The Stop Whistle so far: In our previous stop whistle article, we looked at teaching the dog the meaning of the whistle.
I described how to teach a dog to sit to the whistle, whilst at your side, with no other cues.
No verbal ‘SIT’, and no hand signal. Just the whistle
Levels of difficulty
The exercises were very simple.
There were no distractions, no movement on your part or his, and no distance between you and the dog.
Each of these three factors influence the difficulty of the exercise.
We are going to introduce these levels of difficulty, one step at a time
Movement
Before we introduce an element of distance between you and the dog, we need to get him used to the concept of dropping into a sit from a run.[wp_ad_camp_1]This is not natural to a dog.
And it takes a little effort
Our aim
By the end of this ‘lesson’ you are going to be able to run with your dog at heel, and have him drop into a sit whilst you keep going.
It is important that he learns to sit even though you are still moving. This ensures that he is dropping to the sound of the whistle, and not just relying on the fact that you have stopped as his cue.
Before you run
If you do this exercise without careful preparation, your dog will probably run after you.
It will be far too tempting to watch you zooming off without him. So, we need to break this down a little
Breaking it into achievable chunks
I should say at this point, that many, if not most, gundog trainers teach this skill with some degree of punishment. From a verbal rebuke, to a lead check, to scruffing and reseating.
If you use this method and break this process into small steps, you will be able to succeed with a minimum of corrections.
EXERCISE 1
- Walk a few steps with the dog at heel
- Blow the sit whistle as you stop
- Reward the dog for sitting
- Pause briefly (3 or 4 seconds)
- Take one step forwards
- Take one step back again so that you are once more level with the dog
- Reward the dog for remaining still
- Repeat from step 1
But what if the dog gets up as you step forwards? This is quite common to begin with, even if your dog is reliable on the sit/stay after a verbal sit signal.
All you need to do is make the exercise a little easier.
You can either
- Simplify your step forwards (see 1b)
or
- Back up your whistle with a verbal command (see 1c)
EXERCISE 1b simplify
- Walk a few steps with the dog at heel
- Blow the sit whistle as you stop
- Reward the dog for sitting
- Pause
- Lift up one leg and put it down again
- Reward the dog for remaining still
- Repeat from step 1
Progress to moving one leg forward without actually transferring your weight on to it. From here progress to a full step forward as described in Exercise 1a
EXERCISE 1c add a verbal reminder
- Walk a few steps with the dog at heel
- Blow the sit whistle as you stop
- Reward the dog for sitting
- Pause
- Give a ‘verbal’ and firm ‘sit’ command
- Take one step forwards
- Step back again so that you are level with the dog
- Reward the dog for remaining still
- Repeat from step 1 twice more, and then attempt 1a with no reminder
Corrections
If progress is slow, you may be tempted to correct the dog for moving. That is entirely up to you. But, the dog must sit to the whistle alone without reminders, or corrections, before you move on to exercise 2. Remember that you are less likely to need corrections if you give the dog rewards that he values for sitting still.
EXERCISE 2a
Once your dog is reliably sitting to whistle and remaining seated whilst you take one step forwards after a brief pause, we are going to drop the lead and move a bit further away from the dog. At this point I like to turn and face the dog, and blow the whistle again before I return. Like so
- Walk a few steps with the dog at heel
- Blow the sit whistle and stop
- Reward the dog for sitting
- Let go of the lead, let it fall to the ground
- Pause briefly (3 or 4 seconds)
- Take several steps forward and turn around to face the dog
- Blow the stop whistle briefly and return to the dog
- Reward the dog for remaining still
- Repeat from step 1
This is pretty straightforward for a dog that has learned to sit and stay to a verbal command. We can then repeat, without the ‘pause’
EXERCISE 2b
- Walk a few steps with the dog at heel
- Blow the sit whistle and drop the lead as you do so. DONT’ stop.
- Without hesitation take several steps forwards leaving the seated dog behind you
- Turn to face the dog
- Blow the sit whistle and return to the dog
- Reward the dog for remaining seated where you left him
- Pick up the lead and repeat from 1
What if he moves?
Just as in 1c above, if a dog has a tendency to move at this stage, I may give a verbal SIT reminder, not to follow me as I step away. Do a couple of these, then try again without the reminder.
If you wish to correct the dog for moving, a brief sideways lead check immediately after the whistle can hasten things along, but there is a lot going on what with blowing the whistle, looking at the dog, and stepping forwards. You need to have very good timing to get an effective correction into this sequence.
