we have regular traing sessions with our 6 month old pup, and he is very quick to learn. From the back yard he comes when hes called, and to the whistle every time, however if let off the lead to play with another dog in the woods, he is very difficult to call back, and completely ignores us (ie the selective hearing) , and even if just walking with me in the woods and i just call him back as training, he stops, ignores me, and has a good look around to make sure hes not missing anything exciting, before slowley coming. please help

It sounds like he's becoming a 'teenager'. 

When you call him, how many times do you say his name?  It's easy to keep repeating it - and the dog becomes deaf to it because he has other things on his mind (which are more important to him)  The key is to get his attention - THEN call him, just once, and be prepared (perhaps by having him on a long line to reinforce the command so he doesn't learn to ignore you in the first place.......)  It can also help if you excercise him before a meal (a dog should never be walked immediatly AFTER a meal anyway) and take the meal with you - make sure he knows you have it - and use this to reward him in small portions.

Hi JessMonty,

I saw a really useful piece of advice yesterday I *think* it was Em that said it, and I am sure she won't mind me just passing it on, she says if everytime you put his food down, if you use a silent whistle instead of calling him, you already have your recall half trained as even if you only ever use the whistle to call him, he will know that the whistle equals food and will be there like a shot :D

I am sure Em won't mind elaberating on it a bit, as she will have a much better idea of the ins and outs than I have, HTH

Nat xxx

a whistle that you can actually hear (not a silent one) would probably work better as you will know that the dog can hear it cos you can hear it :-)
with a silent one you never know when its broken :D

I thought with a silent whistle you would have still been able to hear it but only very quietly - although obviously the dog would still hear it at full pelt - oh well if not, maybe you could just use a normal whilstle, or a certain word?

a silent whistle is just that silent lol.... its so high pitched we cant hear it but dogs can :D

If you go to an animal feed/ agricultural type place they usually have lots of whistles with various pitches. Thats where i got mine from :-)

When we were at school (all those years ago!!!) I remember the teacher having a silent whistle, for an experiment we were doing in science, and when he blew it, it obviously wasn't loud but we could still hear it a bit, I thought it would be the same thing.

Thinking about it Em did actually suggest a gundog whistle, is that not a silent whistle then? I assumed as she was talking about doing it in the house that it would be, I know my neighbours, and me for that matter, wouldn't be happy with a whistle being blown.

I just did a quick search just to check my info :-)
And the whistle that i have is a gundog whistle. you can see it here

I havent had any complaints from my neighbours on adjoining wall or from the other 5 propertys on our row. Obviously im not blowing every 5mins, I find it alot easier to blow a whistle when i want kai to come, rather than trying to shout, difficult being loud enough when strong winds blow the wrong way lol ( which is often in rural north east scotland). It does work rather well for me with having a breed notorious for selective hearing :D

thanks for the advise every one