This house vengeance days and you'll read therapy dogs well find game.They also come to understand that when they are released from heel with the double whistle tap, they are to start running, hunting, and having fun.The heel command does not affect them mentally the field unless improperly applied. BEFORE I start with how to teach whoa, keep this mind, your dog is never allowed to be released from whoa unless you allow it by deciding at the beginning of your training program that he is to either be 'steady to wing shot 'steady to wing' or 'steady until flush'. CREEPING WITH YOU AS YOU GO TO FLUSH IS UNSAFE! Decide now that you teach your dog: A. To either 1. Break at the flush or 2. break at the shot or 3. only break when commanded, even if a kill was made this is steady to wing and shot. No matter the level of training, he heel or be commanded to release with touch and or whistle to continue hunting should you have a non-productive No matter what level of steadiness you choose, Steadiness is important! Keep mind that even if a dog that is only steady until flush and has a non-productive he need a release touch or command. I prefer touch. Once the pup has learned heel we add whoa. When you stop walking and the pup is properly heeled at your side, he naturally come to a stop as well. We take advantage of that and command easy tone whoooa every time we stop, that is step 1 of the dog learning whoa! You stroke him up and talk sweet talk but 't let him move Do this every time you stop while he is at the heel position. pups' mind, he associate stopping with the word whoa. The reason we use easy tone when commanding whoa is that when you really need it, like pup bolting across a busy road, you can say it loudly and firmly, which certainly get pups attention!If the pup doesn't stop when you stop, then you need to lightly check him with the lead, set him back to the position of heel and command whoa style him up while he is standing there and give him some sweet talk while repeating ‘whoa'.He associate good things with standing and hearing the ‘whoa' word be more apt to stop and stand the next time you are heeling him and command whoa. View this windows movie clip of a dog that is just learning heel with whoa We want our dog to stop abruptly when commanded to whoa. This carries over to the field later as your dog associate whoa with pointing and be more apt to 'slam' on point rather than slow down and finally stop to point. Slowing down when it smells faint amounts of scent then stopping after it has strong scent is actually a form of creeping! We want our dogs to slam on point! SLAMMING ON POINT IS THE HALLMARK FEATURE OF PROGRAM! Pointing on first scent is absolutely essential for spooky wild birds! One way to get your pup to 'slam' to a stop on whoa is to command him to whoa while simultaneously coming to abrupt stop yourself. pups be spooked into stopping suddenly at which point you gently style him up and coo the 'whoooa' command conjunction with sweet talk and stroking. Repeat until you 't have to make abrupt movements to get the pup to stop suddenly. I find that by suddenly placing lead hand quickly front of the pups face with palm open toward pup making the traffic cop stop sign also helps him to understand to stop suddenly. You can also suddenly slide your feet when you come to a stop and the noise created by your feet cause the dog to be bewildered and stop suddenly. You can also give the dog a sudden 'check' when you come to the sudden stop while simultaneously speaking 'whoa'. Any or all of these combinations help the dog understand to whoa instantly. We like to add the Barrel technique at the same time that we're adding whoa to the heel command, since it really teaches pup to stand firmly and intensely. The Barrel technique is found tips index. It is not necessary but does help those dogs that just 't get it. Some of you not have good control of your dog with ordinary lead. If this is true, I recommend Smith's Lead which sells for about 20 bucks and comes with instructions. A cheap alternative if cowboy country is to go to the farm and ranch store and get a two strand piggin' string for about 9 bucks. Please read our section on 'heel' as it explains how to introduce the pup to birds using heel and how