Hi, I can't seem to find an answer to this. This will be a 2 part question. We use a whistle (Acme) for recall (3pips). People have been coming up to me on the beach asking where I got the whistle from, as everytime I use it Vanilla comes back with great enthusiasm. I am still picking when I use it as still proofing against certain situations. My question is if other people use the same whistle and either use 1pip or 3pips, will she come back because she heard the whistle even though it was not me or my wife calling? Vanilla checks in with us on a regular basis and we interact a lot, but at times I let her do what she wants within reason. But I also don't want her bolting when someone else blows their whistle. Just not sure how this would work as never had a dog before. Second question We are looking at doing gundog training here. All I read is that 1pip is for a sit/stay and 2 or 3 pips is for a direction and 5 pips is for recall. We have been using 3 pips for recall, so do I up it to 5pips for recall, and if so I pressume start from scratch and work through this as quickly as possible? As obviously don't want to undo all the work we have done on our 3pips. Thanks for advise
I do - one whistle for stop - two pips if I want the dog to turn and three pips for recall. If you have a Lab you don't need a whistle for direction as it is done with hand signals. Though of course you stop the dog on the one whistle (stop and look at me) and then direct them with your hands/arms for the direction you want the dog to go, left, right or back.
Thanks @Stacia. I will leave my recall pips as is, and introduce my Sit and turn. Now just need to see if anyone can advise about my first question
Not everyone teaches labs to turn on the whistle. It's common in spaniel circles where the dogs are hunting in front of the handler. Usually dogs can differentiate between your recall whistle and someone else's. I'd never say never as I've been fortunate enough to handle other people's dogs in their presence and they've responded to my cues very well. Those dogs understood who was handling them though and I don't doubt if their owner had recalled them they'd have ignored me. You can proof this though by getting a friend to try and tempt your dog away from you then you'd know for sure!
I was with the lovely @Beanwood the other week and all our dogs responded to either one of us whistling, even though we have different cues! I think they all heard a series of pips coming from the right direction and so came. I've been in other scenarios where people have been whistling; at training, they only ever respond to my whistle. But, if we're in a park or some such and someone blows a whistle, they may respond until I give a contradictory cue. I think if this happened often enough, they'd learn to ignore other whistles that came from elsewhere, just like they do in training.
When I take other peoples dogs out with mine that are NOT whistle trained and whistle a recall (2 pips) all the dogs return. Do they just follow the whistle trained dogs?
Years ago I was on the hills with my German Pointers and blew the recall whistle, my dogs ignored it but 2 Huskies came! The owner was most impressed I find that if in a class or working my dog, that they ignore other people's whistles, we do all blow differently in some small way which the dogs recognise.
Thanks all for the advise. Doubt it will happen that much, as I am currently the only one using a whistle around here. Just thinking if other people start, I did not want to spoil our recall etc. Will trial with some friends and see.
