer 58 - lol @ recommended for Tough Sports

grr

My lovely trainer just called me back.

Things I need to work on are

1. Whistle and then call dog's name + 'come'. The whistle is to gain attention and the name + come to get the recall.

2. Work on sit and down from a distance, will need to do more work on wait too.

3. For stop, call dog then when she is very close put two hands up (a la policeman) with command STOP. Get ready with clicker and uber treats.

She did say it was hard to explain over the phone so I may get her back in for another session.

I think your trainer has a different approach - we do the command and then whitle as he does it correctly, so that the whistle reinforces the verbal/hand command and then eventually becomes the command. The peeper can do different things depending on one peep or two.

We can hear the guns going from our training group, hadn't thought of getting a book on it.

I want Plog to recall to either the whistle or a verbal command so think I'm going to sticking to alternating as I do. But thinking about it, I have found wait does work well. If she's ahead somewhere I can't see round the corner I use it then and it works well.

Did have her sitting on one blast of the whistle then recalling on two, but we never quite reinforced the one whistle bit. I think I'm going to get a Thunderer and use that as an emergency down using copious amounts of liver cake. I'd prefer to concentrate on that as with a stop I guess they are still on their feet so quicker to take off again maybe ? The down is a bit on the slow side here Slubber, there are times when I think we'd get through the whole of Jerusalem so a way to go on that one and she has a bad habit of not staying down and going back to a sit so need to work on that.

However, I think it is me as she spent half term with her trainer and was apparently a complete star, to the extent they were talking about using her as their club mascot (hope no one minds my slightly proud moment there, I've bottled it up since Sunday.

We can hear the guns going from our training group, hadn't thought of getting a book on it.

I want Plog to recall to either the whistle or a verbal command so think I'm going to sticking to alternating as I do. But thinking about it, I have found wait does work well. If she's ahead somewhere I can't see round the corner I use it then and it works well.

Did have her sitting on one blast of the whistle then recalling on two, but we never quite reinforced the one whistle bit. I think I'm going to get a Thunderer and use that as an emergency down using copious amounts of liver cake. I'd prefer to concentrate on that as with a stop I guess they are still on their feet so quicker to take off again maybe ? The down is a bit on the slow side here Slubber, there are times when I think we'd get through the whole of Jerusalem so a way to go on that one and she has a bad habit of not staying down and going back to a sit so need to work on that.

However, I think it is me as she spent half term with her trainer and was apparently a complete star, to the extent they were talking about using her as their club mascot (hope no one minds my slightly proud moment there, I've bottled it up since Sunday.

Oh no Wynken, you proud momant away. Clever old Plog eh?

I think I may have over egged the whistle training to the detriment of recall to her name (and the crayzeee recall arms). I'd like the same overwhelming pavlovian response to her name as I get to the whistle. More work needed there I think.

Might need to book another training session. Am discombobulating myself on the best place to start.

Slubber, we had exactly the same! Ours was so delighted about responding to the whistle that for a while that was all he would do As he's got older he has got back into doing both though.

oh phew!

This dog training lark is just like having a new born again. Every time I mentally punch the air and think 'YES! I have cracked this' they go and do something new and bothersome, like flinging themselves in a river (not that either of my newborns did that mind).

Good to hear Drusilla that you got a good recall to both eventually.

I was saying to the trainer the other day that at the moment I'm even more proud of having a relatively well mannered dog than well mannered children, think there is something wrong there.

Thinking about the recall thing in more detail ( must get a life) she comes back on two blasts of whistle or the command 'come'. I use her name to get her attention and it's the come bit she is supposed to respond to in theory.

I need her to be well trained as I want her to be a PAT dog when she's older, think I might be slightly deluded though!

How many blasts do you do on your whistle

Usually it is three for a recall and one long blast to stop.

If you do the three blasts you will find that you dog will learn to understand your three blasts and not go to someone elses.

Listen to your friends blasts you can slightly alter the timing between your blasts or make them shorter.

I have the same whistle for four dogs but use a different combination of three blasts for each. They each recall to a slightly different sequention but still have a general recall whistle command that gets them all back.

Just read your post and see that you do a two blast recall same applies but just make your two blasts very individual!

PAT dogs need to be calm and steady and are usually not tested on recall although it sounds like you will pass with flying colours!

I've just been doing one blast on my whistle (as does my friend - we are whistling novices). Will start doing 3 now and keep a single blast in reserve for the stop (that or I might just need to get the thunderer, just so I can say I have an acme thunderer )