Acme Whistles

[Esty]

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My rescue girly Emmy has zero recall away from the house and garden to the extent that I now don't let her off except in dog parks or when I hire the local riding school! Getting boring and expensive, not to mention that the local dog park is a mess and gets some undesirable dogs in there.. She just gets very distracted off lead and will go racing up to people with dogs as she wants to play. This isn't acceptable (she could get hurt) so I want to try from scratch with a whistle. I think she may have been worked (very keen when she sees birds/ bunnies!) and I get the feeling she would just run through barbed wire if she saw a pheasant or something similar Anyway, a whistle may be our last hope to be able to let her off lead eventually. We do have counryside areas to exercise her but she needs to have good recall as we're never too far from roads/ rivers here in Cheshire.

So back to the question - which size Acme whistle do you use for a lurcher/ longdog? Just the general 210?

 

[chid21]

both my lurchers are trained on the 211 1/2 whistle , found this one the best ...

starting from scratch with a whistle.... my opinion on this is you need a good recall before the whistle is introduced, something to assosiate the whistle to.... your best starting from scratch using verbal commannds and a long line to get her recall good then introduce the whistle by giving verbal command then blowing whistle (i use 2 quick toots) .

also if the dog as a high prey drive , if it starts chasing you will not stop it by blowing a whistle ,

btw before you walk your dog off the lead in the countryside make sure your dog is stock broke, even if it aint got the power/weight to pull a sheep, at this time of year during lambing your dog could cause a field full of ewes to abort ...

 

[Esty]

Thanks for the advice. She does have good recall in enclosed areas such as the dog park and garden - I figured I could call her verbally and then give two short toots of the whistle as she's returning, using a reward that she doesn't usually get such as salami. We could practise in the safety of the riding school where there are more distractions. I don't have a problem getting her to return to go back on the lead in the dog park but obviously there aren't the distractions and dangers in there. I don't think I would let her off near stock (although she doesn't react near farm animals etc when she's on the lead) as I do think she would injure herself on fencing etc aside from what could happen if she did lose control. It's mainly for events such as if someone comes into the dog park so I can manage her greetings better or if she escapes (our dog park doesn't have a very high fence.) Also, I believe all three of my dogs would benefit from knowing who is boss a little more and I think having good recall would help that. The 2 whippets have pretty good recall but I'm sure would benefit from more practise.

To be honest, she reminds me of a rescue Afghan hound we had when I was growing up. We never were able to let him off lead She's bright but stubborn - however I want to give the training a good shot before I give up ever letting her offlead. I am pretty cautious and I only trust one of my whippets off lead on walks.

 

[milly]

both my lurchers are trained on the 211 1/2 whistle , found this one the best ...
starting from scratch with a whistle.... my opinion on this is you need a good recall before the whistle is introduced, something to assosiate the whistle to.... your best starting from scratch using verbal commannds and a long line to get her recall good then introduce the whistle by giving verbal command then blowing whistle (i use 2 quick toots) .

also if the dog as a high prey drive , if it starts chasing you will not stop it by blowing a whistle ,

btw before you walk your dog off the lead in the countryside make sure your dog is stock broke, even if it aint got the power/weight to pull a sheep, at this time of year during lambing your dog could cause a field full of ewes to abort ...

I've orded one of these today off ebay, because I find it very hard to whistle since losing my bottom front teeth :b

 

[Juley]

I use the 210, I found it helped to stop them long enough for me to be heard above the wind on the coast. Moved inland now so not such a problem.

 

[gilliwigs]

I didn't even realise you could get different strength whistles! :b

I've taught Jonah to come to the whistle and he is pretty reliable although not if there's something more interesting to investigate. But it's been very useful for when he wanders off or a bit too far as I can't shout that loud! I followed the instructions given with the whistle that I bought and started off blowing it just before I put his food bowl down so he started to associate it with something nice. Then I moved on to recalling him from the garden every so often and giving him a treat when he came. He learnt really quickly and 90% of the time (maybe more) recall is instant - he stops what he's doing, turns around and runs back to me.

Good luck with Emmy's training :thumbsup: