I don't have frequent access to birds and real field training so always try to incorporate some bird dog type things into both play and training we do at the park.

One thing we started doing is I put her in a whoa for about 5 minutes, then toss the tennis ball across the field and into the woods. That's a big distraction for her as she loves the chase but she no longer breaks the whoa, although she does start whining impatiently after the ball has landed. I wait a little while, then release her, asking her to fetch. I thought that may be a good way to practice the sequence of whoa, marking where the object (or bird) falls, waiting for the realease, looking for the object (or bird) and bringing it back.

I do know that this does not take the place of a real training setup in the field. What I am basically shooting for is restraint and structure, rather than just playing fetch (which we also do).

Any thoughts on this? Am I overlooking something that may be counter-productive? Any suggestions for variation of this theme?

Francine: So far I have always sent her. I was unsure as to how long to wait after the toss to send her. I usually wait 30-60 seconds. The whine is not that bad and is getting quieter as I wait, so it should be easy to wait until she's totally quiet and then add two minutes to the whoa before sending her. I will also try the heeling her off.

If she takes a step or two, I pick her up and set her back down exactly where she was without repeating the command. It worked well for me. Today, for the first time, I used the e-collar as a correction. She took two steps forward, I nicked her and she retreated backwards to the exact spot. That tells me that she knows exactly what is expected of her. That was the only time she broke the whoa today.

Another thing she does as I walk away or around her, is she turns her head more than I like as I feel it may lead to her turning her body. (There's also a lot of flagging going on.) How would you address that?

I need to work on moving things towards and underneath her, I don't do it often enough. I sometimes bounce a ball right in front of her, or kick around in a shrub as if flushing a bird, etc. I live next to a baseball field and I usually practice the sit stay where the crowds walk around her any which way, will try this for the whoa too. Lots of kids.

Bev: That's good advice - God forbid her whine turns into a bark or a full run! Not good! I remember one incident during the NA last April when one dog would not go in the water and they threw bumper after bumper until there were 15 bumpers floating in the water, we were watching and Tessa went ballistic! As the bumpers accumulated her whine turned into a screech and she flopped around on the leash trying hard to get into the water, quite the drama queen, had to lead her away and out of sight.

This was her yesterday:

I would suggest you add a cap gun into the mix when you toss your bumper.

I would also caution you to keep her on a check cord when you first use live birds.  I can almost for sure say she will break whoa on the flush.  I got my GSP steady as a rock to every distraction i could supply......besides stray cats and flushing birds.  Rock solid!  Then with birds he was as if he never heard my whoa.  We are making good progress now but its taking a lot of bird exposure.