I was watching a gundog demostration at the beginning of the week and the trainer used the traditional gundog slip lead. Is it useful in training walking on a loose lead? I currently have my retriever (15 months) on an ordinary collar and lead and she tends to pull slightly at the start of the walk but after off lead running she is much better and responds to my voice commands, so clearly knows what i mean. I do stop when she pulls, but it seems to have little effect because she is so excited. She still pulls on a headcollar, although it does make her more manageable, but i would prefer not to have to use it long term. When training a gundog to heel how is the lead used?
I am also thinking about getting an acme whistle, but don't know which pitch is best. Is there a good place to buy good quality whistles and slip leads online? I must say that she isn't being trained the specifically as a gundog, she is just a pet. (and she isn't the slightest bit interested in retrieving so no doubt she would be useless!! ;-) ) But it seem to work for lots of gundogs so it must be worth a try!

The key is in the training not the lead, the lead is loose, use bait and keep changing direction, lots of left turns round and round in circles if you have to, so he must follow. I use a leather slip lead which I purchased from a gun shop for about £7, they sell whistles too.

yes you can buy  both the slip and the whistle online from turner richards site...

       http://www.turnerrichards.co.uk/pages/page1.html

The pitch of the whistle is pretty much immaterial. The advantage of the acme whistle is that once you have one you can get a replacement at any time which sounds exactly the same. On a shoot, because people are using different pitch whistles and the fact that we all blow then in slightly different ways the dogs get to know their own whistle and rarely make a mistake.

Personally, I use a 211.5

Best wishes, John

i use a 210  1/2  for all three of mine but thats just beacuse as JOhn says if you need to replace it there esy to come buy,

slip leads are handy as when training to walk to heel off the lead you can put the lead really lose so the dog dosnt think he is still on lead and if he starts to stary you still have something there to grab and quickly bring him/her back into line

Clare

The beauty of the slip lead is that it can be slipped on or off in an instant and does not need a collar. Collars are a big no no because a dog running at speed into cover could so easily hang its self. Working gundogs and working sheep dogs are some of the few dogs which by law are allowed without collars

Best wishes, John

PS. Welcome to CD Clare. I hope you enjoy it here :)

It matters not what you use on a dog, it is not the equipment you should focus on but the trainer/training.

Gundog slip leads are NOT suitable to be used in day to day lead walking near roads IMHO, as they can do just that, slip out of them.

No lead is necessary to train a dog to heel whether it is a gundog or any other breed.

A dog will pull, if you let it, in any collar, harness, headcollar.