I am using this method but with great care. You don't want to break your recall. I tend to blow the stop as Coco is moving away at the moment. I am VERY slow with my training. http://totallygundogs.com/introduction-to-stop-whistle-training/
I'm confused as to why you would want to stop a dog running back to you as surely this can damage your recall? x
Could you explain the situation where you would want this to happen? We needed to learn DROP on recall for obedience. I used a heeling stick in front of a stationary DOWN (my word was down but most used DROP for this in recall) and then moved the stick. Worked pretty well really. IN flield work we sometimes wanted the dog to stop so we could send him in a different direction. Again, this involved a complimentary action which for field work was SIT. ONe tweet on the whistle, dog sits and looks to you for further direction. Your trainer for obedience or field should be able to help you with this, if one of those is the reason.
Stop on Recall is one of the exercises in the UK for good citizen gold - a bit odd I think as surely a stop when going away from you would be better. The dog can stop in any position. I found it difficult to train but got there eventually by using a small towel as a place-marker and telling Molly to ‘down’ on it. I gradually cut this smaller. It was hard to get rid of the last 4inch square, but in the end she got it. I’ve also seen it trained in another way. As the dog comes towards you, toss either a ball or a treat to them underarm so that their nose goes up and say ‘sit’. Then eventually get rid of the object and just have the gesture (arm, with Palm up, moving upwards and verbal cue.)
We used to do "stop on recall" at a training class - either with a "sit" or a "down" - We did it by getting the dog to recall, but not at full tilt - calling him quietly, then giving a "DOWN" with a raised hand, maybe even a step forward, BUT always finish with a successful recall & masses of praise/treat. We're not doing if for any particular reason, just another string to Coco's bow. I still practice it from time to time, but we're not terribly good. I might ramp it up - we still have the same trainer at a different class, so it'd be good to be able to do it if he asks... (having just read Joy's post I suppose that's where our trainer was coming from, he has quite a background in training and competing, but we're not in an Good Citizen class).
I want to learn it for obedience but would quite like to use the whistle for something other than recall as well. Am I being unrealistic? I go to training classes not only to progress through the grades, which to be honest I'm not that bothered about but also because it's a great source of distractions to train with - rabbit droppings which he particularly likes, this week conkers which he left and other dogs on leads, some who yap! I find the trainers encouraging but sometimes I need to find a different way to teach.
In gundog work, we use the whistle to recall and to stop our dogs - normally on an outrun - and to change their direction left to right. So it's not unrealistic at all, you just need to be clear what you're doing and why. The easiest way to kill the speed of an outrun is to stop the dog on the way out too often, and similarly with recall; if you stop your dog on the way back too much, it will be bad for your recall. So you don't want to overdo it. I do think it's a valuable thing to teach it in both directions, for safety if nothing else. I'm thinking of a situation where maybe your dog has slipped his collar, is running towards you but there's a car coming.... maybe it would never happen, but I'd like to know I could stop my dog in that scenario. I train a stop with a ball in my hand. Holding it up makes the bum go down, then you can throw it to him as a reward. Fade it quickly so it doesn't become a bribe, but continue to reward with it from your pocket. Assuming that your dog likes balls, that is!
Have a tennis ball in your hand which is raised above your head, as she starts to look up at it, throw the ball over her head. Gradually increase the distance away from you as she is coming forward, as she automatically stops to look at the ball, blow your stop whistle. Dogs should find the stop whistle rewarding. Eventually the stop whistle means, 'stop, look at me and I will tell you what to do'.
Oh wow, when I read your post @Inky lab I thought you had the same problem as me, because Harley is still in the stage where she belts full speed towards me and doesn't always stop in time I should have known you guys were talking training stuff and not survival - like me
