"Hunt Dead" Whistle

"Hunt Dead" Whistle

Dogs become conditioned and learn to respond to a "hunt dead" whistle if it is used consistently when both the dog and the hunter know the location of the bird.

s with many of the drills and "tricks" that I have taught over the years to improve the communication with my dogs while hunting, I owe this one to my longtime training and hunting buddy Mike Gould. But let me warn you ahead of time: If you have field trial or hunt test aspirations, you’d better think twice before conditioning your dog to rely on a "hunt dead" whistle. I’ll explain why later.

The basic premise behind conditioning your dog to a "hunt dead" whistle is to convey to them, "That’s the "spot; hunt for the bird or follow the scent from that spot - start looking right there!" You are trying to help your dog find the bird and get back with it more quickly by letting him know that this is roughly where you saw the bird go down, so he should start the hunt around that area. Is this meant to be a substitute for good marking? No more so than handling a dog on a mark to put him into the area of the fall - which is a fairly common practice when hunting. Conditioning your dog to a "hunt dead" whistle is intended as an adjunct to marking - when the dog gets to the area of the fall, it gives him a point from which to start his hunt, which helps him to quickly find the bird and return with it.

As with most learned behavior, responses are formed by repetitive reaction to a sound or visual signal of some sort. After a time, the positive repetitions, if conditioned to the same command each time and then followed by praise, become habits. In simplest terms, this is conditioning or programming a dog to respond in the manner that the trainer chooses and to the signal that he gives. It’s something we’ve all used, from teaching "sit" and "come" to complicated hand signals.

The goal in conditioning your dog to respond to a "hunt dead" whistle; helping your retriever get his nose on the ground and find the bird!

Many years ago, I lived in a three-story townhouse, and I didn’t have an extension phone on the lower or basement level. For you younger readers, there were days when all phones had cords attached - so this was in the days long before cordless phones. Anyhow, I had a television room and my office on the basement level. Every time I would hear the phone ring on the main floor, I would jump up and race up the stairs to get the phone. My dogs picked up on my behavior, and eventually it became a race to see who could be the first to get to the top of the stairs. Then, if the door was closed into the hall leading to the steps and I didn’t hear the phone ringing, the dogs went one step further: To alert me that the phone was ringing, they started barking and jumping in circles followed by racing for the steps once I opened the door. I had collaterally conditioned them to hear a phone ring, bark wildly, and race up the steps. (Pavlov would be rolling over in his grave about now.)

When they were outside in their kennels, they would still happily notify me that the phone was ringing inside by barking and raising hell in their kennels. But when they were outside (remember, this was a townhouse), they also began to perform the same antics when a neighbors’ phone rang anywhere within "dog hearing range!" Of course, this set all of the dogs in the adjoining yards into a frenzy and garnered me a visit from the local law enforcement officials. I learned real quickly about keeping them in crates inside the house when I was gone. And, I had an extension phone installed on the lower level.

The point of this is, I had unknowingly conditioned my dogs to act like idiots and bark wildly whenever a phone rang — anywhere in the neighborhood! Conditioning your dog to respond to a "hunt dead" whistle is no different. This is not a training drill per se; it is a planned conditioning where, over time, the dog begins to associate the sound of the whistle with the positive reinforcement of finding a bird.

In heavier cover, when the dog reaches the area where you think the bird has landed, blow the "hunt dead" whistle to help him understand that this is the area to begin the hunt.

Here’s how it works: When you first start conditioning your dog to respond to a "hunt dead" whistle, it is important that you train yourself to have your whistle ready and watch carefully and mark exactly where the birds or bumpers fall when they are thrown or shot. Then, as your dog reaches the spot of the fall and reaches down and picks up the bumper or the bird, or as he passes over the spot where the bumper or bird fell, give him a couple of quick "tweets" on the whistle. In the beginning, it is imperative that you create a positive connection between hearing the whistle and finding the bird or the bumper, so the bird or bumper must be at that spot for him to retrieve.

Eventually, if you use this whistle signal each time he reaches the spot of a fall, he will begin to associate hearing the whistle with putting his nose down and beginning to hunt at that location. After a time, if there is no bird there, he will associate the whistle with, "Look here for the bird; hunt for it." The signal that you want to condition him to listen for is the two quick whistle "tweets" and the praise for doing this action correctly is actually finding a bird or bumper to retrieve when he hears the whistle.

Now, this is not something that you familiarize the dog with intermittently in one or two training sessions. Likewise, it is not something that you can teach once or twice, not use it again until next hunting season, and expect him to remember it. It is something that you work on and develop repeatedly when training and hunting over a long period of time and utilize for the rest of the dog’s life. And it works. I have seen dogs conditioned to a "hunt dead" whistle literally do a somersault in the field when, on a dead run, they hear the whistle, drop their nose, and trip over the bird!

I have been asked that if a dog is conditioned to hearing a "hunt dead" whistle and doesn’t hear it, will he still hunt for a bird? Or is it like stopping a dog that is running a line to a blind, will he continue until he hears the whistle? My answer has to be that this is a teamwork exercise. This is not a total-control exercise such as running lines and casting to blinds. Like I said, it is not something that he is "trained" to do; it is something that he is conditioned to react to. The emphasis of conditioning your dog to react to a "hunt dead whistle" is on developing and improving the communication between you and your dog to make you a better hunting team.

Previously, I mentioned that if you were a hunt test or field trial participant, that you’d better think twice about conditioning your dog to respond to a whistle command of this type. Let me explain why.

Several years ago, I was running a Master level hunt test with one of my dogs, now long gone. I had conditioned this young female to respond to the "hunt dead" whistle command ever since she was a pup, and, since I hunted her extensively on upland birds as well as waterfowl, it had become an invaluable asset. When I sent her a on a shot flyer, which was the third mark of a delayed triple, upon reaching the area of the fall, which was in fairly high cover, I gave her two quick toots on my whistle and she began a systematic hunt of that area. As her circles widened, each time she crossed the area of the fall, I repeated the "tweet, tweet." To make a long story short, she stayed in the heavily scented immediate area of the fall and found the bird in the high grass in about four or five passes.

When it came time to get called back for the next series, we were not among the callbacks. Later, when I questioned the judge as to the reason, he said that he had counted each time I used the whistle as a cast and I was out. I had watched dogs that totally mismarked the bird and had to be handled into the area of the fall that were called back. I had also watched dogs that hunted far out of the area of the fall while their handlers stood silently and watched, who got called back. So, judge the validity of utilizing this "hunt dead" whistle based on your own circumstances.