My westie pup won't come in when we shout only when he can be bothered we've tried everything to entice him in.  I've heard terriers can be hard to train but this is driving us nuts.  If we are going out it takes us ages to eventually get him in even if he's coming with us.  I was wondering if using a whistle will help he is also a barker when in the garden and barks at anything but a great dog and is really obedient in the house.  Can anyone advise me on him and does anyone know where i can buy a whistle?

A whistle will help, if you train him to it.  I think a lot of people think that this whistle is a magic cure.  I personally think it helps because you aren't showing your emotions.  How often has he buggered off and you are angry with him and you shout that little bit harder - the whistle is the same tone each time.  There has been a lot of posts on here on how to train to the whistle which are worth looking at.

You can buy whistles in most pet shops.  I would recommend the acme 210 1/2 because if you lose it, you can always get a replacement that sounds exactly the same.  If your local pet shop doesn't have it, you could try acme direct - do a google search for acme whistles and you should find their home page.

Helen

http://www.turnerrichards.co.uk/ for a whistle. I find a whistle very useful, see the thread in *behaviour* on this site.

:)

And I can confirm that my Staffordshire Bull Terrier responds to a whistle only been going a week or so but her recall is good anyway which was reinforced by me with a long training lead when she got to her teens :D
Sal responds to my voice but the whistle as Helen is not a mgic answer. The whistle seems to be working for us, we practice in the house/garden and in the park and it has had amazing results for us. But I must say she is not too bad ast recall anyway and Sal's reponse to the whistle is so far good.

How old is your westie, and as well as the whistle why not try a long line, so the pup knows "COME" means "Come". Why not join it's a friendly board and you will find it very useful I have.

Karen