The Whistle Sit and Casting

[The following email was my reply to a question I received in private correspondence, asking what to do if the dog does not sit facing the handler on a whistle sit. The writer was concerned that if, for example, you cue "Back" to a dog that's facing east instead of toward the handler to the south, the dog will spin 180° and run west instead of going north as the handler intends. I took the opportunity to address some related topics at the same time. Perhaps I'll have time to convert this to an essay in the future. See Alice Woodyard's reply at end of the post.]

Thanks for writing. I'm no expert, but I'll tell you my opinions.

First, in my experience, "Back" does not teach the dog to make a 180 degree turn. Rather, it drives the dog straight away from you, which my dogs, at least, seem to consider fun. If they don't have the bird, it's much easier to get a good "Back" response than a come-in.

In fact, "Back" is so deeply ingrained in advanced handling dogs that I and other trainers I've seen do not use the verbal cue for angle-backs, relying instead on a silent visual cue if possible. It's not unusual to see a trainer use a visual angle-back cue in combination with a verbal "Back" only to see the dog spin around and continue straight away from the handler, taking the dog further off line, essentially following the verbal cue and ignoring the visual one. The dog had a reason for going that direction, and when you call "Back", the dog seems to take that as confirmation she was going the correct direction.

On the subject of casting a dog who is not sitting straight, I would say that the only immediate practical problem is that you won't be able to cast the dog both directions. If the dog is skewed right, for example, it will be difficult to spin her to the left. However, if you plan to send her straight back, on an angle-back to the right, or on a straight right "Over", I think she'll probably go the way you cue. She'll interpret the cues relative to the direction she sees you, not relative to the position she's sitting in.

That said, I'm not comfortable casting my dogs when they're not sitting straight, and I've noticed that other trainers often aren't either. In my case, this isn't really because I don't think the dog will go the correct direction. Rather, it's because the dog has two modes -- hunt versus handling. As a rule, hunt is for marks, handling is for blinds. The dog needs to have a clear sense of which mode she is in, because handling mode ruins marks in those case where a confident hunt is required, and of course hunting mode prevents the dog from responding to handling cues. When the dog sits skewed, I think she has one foot in each mode, sort of responding to the whistle but on the verge of switching to hunt mode.

I don't think it's good for her to be in that mental no-man's-land. I think it's confusing and might lead to frustration (for the dog as well as for the handler). I want her to have as clear a sense as possible as to which mode she's in. On the one hand, when she lines up for a mark, I want her to be totally in hunt mode, though I may in rare cases need to blow my whistle and switch her to handling mode. On the other hand, when she lines up for a blind, I like a nice, driving send-out on "Back", but above all, I need her to be in handling mode from the moment I blow the first whistle.

When the dog sits crooked, I typically wait a little while before cueing anything. That's because I believe the dog is poised to break, and I don't want her anticipating my next cue and guessing wrong. In addition, there's a behaviorist's reason for not casting immediately. The cast is a reinforcer, and if you cast instantly when the dog sits askew, you're "clicking" the dog for that incorrect response to your whistle. So there are really two good reasons to pause for a few seconds: to give the dog a moment to calm down, and to avoid reinforcing the incorrect sit.

Next, I give a come-in cue. For me, this is multiple tweets, optionally with both arms pointing straight down. Don't say "here" in this situation, because the judge is liable to interpret that as you picking up the dog, and your test will then be over. Another reason for not saying "here" is that, while the come-in whistle hopefully means to the dog, "Come in till I stop you with another whistle", "here" means, "Come all the way to me, I won't be stopping you on the way in."

As the dog begins the come-in, she straightens out, and then I immediately blow another whistle sit (one tweet). The dog may show some confusion, but once she sits (this time straight, typically), I immediately cast her toward the blind. This rewards her for sitting, and also rewards her for the entire chain of coming in and then sitting, making it easier to straighten her out this way over time. Because you did not reward the skewed sit, and consistently straightened her out before casting her to the bird, she'll hopefully become more likely to sit straight on future whistle sits in order to get herself cast toward the bird sooner.

Let me add another point, where I wrote "once she sits, I immediately cast her." This is one area that I think 2Q and 4Q trainers need to think somewhat differently. 4Q trainers, as usual, are at the advantage. It would really be better not to cast immediately for several reasons. A delay gives the dog a chance to gather herself mentally and physically, get her attention on you, coil for the cast. Most importantly, it discourages "auto-casting", where the dog releases herself from the sit, often heading in the wrong direction. Those are reasons why a 4Q trainer will typically not use an immediate cast after a whistle sit.

But a 2Q trainer doesn't have the ecollar to reinforce the whistle sit. For a 2Q dog, the only reason to sit is to get to the bird. The longer you delay your cast, the less valuable the reward is, and the less you're adding to your dog's reinforcement history for sitting on the whistle. Therefore, if you watch me handling my dogs, you'll see that I tend to cast much earlier than the good 4Q trainers. They probably think this is inexperience on my part, since it's also a typical beginner mistake, but I'm doing it intentionally, to "click" the dog for sitting. Fortunately, my dogs are pretty good handling dogs, so I can afford not following the role-model of good 4Q trainers in this particular detail.

Sorry for the long answer. I hope somewhere in there you found something helpful.

LL&L

[Alice Woodyard, one of my mentors, reviewed the above correspondence and sent the following feedback:]

That is a good answer, I think. I want to make one comment. The technique of using a quick toot toot to straighten a sit should ONLY be used in training. It is very dangerous to use it at a test/trial (event) because a number of judges (not all, but more than a trivial number) will interpret it as "correcting" or "training" or "intimidation" or "not making progress to the bird" and will DQ you for it, or at least warn you (you'll be lucky to get only warned).

If you are mentoring [someone], be sure to tell her what is okay for training but not at the event.

Personally I think the dogs learn to adjust for their own crooked sit, once they are in the field (not the yard), and, as you say, "Back" is defined with reference to the handler, not the dog's spine.

Therefore I think straightening a sit is sort of worthless aerobics for both, and I don't personally recommend it.