[Shorewood Retrievers]

Hunting season is over for most of us and if we took our pup hunting with us he may have forgotten some finer points of his obedience. Believe it or not a solid obedience foundation is the basics for any gundog whether we hunt upland or waterfowl. If we can’t stop our dog in the field how do we keep them from running all the birds out of the field, or chasing missed birds or hens in the wild? How do we keep Fido from running into the road in front of a vehicle? How about waterfowl hunting, whether a boat, a blind, or a pit no one wants to hunt with a dog that won’t sit especially when the birds are flying.

I could go on and on about the reasons to teach your dog the meaning of sit, and sitting to a whistle but I will only give one, Safety; yours, your hunting buddies, and your dog. It’s not that difficult. It just takes a little time several days a week. Now is the perfect opportunity to start retraining the older dog or continue with the six to eight month old pup we started before the season.

We will start with sit since this is the most important. The meaning of sit is just that sit and nothing else. It doesn’t mean to lean to one side. Make them sit straight. Don’t let them look off to the side. Make them look at you. Good eye contact is very important especially for those of you that want your dog to be able to handle your dog to a bird he did not see. Every time the dog moves, give him a correction and make them sit in exactly the same spot. Work on this in the garage, in the yard, in the house, anywhere you can. When you can sit your dog and walk away where he can’t see you and he doesn’t move; you are ready for the next step.

Whistle sit. Sitting to the whistle is just like telling our dog to sit with our voice only better. Dogs trained to a whistle for sit and come will respond better to the whistle at any distance than a dog trained only with verbal commands. First we need a whistle, what kind doesn’t really matter as long as it is used consistently. My only suggestion would be to make sure it is plastic and not metal. Next we need to learn how to blow our whistle. You can blow any tune you would like but to keep it simple we will just use one note, the toot. Start out with the whistle firmly between your teeth put the tip of your tongue on the opening of the whistle, now fill your lungs with air and removing your tongue let out one good loud short blast or toot. It may sound odd telling you how to blow a whistle but you would be surprised. Start by walking your dog at heel, give the verbal command for sit and blow the whistle at the same time. If your dog was taught to sit as you keep walking this should only take a few sessions for him to learn the whistle means sit.

Now that he knows the whistle, let’s put him on a remote sit and recall drill. For this drill simply walk your dog at heel and sit him to the whistle as you keep walking forward 15 to 20 yards. Turn around and face your dog. Don’t rush into calling him. Let him sit for 10 or 20 seconds. Now call him to you and try to stop him with the whistle. If he doesn’t stop, try taking a few steps forward and extend your arm pointing at the dog while simultaneously blowing the whistle and saying sit. Be patient and train on this several days a week for a couple weeks while extending the distance you leave between you and your dog and the increasing the amount of sit commands on a recall. Next we work on sitting while chasing.

[goosefreak94]

No it means walk