Whistle training refresh

I’ve recently asked a friend of ours who is a dog trainer to come in and give me some gentle reminders - after all it’s never really about training the dog as much as the owner. Dillon is well into his full on ‘chav’ teenager stage and we both need to lay back down some of those boundaries that seem to get a little foggy with hormones. The consultation went well and even made me quite proud of the little Dilbert who did everything asked all be it sometimes on the 3rd ask. My ‘homework’ has been to work on whistle training and this is what we’ve been focusing on this week.

When he was younger I did some basic gun dog training with him and the whistle was introduced. I’ve always fancied training a dog to a whistle for one big reason of feeling like an idiot shouting a dog’s name out in a field. Personally, if all I have to do is whistle and the dog comes to me, this is a great thing. Unfortunately, I’ve not been blessed with the ability to actually whistle myself so I opt for the gun dog whistle and do look a little like gym teacher when going for a dog walk. Come to think of it I could do with a batman like utility belt the amount of ’stuff’ I seem to take on dog walks (treats, poo bags, whistle….). Utility belt aside though, Dillon got the basics of whistle training down.

The idea of getting back into whistle training was to start in the house and not use it outside. I got a little ahead of myself on this though but it turned out I was severely underestimating Dilbert. I ‘figured’ he would need a bit of a refresh so focusing inside this week was a good idea. There I go being wrong again. I started early this week with a little whistle whilst he was upstairs and once he came down (on the first attempt which yes I did think was a fluke at the time) there was a reward biscuit for him. I did this a few times and on the 4th time some hours later, I found both him and Barley perfectly sitting in front of me. Let’s just say I was blown away and impressed.

Barley being the dog brain she is has kept her gun dog training of many years ago and needs no reminder. Dillon however, has pretty much shown us his dumber side for a while. I was fully expecting him to need much reminding and there he was perfectly executing something he learnt months ago. After this success I did go outside and it worked and still does like a charm. A few times we’ve had to do 2 whistles but generally on the first he’s their like a bullet even if he’s smelling something particularly stinky at the other end of the field.

I guess it only goes to show that Dilbert isn’t as dumb as he likes to make out and the early foundations I made with him as a puppy are paying off. I love using a whistle in training and can recommend it to anyone. There is something so much more relaxing about whistling and dogs really do seem to respond better once you’ve made the come back and get reward link in their brain. I’m really excited about progressing with this new training phase we’re working on and feeling like the puppy really has grown up.