How I train " whoa" is to establish a point of contact by using a flank cord. First, by giving the command slightly after tightening the cord, then gradually moving to giving the command without tightening the cord at all as the dog learns the drill.
After the dog has thoroughly mastered the command with the cord (in at least three or four different places), then I start strapping a small e-collar around the dog' s flank to let it get used to it (sometimes this can take a week or two). I constantly reinforce " whoa" training with the flank cord during this time. Once the dog will run uninhibited wtih the collar around its flank, I then start to enforce the command by tickling the dog with the lowest possible setting that will gain compliance.
One nice thing about this method is that you can use it when the dog is on birds because the collar around the flank doesn' t seem to bother the dog...they think it is a piece of brush or something akin to that which is inflicting the discomfort, and they never seem to blame the bird. This is not the case if you have the collar around the neck.
As a by-product of this training, it also makes your dog actually stand a bit taller on point when its flanks get tickled with the electricity, making this a good solution for those who have a dog with a tendency to sit or lay down on point, as well.
E-collar to teach whoa?
