- 1). Practice making different sounds with the whistle. Although you won't hear a whistling sound, you can still hear your breath pass through the hole. Try making long notes, short notes, and rising and falling sounds. Practice using your tongue against the mouthpiece while blowing to make a series of very short whistles.
- 2). Make sure your dog is paying attention to you during training sessions. At first, the dog might ignore the whistle, especially if there are more interesting things going on. Be sure to reward the dog with praise and treats each time it responds successfully to a command.
- 3). Teach your dog to associate the whistle with commands he already knows. Your dog should be familiar with voice commands and associated hand gestures for "sit" and "come."
- 4). Command the dog to sit and use the hand gesture he knows, and then do a long blow with the whistle. After a few tries with this, give only the hand command with the whistle. When the dog responds to this, practice with just the whistle and eliminate the hand command.
- 5). Work on getting the dog to sit with the whistle command from increasingly longer distances. If the dog tries to come to you, reinforce the "sit" command with the hand gesture or your voice.
- 6). Train the dog to come to you using the whistle. Call the dog as you usually do, with the hand gestures you usually use. Along with calling the dog, make a series of short whistles using your tongue against the mouthpiece.
- 7). Command the dog to sit. Back away from the dog and call it again. Do this several times, and then command the dog to come only with the hand gestures and the whistle. When the dog responds well to this, eliminate the hand gesture and practice with just the whistle.
- 8). Practice the "sit" and "come" commands with only the whistle for several training sessions before trying to use only the whistle while hunting or on a busy street.
- 9). Teach your dog other whistle commands it will need to know by teaching the voice commands and hand gestures first, then introduce the whistle and gradually eliminate the voice command and hand gesture. Make sure you use a distinctive whistle sound for each command.
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