Monday, March 31, 2008

Whistle Sits


Hi Don,

I’ve been too busy to get down to Y-towing, but did get a chance to get out with Ruby to work on whistle sits a bit. She’s coming along. I used a 50 foot check cord to correct her at first, using the whistle blast and a verbal “SIT” at first. Now we’re working on the whistle alone without the verbal command and no check cord. The attached video shows one unstopped retrieve first (I do two full retrieves for every one whistle sit – otherwise she tends to stop on her own in anticipation of the whistle – “popping” I think they call it in “Water Dog”). In the second one she stops within a few steps of the whistle command. Seems that the closer she is to the bumper/bird when I stop her the more likely she is to disobey, so we’re working our way closer and closer. A few weeks ago I had her out in the fields and she put up a bunch of hens. I had to re-enforce the whistle with a loud “SIT” but she did it with a bunch of birds in full flush right in front of her, so I was quite pleased!





Hope that all is well.

Cheers,

-Dave