How hard should I blow my dog whistle?

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How hard should I blow my gun dog whistle?

You don’t need to blow hard on a whistle - a dog’s hearing is far more acute than ours.

Monday, 25 June 2007

When it comes to the stop whistle, for both labs and spaniels, how hard do you blow the call? Some folk say you should just 'breathe' on it while other trainers tell me just the opposite.

Gun dogs
PETER BLATCH says: How you blow the stop whistle really depends on the type that you use. Most whistles are numbered from 210 - 211 1/2. I prefer the latter for both my Labradors and spaniels.

Regardless of breed I always use two pips and a hand signal to turn a gun dog and one short blast to stop. For 'normal' commands I blow very lightly – almost breathing on it, as the saying goes.

To stop a chase situation I would suggest blowing slightly harder to get the command across, and understood. Remember that a dog's hearing is probably ten times more acute than our own so you don't have to blow hard on the whistle to get its attention.

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