"Whoa" and "No"

[upnorthbacon]

Bringing home our new Drahthaar tomorrow and he's 10 weeks old, and has been kept in a kennel. He's going to be an inside dog and I'm used to always teaching dogs "No" when they are doing something wrong. This is my first pointer and everyone says to train "Whoa" but won't that confuse my dog? Can't I just use "Stay" or something like that when we get to teaching to hold his point instead of "Whoa"? I don't want to confuse him and I'm sure the wife and kids will be using "No" when he's doing something he's not supposed to in the house? I'm in Northern Michigan and and I'm also looking for a bird farm or somewhere to get birds to introduce to him, I also am going to work on basic commands as well, I live in Gaylord. Thanks this site is great for information!

[romeo212000]

It's not so much what you say as how your say it. When you tell a dog no you say it sharp and somewhat harsh. When you say Woah you draw it out longer. If you can imagine it is like this.

NO!!

Woaaahhh...

Not sure if you can understand the difference just from seeing it in type but its the best I can do.

[upnorthbacon]

Thanks, I get it now, I just have to make sure I really enunciate the "Whhoooaaa"! Now that I think about it that was a pretty dumb question!

[gonehuntin']

Personally, I've never liked the word "WHOA" so I use STOP. It's sharper and doesn't sound like NO.

[quailrunner]

Not a dumb question at all! My last Brit didn't like the word "Whoa" either. But maybe that's because If he was starting to get into trouble or was committing a minor violation, I probably dragged out the word "Noooo". "Easy" worked better for him and me.

[jetto]

We rarely use the word "NO" in our house or anywhere else for that matter. Mostly it's the sound "AAAAAATTTTT" or if the dog is countersurfing it's an "OFF" or if it's something I want the dog to leave alone as in another dog, something on the ground, etc. it's "LEAVE IT". Kristi

[ezzy333]

I think tone is the important thing but I do use STOP instead of NO. Whatever the pup is doing that I don't like I waqnt it to stop I use the command STOP.

Ezzy

[phermes1]

We rarely use the word "NO" in our house or anywhere else for that matter. Mostly it's the sound "AAAAAATTTTT" or if the dog is countersurfing it's an "OFF" or if it's something I want the dog to leave alone as in another dog, something on the ground, etc. it's "LEAVE IT". Kristi

That's what we do, too. I almost never use the word 'no'. "AAATT" gets their attention better.
"No" sounds too much like 'whoa' - why use 2 commands that sound the same when you don't have to?

[wems2371]

Several months after I had my pup and was starting whoa work, I was wondering about that too. We had already been using "no". So I've used both. I did see some cowering/sad pathetic looks while teaching the "whoa" command, which may be normal...........but I'm also not sure if there was some confusion there. My husband likes to use "leave it" a lot, so that may be the words we substitute the next go round with a pup. Denise

[Rick Hall]

I'm one who teaches "no" and "whoa" concurrently, pretty much from day one (the later initially at feeding time and very briefly) and have followed George Evans' lead of using "hold," rather than "whoa," to avoid possible confusion. (If I force-fetched or taught formal hold and wanted to use "hold" for that, I'd just pick another distinct word.) Fwiw, I do not try to intentionally use distinct tones very long for differing commands, as my goal is compliance to calm, quiet commands without special emphasis. Exercising such voice control, affords special inflection a degree of corrective power in times of need.

[bobman]

To avoid any confusion. I use ah ah ah for "no" and whoa for "whoa", strangely enough my dogs understand profanity also and really start behaving when they hear it

[RayGubernat]

Maybe that's why all them southern boys use the term 'Whuuuup" when the mean Whoa.

Of course they also say "DahowG" instead of "dog", and "Heah" instead of "here".

I have, in the past, taught both words no and whoa to my pointers and they figured it out. Pointers ain't the brightest lights in the dog world, so if they can figure it out, most other breeds should be able to.

I think they read your body language, the situation and hear your tone far more than the word itself.

RayG

[gonehuntin']

Maybe that's why all them southern boys use the term 'Whuuuup" when the mean Whoa.

Of course they also say "DahowG" instead of "dog", and "Heah" instead of "here".

.

RayG

Doesn't count. Noboby can understand a Southerner anyhow!

[bobman]

Maybe that's why all them southern boys use the term 'Whuuuup" when the mean Whoa.

