Whoa!

Learning the most important command is foundational to other skills like following hand signals, quartering for the gun, stop to flush, being steady to wing and shot, and retrieving.

- Alan Davy

MYB y Brittany spaniel was locked up, muscles rippling. This was her first season hunting ruffed grouse and one of her first points. As I circled to get in front for the flush, the young dog broke and ran ahead, flushing the bird. It presented an easy straightaway shot across a clearing, the kind we seldom get when hunting one of the sneakiest things in feathers. I couldn't pull the trigger. To do so would have rewarded my pup for breaking point.

When the grouse was long gone I unloaded my gun and gently picked up my dog with one hand under her chest and the other under her waist, carried her back to the place where she should have stayed, stroked her softly and told her whoa” so she would know this is where she should have stayed once she pointed. It was another step in the process of training a reliable pointing dog.

Whoa means to stop right there until released. It is the most important command in a dog’s training. Whoa or stay is foundational to other skills like following