New recall signal for 1yr old lab when I’ve already used a whistle

[autumnlead]

I’m reading “Total Recall” as my 1yr old lab needs improvement. Her recall is fairly good without distractions, but useless in a wood when she’s chasing a scent!

The book makes a lot of sense and I am committed to working on it, but we’ve already used a whistle for recall (3 pips) for the past few months on a trainers advice. So the whistle is not a new sound to her.

Will I get the same results by following the plan but just changing the whistle signal to 5 pips for example? I’m worried I’ve ‘poisoned’ the sound of the whistle itself as well as the word. I don’t want to write off the possibility of gun dog training by choosing a signal which means something else usually. I am happy to change the word I use obviously alongside it.

All advice welcomed, she’s our first family dog and I really want to get this right.

Thank you

If you are doing/planning on doing gunday training then 5 pips is great for recall.

You could change the acme whistle you are using so that the tone is different (but to be honest if you stick to Pippa's method you wont really need to change it but it may give you more confidence).

If using a 210.5 change to 211 for example.

Go on the ACME whistles website and buy a whistle with a different tone/pitch. You could also change the signal to longer or more pips if you want to.

Total Recall is an excellent book and really works. I used it for a Lurcher pup and trained him alongside an adult Lurcher and it resulted in them both having fantastic recall.

Cross posted!

I can’t believe I didn’t think of that , thank you!