A single pip on a whistle to stop your dog doing whatever he or she is doing and to sit or stand and look at you for further instruction. It looks fantastic, but it’s not that difficult to teach.

One of the difficulties we need to overcome when teaching this is our dogs aren’t used to stopping in the move. Jog beside your dog (with them at heel) and then blow them to stop. It takes little time but your dog will get it.

When they are reliably stopping beside you recall them and stop them part way back to you. At this point make it very interesting for them. Use the whistle as an indication that something fun is about to happen. Maybe as a dog is ‘getting there’ start to introduce a retrieve as a reward. I always find that as mine start to stop reliably then a split retrieve, as ever they must return to hand, works really well as an interesting reward.

As with everything dog training if you progress too fast, then the likelihood is you’ll get frustrated with things not working. Don’t be afraid to go back a step and get that step really solid and only move on when you’re both ready.

Stopping and looking at you is the most important thing with this, if your dog would rather stand still than sit, let them.