Of course they also say "DahowG" instead of "dog", and "Heah" instead of "here".

.

RayG

Doesn't count. Noboby can understand a Southerner anyhow!

hah you know what a yankee calls a southerner after they move down here.......boss

come a big flood, out yonder, branch ( hint its not on a tree), use of "pretty" to describe dogs and trucks I could go on.

Offer a sountherner a POP on a hot day and you will get in a fist fight, its a coke no matter what flavor its still a coke

[rstbkt69]

Want a coke?
Yep.
What kind.
pepsi.

[romeo212000]

That is what I was bout to say. That really is how we talk about cokes.

[rstbkt69]

I know, I grew up like that too. Except mine was always a Dr. Pepper

[RayGubernat]

Guys -

A couple of years back I was at a southern trial, we were kidding back and forth and I allowed that there were some good yankees and that I considered myself a pretty good yankee.

One of the fellows asked just how I figured that.

I said in a deadpan voice, "because a good Yankee knows when to go home".

Well, a couple of them 'ol boys about fell out of their saddles they were laughting so hard.

I don't know about coke or pop and such. The crowd I hang with tends to lean more toward Old Forrester, Jim Beam Black, Austin Nichols and such. Interestingly, the chaser of choice is usually Yuengling which is a Pennsylvania brew.

RayG

[brotherbill3]

Guys -

... Interestingly, the chaser of choice is usually Yuengling which is a Pennsylvania brew.

RayG

Ray ... is that chaser "vitamin Y" or Lager ... I live in Indiana, but when I can get it, Lager is my choice "beerverage" ... (I grew up in PA dutch country, so that's a taste of HOME)

I am starting some more dedicated work with my retriever and decided to use "steady" (instead of 'whoa', which I think sounds like 'no') ... and I have to go back to the basics on 'give' ... he initially learned "leave it" as a command to ignore stuff (bird cr*p, garbage, fast food bags, anything else, etc), and 'give' was to do just that; it used to work as intended, but the training slacked off (my bad). I get the impression that any word / command can work, so long as it is used consistantly. In a week of work (at about 10-15 minutes / day), he's getting much much better than the first day.

[dlfl]

I asked for a pop and got slugged!

[KY Grouse Hunter]

Here's one you might have not heard...

Witchie-Ditchie.

"You didn't bring your truck witchie-ditchie?"

[romeo212000]

I asked for a pop and got slugged!

Them's fightin' words over here.

[Tejas]

"Just because someone moves from the north to the south does not make them a southerner. Just because a cat had kittens in an oven you wouldn't call them biscuits."

An interesting quote I once read.

[romeo212000]

Southern quotes are the best.

"It's rainin' so hard out there it sounds like a cow peein on a flat rock!!!"

Whoever came up with this has to be the most honest person in the history of mankind.

[Sandy Meador]

When I was in college, I had some hours to fill so I took Russian lang. courses. The Russian word for no is "nyet". That is what I have used for yrs. w/my Labs - and am using w/my 2 GSPs. It is a very "sharp" word, with the emphasis on the "ny". My dogs have no confusion with sit either because of the emphasis. Try it, it works.

[kbshorthairs]

speaking Russian to Germans?

[KY Grouse Hunter]

[wems2371]

My dad had a d. drathaar pup many moons ago, and the breeder used and told him to use "pfooey" (don't know how you spell it ) for No. I don't know if the breeder picked that command word out of the blue, if it's a german word, or what? Anyway, it worked just as good as any other word would have. Denise

[PrairieGoat]

Seems odd to me that this would be all that big a' deal....I can tell the difference between "Whoa" and "No" and I suspect a dog's hearing is a fair bit better than mine! I know for a fact that my pup can tell the difference....they illicit a different response. "Whoa" makes him stop in his tracks...."No" makes him judge how far he is out of reach of me!!!

[nj gsp]

I use the "aht - aht", in place of "no", and "whoa" for whoa. Perhaps it would be better spelled "woh"...

I also use "leave it" for anything I don't want my dog to get into, and also use it to call her off old scent or a non-productive point "leave it - no bird".

My dog gets it. So, I'm sticking with it.

[gwgdog66]

I use "Halt" whith my two instead of whoa. It has worked purdy good for me, and the dogs.