I've started whistle training Nelly. I have the whistle round my neck all the time so that whenever I call her to me she hears the whistle and associates it with 'come' and so forth. My dad yells at me to tell me I cannot blow the whistle in the house when HE'S in the house. Well he's ALWAYS in the house. How can I possibly train Nelly with the whistle during the day if I can't do it on an everyday basis. I explained to him why it's important to keep it a constant thing and be continuous with the whistle but he wasn't having any of it! How is he ever going to realise that Nelly is a puppy (a difficult puppy) and the only way she will get better is with the training that I put in place. This tricky time will be over quicker if I train her consistently now.
I trained the whistle outside, never in the house. A neighbour used to whistle train his Lab in the park behind our house early, early in the morning. He got complaints about that, not from us, but other neighbours let him know how inconsiderate that was. I don't think you do need to always use the whistle. IN fact there is some research to show taking breaks between training does not slow down the learning process. Now in my case the dog was hand and verbal trained, lapsed and then I went to whistle and it only took one session. As long as you reward after she comes to the whistle, and separate it from using hand and verbal in your training, I think you will be ok. Whenever someone says "I think" you can assume they are guessing or it worked for them so I hope someone else comes along to help. I can dig up the research thing though, I posted here about a year ago I think.
Hi Olivia, well done for training Nelly to the whistle which will be invaluable in the future. Firstly Nelly is not a difficult puppy she is a puppy, your Dad is difficult. Can you talk to your Mum and get her to talk to your Dad explaining that the inside training doesn't last that long then you will be moving into the garden to progress? You could try telling your Dad that if you don't get this foundation training nailed things will get worse and it will take you even longer to advance Nelly's training. Could you try and involve him in Nelly's training, he might see how well she responds and be more inclined to either let you get on with it or watch and learn, even enjoy it? x
I only train with the whistle outside. You could use indoors to train an additional verbal recall command, so as to keep the peace in the house?
I started my whistle recall inside as per Pippa's Total Recall then progressed into the garden and so on. It's useful to use a whistle inside to recall for food, away from a bowl of food, visitors etc.
I too started inside and progressed outside. I can only recommend how fantastic TOTAL RECALL is and that you get this book and maybe get your dad to read it with you. I live in an old apartment with paper thin walls. I whistled very softly and since dogs can hear so much better than humans, it worked. Outside I whistled louder. Talk to your dad and show him the book. Your recall is the most important command and it will keep your pup safe.
My wife complains when I use the whistle indoors. She has very good hearing and I have a significant loss above 2000 htz, so the whistle hurts her ears, but not mine.
I'very never found the need to use a whistle indoors and have only ever trained it outdoors. If it's a problem with dad just use a verbal cue or even train a hand cue. As long as you reward the verbal or hand cue it really shouldn't make any significant difference with your pup. Many times when I'm out I don't bother to reach for the whistle but I'm lucky and can whistle so opt for that most often. Can you or dad whistle? Perhaps you could try that indoors rather than the pip pip of a shop bought whistle.
When we live with other people we have to make compromises. I think Total Recall is a great book but I must admit I started in our small garden, rather than the house, with the whistle, and I still had success. It's no bad thing for Nelly to learn to associate being given food with you calling 'come',as well as with the whistle. (There's bound to be a day you're out and have forgotten to bring your whistle!) Meanwhile try to enjoy Nelly and look forward to the day you have your own place.
No, but the sound carries really well, it's easily heard and it's really distinctive, so there are advantages to using a whistle.
