Why WHOA

[Spear]

Why the word WHOA intead of stay?

[BdBHunts]

I use steady because whoa rhymes with my dog's name.

[Huntingonthebrain]

I am finding that with stay.. my dog stays in the same place..but I don't worry if he looks around, licks himself or sniffs the ground.. he just simply has to stay in place. Whoa is the command that as Jixer puts it "tells the dog that you don't want him to move even a paw". The better he can stay put the better chance you have of being able to move in and flush the bird without the dog putting it to flight. Some guys use "Whup" or "Hup" as "whoa" sounds an awful lot like "No". My dog pretty much ignores "No" now (we used it way to much when he was little.. we get more response from "Ah Ah Ah" now). Jixer.. you wanna chime in on this?? You had a pretty explanation for me the other day.

[Spear]

I was using the word "stay" really because "whoa" sounded too much like "No" and because that is how we always trainded our dogs when we were kids, but they were not hunting dogs. Hup sounds good or something like that. I never thought of stay meaning something different than Whoa. Time to rethink how I train the whoa command. Or what ever you call it.

[Jixer]

Whoa is a pretty big topic with lots of opinions.
Use whatever command you want. As long as the dog knows that it is not allowed to take a step, that is what counts.
I don't know about "Hup", I think springer people use it for "sit"? and some people use it for "Turn"?

To me "Whoa" does sound like "No" but my dog seems to the difference so I have not worried about it too much.

[Maverick]

As I understand it whoa is a harder sounding word and easier for a dog to understand. Whoa means stop, not in a few steps but slam on the brakes and stay standing.
Stay is used in sit.. stay, down .. stay. ect...
I imagine you could train and use the word stay, the word who has been used for pointing dogs, well it is in every book I have ever read, even the real old old books.
My dogs no the difference between no and whoa and I have not had a problem. I was told after it was to late to use the OFF instead of no. I will use it in the future with new dogs.

Mav......

[Big Bird]

Whoa....

I have seen trainers that knew they wanted the dog to stand still and not move use "STAY" . I seen "STOP" and I have seen a competative trainer use fruit name "PEACHES" "GRAPES" and "PRUNES". He had three dogs and he did not want other handlers to know when he whoad his dog.

You can train your dog to stop on a whistle command for whoa, and say nothing. It is all your personal preference. I use one hard blast from a thrill end of my whistle. I use the opposite end that just issues a peep for the dog two come. I give two quick beeps

The advantage of a universal training command is that you can trade off the dog to go out with a friend for the day. In our training circle it works conviently for me to run my dog with a friends dog. The command is the same. It has also worked when I visited a fellow and used his dog for a hunt.

[dan]

I was told the whoa comes from the same command used to stop the horse, which is where the pointing dogs are commonly used, big fields hunted on horse back. The rider/handler says whoa and the horse and dog would stop. This makes a lot of sense to me, so the question now is why did the horse riders start using whoa? I know that the true cowboys and ranchers today do not name their horses, they keep rotating the horses daily when they drive their cattle . There was no real attachement to one horse like Roy Rogers and that other guy with the famous horse.

dan

[Maverick]

I have seen some folks think that using differnent names for whoa will through off competitors or judges. It only takes a few times of hearing the handler ssay a word and seeing the dogs reaction to figure it out.
Saw one guy use the word "point" for whoa. His dog was just about locked up and he would yell point ( at the judges :eek: ) and the dog would style up and tail would go up. Took the judges two called points to figure out what he was doing.. :idea:
The one I see a fair bit also is a silent command for whoa. Taking ones baseball cap off and bringing it down to your side in the direction of the dog.
Some handlers will wipe their brow when they do this. Looks real good and the dogs have been told to whoa!!! There are a few tricks out their that folks use in competition and tests.
I am all for the traditional use of the word whoa and believe the stay should be used for what I have already posted but you could replace whoa with that is you chose to as well.

Mav.....


Whoa....

I have seen trainers that knew they wanted the dog to stand still and not move use "STAY" . I seen "STOP" and I have seen a competative trainer use fruit name "PEACHES" "GRAPES" and "PRUNES". He had three dogs and he did not want other handlers to know when he whoad his dog.

You can train your dog to stop on a whistle command for whoa, and say nothing. It is all your personal preference. I use one hard blast from a thrill end of my whistle. I use the opposite end that just issues a peep for the dog two come. I give two quick beeps

The advantage of a universal training command is that you can trade off the dog to go out with a friend for the day. In our training circle it works conviently for me to run my dog with a friends dog. The command is the same. It has also worked when I visited a fellow and used his dog for a hunt.