Whistles and a sulky dog

[Pippin's person]

Hi Bob,

 

I've been moving my dog onto whistles and he is downright sulky about it. He appears to know the whistles, but it often takes a "shush" to get him to move (e.g. I blow the flank, he looks at me, I "shush" or "ha" and he takes the correct flank--I make no other body motion or sound to cue him). Using voice commands, he's pretty snappy with his work; with whistles, he's slow, eats poop, looks pouty.

 

My whistles are basically consistent and we've been working with whistles consistently now for about 6 weeks. He's pretty good with the lie down--but all the others seem to make him sulk. We're working at a Pro-Novice level

 

Is this common? Any tips for helping him make this transition?

 

Thanks

Robin

[RMSBORDERCOLLIES]

Hi Bob,

 

I've been moving my dog onto whistles and he is downright sulky about it. He appears to know the whistles, but it often takes a "shush" to get him to move (e.g. I blow the flank, he looks at me, I "shush" or "ha" and he takes the correct flank--I make no other body motion or sound to cue him). Using voice commands, he's pretty snappy with his work; with whistles, he's slow, eats poop, looks pouty.

 

My whistles are basically consistent and we've been working with whistles consistently now for about 6 weeks. He's pretty good with the lie down--but all the others seem to make him sulk. We're working at a Pro-Novice level

 

Is this common? Any tips for helping him make this transition?

 

Thanks

Robin

 

 

Hi Robin. I think he is a bit confused still with the whistles. Try using your voice command first and as he starts his flank give him the whistle command. He is learning by association so it will take a fair amount of repetition for him to get it full time. The reason he is sulky about it is that he is not quite sure what the command is yet so he thinks he is doing something wrong or is not quite sure what to do when you whistle his command. When I turn a dog over on to whistles I always use the voice first and then the whistle. He knows the voice command and will learn the whistle command by association ie; come bye....tweet, tweet. He will already have started the "correct" flank and will just keep going the "correct" way when you whistle. Also try and keep your whistles "happy" with lots of incentive in them. Whistles have emotion in them also and "how" you blow the whistle determines how the dog does the command, just the same as with your voice. "How" you ask the dog to do something is more important than the words themselves as it determines the way in which the command is executed. Remember, voice first, whistle second and he'll learn quite quickly. It is quite common for the dog to be confused when turning him on to whistles, especially when you give the whistle command first. Try this for a while and get back to me if you need any further assistance. Good luck, Bob

[NorthfieldNick]

Not Robin, but thanks for the response, Bob. I'm working on putting a dog back on whistles- I just discovered a whistle that I can actually get consistent sound out of- and I'm having some of the same issues. I've been doing whistle, then words... I'll reverse things. Thanks, again!

[Pippin's person]

Thanks Bob