I have a 9 week old lab puppy I have been working with everyday. We are working on sit and down. Plus I play fetch with her a lot. She will already bring her rope toy back to me without much coaxing. I've heard some people use whistles and hand signals with their commands. If so what kind of signals how many whistle blasts? Also am I doing too much too early? I usually work with her until she starts leaving me for the front door.

one long whistle means sit, multiple usually 3 short means come. We don't whistle train until 6 months.

They reccommend not to throw too many times. Always quit leaving them wanting more. I don't usually start whistle training until forcing to the pile. And teach handling on the double T.

Robby

We teach pups to recall on the whistle from the time they are 2 weeks old. It's imprinted on them that way and they will always have a conditioned whistle recall. We start with the hand signal & whistle signal for sit at about 6-8 weeks. I prefer for them to be patient and responsive early on, so that I can get the obedience down and move on to the 'fun' stuff.

I don't think it's too early. But it might be too LONG (each session, that is.) Cut it off before she heads for the door. Puppies have a very short attention span.

I agree whole heatedly. You can't start too early.

Concerning hand signals, people are often impressed when very young pups respond to silent gestures. I like to ask my clients "when was the last time you heard a dog verbalize what he wanted?" It's a dog's nature to communicate by body language, so hand signals are what s/he will naturally learn FIRST. As I often joke, their vocabulary is limited so when we talk, they hear "blah-blah-blah- FETCH" or "blah-blah-blah HERE" or "blah-blah-blah SIT" Dogs only key in on the words they know (and more often, the intonation rather than the word itself), but they are very quick to read body language. After all, that's how they speak to each other. So, don't hesitate to communicate with gestures early on - your pup will likely respond to it better than any words.

Awesome! She seems to be catching on quick. I just want to make sure I can give consistent hand signals, whistles, and commands.