Teaching Whoa?
I teach whoa in the house on the floor. I teach and enforce whoa before a dog eats, goes outside. I do not use a half-hitch unless I feel it will help a dog understand the command and will help them perform the task at hand. I teach whoa on birds using a launcher, allowing the dog to want to naturally ‘creep’ up on the bird and then having it launched at a certain distance. This is the easiest way for me to teach a dog whoa as I do not have a wild bird population at the ready. This makes the connection that a bird going up means “whoa” and that a dog cannot get the reward by chasing or pouncing on the birds when it comes time to teach a dog to be steady to the shot and fall.
