[Swampy-]

What do ya think?? I'm not talking about making the dawg come to you or for handling.......I'm speaking about straight marks.....the dawg has the bird and is comming right back...

 

[rbr]

Sometimes a dog will start to dawdle or lose focus on
recall. The whistle reminds him that you are waiting.

Bert

 

[Brian Cockfield]

Sometimes a dog will start to dawdle or lose focus on
recall. The whistle reminds him that you are waiting.

Bert

Agree. I have one that does this sometime. She gets really distracted looking over at the next gun station while heading back. She just needs to be reminded every now and then.

 

[lablover]

I think it's useful and don't count off for it unless it is EXTREAMLY excessive.
Sometimes the distractions of returning, or seeing another gun station, the gallery, etc, cause a dog to momentairily get lost in returning.
The whistle just says "I'm here".

 

[Polock]

A handler must have this at his/her disposal. It reminds the dawg that 'it has completed it's mission' and to return promptly and continue with the test or just famializes the dawg to your location.

Let's not read more into this than a 'trained response' to a come in whistle that is 'response trained'.

You're a team.....work as one......

 

[Tim Carrion]

IMHO it lets the dog know that I'm paying attention and it helps some judges that don't get up :wink:


Old trainer I knew never used a come in whistle at the time of picking up the bird. He said "any dog that didn't have sense enough to come back he didn't want back".

Tim

 

[JusticeDog]

And then there's the dog who brings back a bird with the wing covering its eyes.... and needs the whistle to find its way back in

 

[Howard N]

And then there's the dog who brings back a bird with the wing covering its eyes.... and needs the whistle to find its way back in

The above happened to me last weekend with a young pup. She'd had a little hunt before she picked up the bird. She turned and started for the first person she saw. Another gunner out in the field about the same distance from her that I was. I had to whistle and wave before she saw me. I'm sure she thought she was going in the right direction. I've seen the same thing happen in trials. After a hunt they can be a little disoriented and not know exactly where the boss is. A toot toot and a little movement can help a dog before it gets confused.

 

[Swampy-]

Ok yes. if you see the dawg slowing down, becomming distracted or vision impaired fine...Thats what the whistle trill was intended for.....But how many guys do you see do it out of force of habit....... Dogs comming back no problems and "Joe" or "Jane" handler's toot'n away like some freak'n tweety bird..... tooooot tooot tooot toooot tooot tooot toooot tooooot tooooot toooooot......Drives me nutz Just like every command it has its intended purpose....I think most folks do it to feel more like a "Handler" And whats with the freak'n two whistles...I have two on my lanyard don't really know why...Don't give me because the other might freeze up malarky ( i just used malarky geez) its all about "style" i do the whistle trill cause i'm coooool....I have two roy gonia competion clear whistles cause i'm cooooool....Don't know why ....but hey, I'm coooooo....Don't wanna Look like that guy over there with the stupid acme whistle........... he ain't cooool :wink:

 

[Vicky Trainor]

I have two on my lanyard don't really know why...Don't give me because the other might freeze up malarky

Just ask John Weller how much he would have given to have had 2 whistles on his lanyard when he was running Judge at the ESPN SRS!!! His whistle broke just when he needed it and he was in big trouble. Unfortunately for him, his wife and I neither one had our lanyards around our necks, so the gallery was scrambling to get a whistle to him. Don't know what the final result would have been, but I would bet money that John and Judge would have made it to the second series if he had only had that extra whistle on his lanyard!!

Vicky

 

[Brian Cockfield]

And then there's the dog who brings back a bird with the wing covering its eyes.... and needs the whistle to find its way back in

The above happened to me last weekend with a young pup. She'd had a little hunt before she picked up the bird. She turned and started for the first person she saw. Another gunner out in the field about the same distance from her that I was. I had to whistle and wave before she saw me. I'm sure she thought she was going in the right direction. I've seen the same thing happen in trials. After a hunt they can be a little disoriented and not know exactly where the boss is. A toot toot and a little movement can help a dog before it gets confused.

I've seen this happen quite a few times at trials as well. In fact I saw it happen to a friend of mine last Saturday.