I find that most dogs do not need correcting at this point, when you break things down this way.
Ready to speed up?
The most common handler mistake at this point is failing to eliminate the pause. The handler pauses, albeit almost imperceptibly, and the dog remains seated because of this pause. When they start to move faster and the pause disappears, the dog may follow them. Make sure you are not pausing at all before moving on.
If your dog will sit to the whistle whilst walking along at heel, and remain there even as you walk away without pausing, you are ready to move on and speed things up.
EXERCISE 3
- Walk very briskly a few steps with the dog at heel
- Blow the sit whistle and drop the lead as you do so
- Without hesitation keep walking briskly forwards leaving the seated dog behind you
- Turn to face the dog
- Blow the sit whistle and return to the dog
- Reward the dog for remaining seated where you left him
- Pick up the lead and repeat from 1 at a slightly faster walk than before
- Practice until reliable at this speed then repeat at a very fast walk
- Practice until reliable at this speed then repeat at a jog
- Practice until reliable at this speed then repeat at a run
What if the dog gets up?
Go back and make the exercise easier. Practice EXERCISE 2 a few times. Then try EXERCISE 3 again but build up speed more slowly. Take a few days over this if necessary, it is worth getting this right.
EXERCISE 4
Exercise four is very simple. Repeat exercises 1 to 3 without a lead on the dog.
You have successfully completed this part of the training when you can run along with the dog at heel, off lead, and he will drop neatly into a ‘sit’ each time you blow your whistle whilst you run on away from him without pausing.
At this point I usually add in a few simple distractions by sometimes jogging around the dog in a circle, sometimes running straight past him as I return. Just to ensure that he is solid on that sit after hearing the whistle.
Well done!
If you have got to this point, well done! Things are about to get more interesting, so watch out for the next instalment: Stop Whistle 3
If you enjoy my articles, you might like my new book: The Happy Puppy Handbook – a definitive guide to early puppy care and training.
Pippa,
Thank you for this article this is one area that I as a first time bird dog trainer have sort of hit a brick wall. I have an 11 month old Golden Retriever he has serious drive to hunt and retrieve and will stop on a whistle close to me every time but when he’s been cast out for a retrieve he gets tunnel vision and won’t stop for anything until he brings the retrieve back. I started to use a chain control collar and check cord but honestly I dont want to use that negative of an approach because so far all of our training has been positive reinforcement without the use of E-Collars or check cords. I’m glad I found your method and I look forward to working with my pup on stopping at distance using your ideas.
Thank you 🙂
Brian
Thanks for your comment Brian. There are several very positive ways of practicing the stop whistle, but the most important thing is to make sure the dog doesn’t get the retrieve if he fails to stop. Try the stolen retrieve exercise. Stopping the dog on the way out to a retrieve is quite an advanced exercise, you really need to go through some more stages in between http://totallygundogs.com/from-stop-whistle-at-heel-to-stop-at-a-distance/
Thank you! This is really helping with my training problem. He’s doing so well now after just a few weeks of sticking with it.
Hi Pippa. I’m enjoying working through the exercises with my 8 month puppy. I’m just wondering what the purpose of blowing the stop whistle a second time before returning to the dog is?
Sarah
Hi Sarah, most dogs like it when you start to move back towards them. I often use the stop whistle just before doing something that the dog finds pleasant (and therefore reinforcing). This helps to create an association betweeb the stop whistle and ‘pleasure’. You can read more in this article Making the Stop whistle a Good Thing Pippa
I have just read Stop Whistle 3 with great interest.??? where can I read Stop Whistle 1&2
thanking you
rodney harris.
Hi Rodney, the series starts here
Pippa
Hi Pippa
What sort of time scale are we looking at for this exercise?
providing the pup will do the first segment ok?
Hi Chris,
I don’t give out timescales. It depends too much on how much time you are prepared to put in and how your dog responds. 🙂
Hi Pippa, Time restraints mean I very often have to train both my dogs together. I know this is not ideal but any advice would be great.
Hi Peter, you will need to train each dog separately. I don’t know of any way around this. I have a number of dogs out with me at any one time, but each is trained individually and added to the group when ready. As far as I know, this is how other trainers cope with multiple dogs too.
Pippa
Thanks Pippa, Will try to do this at least once every day.
Hi Pippa, I have just completed this exercise with my 6month lab, and it went really well. When can we expect the next instalment ??
Hi Phil, we should have the next one out in a week or two. Pippa