Preparing to
Teach a Pointing Dogıs Most Important Command
By Rhett Kermicle
Without a doubt, the most
important command for a pointing dog is "Whoa," which means,
simply, "Stop moving, NOW." Of course, any breed of pointing dog
from good bloodlines doesnıt have to be taught to stop. As pups
they will stop and point just about anything that gets their
interest, from butterflies to birds. The challenge is to keep the
dog stopped until you say it is OK to go again.
There is a lot of preliminary
work that goes into teaching this command. Iıll cover that here
and weıll go into the more advanced aspects of it in a later
article. To successfully train a pointing dog, remember the number
one rule: Donıt start out teaching whoa around birds. The worst
thing that could happen would be for you to discipline a dog
around a bird too early, risking the chance of making him
bird-shy.
In fact, at our kennel, the first
few phases of whoa training donıt even involve a verbal command.
We start out with pups as young as 8 weeks, setting them up on a
table and stroking them and getting them used to standing still
for 10 seconds to 1 minute at a time. We give them a treat
occasionally while theyıre standing still. Everything about this
exercise teaches the dog that standing still is pleasurable.
By 16 weeks, we move the exercise
to a barrel turned on it side. Now the dog is learning that moving
will cause the barrel to rock a bit, and thatıs uncomfortable for
him. You can let the dog fall off the barrel so his back feet are
on the ground. Again, the lesson learned is that standing still is
more pleasurable than moving.
At this stage, weıre still not
using the word "Whoa." What we are doing, however, is stroking the
dog, giving him treats, and handling him. We rub his sides and
stroke up his tail. This will pay off later when weıre doing bird
work and you need to correct the dog. It will keep him from
breaking down just because youıre touching him.
The next step is to introduce the
word "Whoa." Repeat it over and over while the dog is standing on
the barrel. Now youıre ready to transfer the exercise to the
ground. Again, repeat "Whoa" while the dog stands still. Keep a
check cord on the dog the whole time so if he tries to break you
can catch him. If he moves or tries to run, simply pick him up and
place him back at the original point, then go back to stroking him
and saying "Whoa."
After a few sessions of this, you
can introduce some pressure in the form of making the check cord
into a half-hitch around the dogıs flank. Do this by attaching the
check cord to the D-ring on the dogıs collar, then run it back
under the dogıs belly and up over the back, sliding the end of the
check cord underneath itself on top. When you tug on the tag end,
the loop tightens around the flank. It doesnıt take a lot of
pressure to remind a dog to stay stopped. Now you can move around
the yard with the dog and command "Whoa" at intervals. If he
doesnıt stop, a quick tug on the check cord will remind him.
This methodical process sets the
stage for transitioning to the more serious whoa work, during
which time we introduce an electronic collar to reinforce the whoa
command, the goal being to guarantee our dog wonıt break under any
circumstances. Iıll cover this topic in my next article.
If you want to review the other
training exercises weıve done to this point, Iıve been archiving
that information at the SportDog Web site:
www.sportdog.net <http://www.sportdog.net/>
. Refer to this site for training tips or to review other articles
in this training series.
Rhett Kermicle has 20 yearsı
experience training hunting dogs. He is a co-owner, guide and dog
handler at Wild Wing Kennel in Sturgis, Kentucky. For more
information, go to
www.wildwingkennel.com <http://www.wildwingkennel.com/>
.