 

[Brian Cockfield]

Ok yes. if you see the dawg slowing down, becomming distracted or vision impaired fine...Thats what the whistle trill was intended for.....But how many guys do you see do it out of force of habit....... Dogs comming back no problems and "Joe" or "Jane" handler's toot'n away like some freak'n tweety bird..... tooooot tooot tooot toooot tooot tooot toooot tooooot tooooot toooooot......Drives me nutz Just like every command it has its intended purpose....I think most folks do it to feel more like a "Handler" And whats with the freak'n two whistles...I have two on my lanyard don't really know why...Don't give me because the other might freeze up malarky ( i just used malarky geez) its all about "style" i do the whistle trill cause i'm coooool....I have two roy gonia competion clear whistles cause i'm cooooool....Don't know why ....but hey, I'm coooooo....Don't wanna Look like that guy over there with the stupid acme whistle........... he ain't cooool :wink:

Belladawg you've obviously never had your whistle lock up if you think two whistles is just being cool. I usually don't wear but one but it's probably stupid of me not to wear two. Don't take my word for it, ask any accomplished trialer if they think it's just cool to have a spare whistle. Luckily for me I've only had it happen in training but it's major frustrating when you've got a dog a few hundred yards away from you and no whistle to it's attention.

 

[olclamman]

bella
had this happen to me at a trail went blow the whistle
no sound grabed the other after looked at the first one
a small spider spun a web inside -- no sound thankful
for second one how it go sunday be there next week
oc :lol:

 

[Bait]

I have two on my lanyard don't really know why...Don't give me because the other might freeze up malarky

Just ask John Weller how much he would have given to have had 2 whistles on his lanyard when he was running Judge at the ESPN SRS!!! His whistle broke just when he needed it and he was in big trouble. Unfortunately for him, his wife and I neither one had our lanyards around our necks, so the gallery was scrambling to get a whistle to him. Don't know what the final result would have been, but I would bet money that John and Judge would have made it to the second series if he had only had that extra whistle on his lanyard!!

Vicky

Good point, Vicky. If that's the test I saw on TV, they not only needed 2 whistles, they needed LOUDER whistles! BAIT

 

[JS]

And whats with the freak'n two whistles...I have two on my lanyard don't really know why...Don't give me because the other might freeze up malarky

Blow enough Gatorade through your whistle and the pea WILL stick!
Nothin' worse than a sticky pea :wink:
JS

 

[Randy Bohn]

whistles

BELLADAWG; answer to your question is I also believe the come in whistle is used to much........BUT a few questions for you to think about!

1) Do you buy new whistles every year? If not what happens when your MAIN whistle locks up in training or in contests? Hasn't happened yet it will!

2) Did you ever think about having two whistles for training purposes Ex:Not taking proper casts and switching over to your "SHOCK" whistle?

3) How about a special whistle in stick ponds or lunging water? FREQUENCY AND TONE COULD SAVE YOU ONE DAY!

When you go training and to contests look around and ask questions you can save alot of years of trial and error by keeping your information well open. My favorite people to talk to at trials are the people who usually need assistance getting to and from the line.

4) And yes I am very cool.

 

[Lisa Van Loo]

Save the "toot-toot-toot" for when your really need it. Otherwise, not only does it become useless as a tool, you also erode your control of the dog.

An example. Friends were having trouble with their retriever bitch at HT. She would mark just fine, but gave the gears something aweful on the way back. Dawdling, dropping birds, etc. I stood in the gallery with the Mrs. and a couple of their training partners, and watched while he ran the dog. Here's what I saw: Dog goes to mark, dog picks up mark, dog starts returning. Everything A-OK up to that point. THEN: Dad starts blowing whistle and giving "atta girl, come here" stuff (typical, we've all seen it). WHAT I SAW: As soon as he started all the "helping" she started slowing down, took a pee, sniffed around (didn't drop the bird). The purpose behing putting a dog through a forcing program is to clearly define for the dog it part of the retrieving teamwork. By toot-tooting EVERY time, and giving praise on top of that, he was essentially taking pressure OFF the dog. "OK, you done good, no need to work so hard from here on in." Once I pointed this out, they went back to strict adherence to the dog being ENTIRELY responsible from "guns up" to "give". No toot-toot. No "atta girl". If she deviated in training, "here means here" was in effect. Now, if she hears a whistle in the field, she knows she'd darned well HUSTLE. Thing is, with trict adherence to "You've got a responsibility here, and I expect you to take care of it.", the NEED for the toot-toot has disappeared.

Moral of story - don't enable your dog.

Lisa

 

[Swampy-]

That?s what I meant by Every command has its intended purpose....I don't trill unless I'm not getting the return I think I should get....Obviously if the dawg has to negotiate cover I?m not going to get the same return speed I would get in an open field....A Quick little toot says hey PICK UP THE PACE...You're absolutely right Lisa...You desensitize your dawg....When I toot, my dawg speeds up...not true for others...the dawg hears it all the time so it becomes a "normal" part of the retrieve.....I don't want it to become a "normal" part....I want the whistle trill to mean somthing..Its Not just for dress......Thanks for making my point better then I could!

 

[Randy Bohn]

whistles

BELLADAWG, I think you might have passed over some questions earlier.

 

[Swampy-]

What might those be????