Hi All,

I'm looking at training Nando a whistle recall rather than his normal 'Nando.. come!' as that really is failing and I do wonder whether I'm best starting from scratch with a new command.

When training a whistle recall, I understand it is similar to 'loading' a clicker, whistling and then treating the dog, then building distance over time? If so, how many times a day should I be whistling and rewarding him? Is there any other criteria I need?

What sort of whistle is best?

Josh

i find the best way to condition the whistle is getting dog to sit and wait for food and then you blow the whistle, this is the command for the dog to eat the food. then once you have this cracked, start to recall dog in the house whistle and reward with food when dog comes, then once doing well in house try in garden then on walks. whistle means food, always reward with food. i use diff whistle for each of my dogs.

Acme gundog whistle is best.

If your dog ignores your current command then change it.

However you may be in danger of teaching him to ignore this one too.

When traininga DIFFERENT signal to the current one, the rule is simple, use the UKNOWN before the KNOWN, ie whistle, wait one second then use the verbal cue.

Soon the dog will recall to the whistle as this will have become the predictor for the recall command.

The same is true if yoiu want to teach your dog to recall to a hand signal.

What whistle you use is immaterial, it can be a gundog whistle, sheepdogs whistle, referee whistle etc.

I've just trained my Frenchie who is 7 mths old to the whistle she comes to it like at bat out of hell,our Boxer is also trained to the whistle our Boston ignores a dog whistle so she comes to a refs.whistle she doesn't go out with the other two so no confusion over whistles,initially they were trained with their meals and treats,and surprisingly not many people use a whistle for a Frenchie but yesterday it got her out of a badger sett. If you go on Canine Concepts they hae a section on whistle where you can play the sound of each whistle type see if your dog has any reaction to the sample played.