‘Absolute Whoa’ ™ What do I mean?

I referred to my term ‘absolute whoa’ ™ in another article about a private clinic that I have. Today I am going to define that term for everyone.

There are multiple methods to train a dog and many methods include using the word ‘whoa’. Many folks use these different methods yet every year I train dogs for folks who either gave up or figured out they didn’t have the time to actually train a dog themselves. When I get those dogs I learn what was done, what method, etc.

I would say, as I do on my free training tips page, that whoa is the single most important command that one can teach to a dog. It can save their life. I have been saying this to folks for over 17 years and for 10 years on my web site. One can imagine all the scenarios not bird related where the simple whoa command could save a dogs life.

I once had a gentleman … …come to my training facility with a friend who was to get his dog trained by me. After exchanging pleasantries and checking in the dog to be trained, the other gentleman asked if I would look at his dog. I do evaluations for free so of course I agreed.

He got his dog out of the truck and began to discuss common problems such as creeping, jumping in and busting birds, etc., all things that have to do with a dog leaving ‘whoa’. I asked him to demonstrate the whoa command on his dog which he did. The dog was placed at whoa and almost immediately the dog wanted to take a step or move. The gentleman never left his side.

I asked him to please put the dog at whoa and step away from the dog. When he did, the dog wanted to move – every single time. At that point I told the gentleman that his problem was simple, his dog does not know whoa. He was a bit put out by my observation so I invited him to observe Chief.

Chief was retrieved from the house and placed at whoa. We’ll say it was 9:00 a.m. for the sake of illustration.

Meanwhile I began to discuss the issues in more depth that the gentleman was having with his dog. We went to the training field and he began to demonstrate his dog’s abilities on birds and such. It was obvious that, though the dog was nearly 5 years old, he had gotten away with a lot of what I call ‘nearly trained’ issues.

I subscribe to the adage that if you give a dog an inch in yard work, they will take a mile in the field. It’s a bit like sighting in a rifle. Off an inch at 25 yards is off feet at 100 or 300 yards.

It is now 9:30 and Chief remains in his whoa position though at one point I did allow him to sit for rest. This went on for another 15 minutes. Finally, the gentleman looked at Chief and declared “My dog doesn’t know whoa like that”. My reply, “That’s absolute whoa” ™.

You see, a dog must understand this basic command to be successful at many things because it is a foundation command. After some more discussion we took Chief to the field and let him cast away as if hunting. At 100 yards or so I command whoa. He skidded to a halt and stood. We discussed some more aspects of whoa all while Chief stood at whoa. Several minutes later, I released Chief and he resumed his hunt. That’s about the end of that story and the gentleman was thankful. The next time I saw the dog, he absolutely knew whoa!

Whoa can be used to reinforce bird dog training. For example, a dog is learning to honor. He runs in to the dog on point, slows a bit then proceeds to steal point. When that dog slowed, he was acknowledging that he knew there was a bird. A simple ‘whoa’ command when he slowed would have told him that you know he knows and that he should stop in those situations.

What about the dog that is creeping or busting? If your dog knows absolute whoa, he will obey and continue to stand. I’m not saying whoa him into a point. I’m saying that when he points you can reinforce that point by commanding whoa for young dogs. Older dogs that should know better are handled a bit differently.

Not to digress too far but there are some who do not use verbal commands when a dog is on birds. Their thought process is that the dog should learn to hold on its own. There is nothing wrong with that program, however, whoa is an important command for other reasons.

Here’s a few:

1. Dog is about to attack a skunk, porcupine, cow, etc. (been in that situation many times)
2. Dog is about to run into traffic. (have used it to keep a dog out of the road, even a gravel county road)
3. Dog is about to jump into an open well thinking it is a shallow container of water (this happened to me!).
4. Dog is about to run off of a cliff in unfamiliar territory because the cover is so tall / thick he can’t see the edge (this happened to me too!)
5. Dog is far out front and you just want him wait for you to get there before releasing him again.

And this list could go on and on.

Absolute Whoa ™, EVERY bird dog should know it.

Merry Christmas ya’ll!

Dave