KitsapCaller

Do any of you have any tips or tricks for teaching the " whoa" command for bird training your dog which as worked well? Please share!

HOSS

The tech. I used on mine dogs worked super. you take a check cord and put a hook in a tree about 6 feet up. then you take the rope end and feed it thru the dogs collar and up over the hook then down to the dog and loop it arount the dogs abdomen just in front of the legs. when you get the dog set up it should look somewhat like a triangle.
You then bring your dog to whoa and slowly start backing away as you reassure the whoa command. If the dog moves pull the rope this will swing the dog up in the air (which they hate) while you say whoa let lthe dog down right away and pick it up by the collar and the back rope loop and replace the dog at the previous spot and reassure whoa. then start backing away again it won' t take long to get the dog whoaing real well. continue this till you can whoa the dog and pat out all the rope and walk around and the dog doesn' t move remember to reassure whoa constantly if the dog moves while you don' t have the rope in hand walk over to it and pick it up by collar and rope and replace it in the previous spot.
Once you get the dog whoaing well you can move away from the tree and just put the rope on the dog as desribed above and when whoaing just tug or put tension on the rope and the dog will feel the tension and remember the swinging and will whoa.
This works very well my female once I got her whoaing It got to the point where she wouldn' t break whoa unless I told her dead, here or if I walked up to her and touched her on the head. I would take a retrieving dummy and throw it as close to her nose as possible to distract her from whoa as I fired a blank pistol and she would still not make the retrieve untill I gave her one of the above commands except here then she would come to me and I would send her on the retrieve.
It doesn' t hurt the dog if hooked up properly and they sure learn whoa in a hurry.
SORRY FOR THE LONG POST

Red Hawk

Yeah I agree with HOSS because i did the same. After awhile when Traz (my puppy, whom i miss dearly) was starting to get the idea. I took him off his lease and eventually he learned it. I' d go with HOSS suggestion

JimboHunter1

One less involved technique is to use a large plastic barrel. Just anchor the barrel on the ground and set the dog on top, stroking the dog' s back and tail saying, " Whoa" and repeating this during each training session.

The next step is to put a 2" by 6" in the crotch of a tree, about waist high, where you typically place birds. After your dog points the bird and breaks loose, scoop him up and put him on the plank, and follow the above steps.

Good luck...

seattlesetters

I start with a flank cord and a lead, then progress to a barrel. Seems to work like a charm, every time.