Traditionally, whoa breaking has been a pretty forceful process. Over the years, the dogs and I have come up with an attrition based, patience-oriented approach to condition dogs to remain on point, even under very tempting circumstances, such as cackling pheasants and 12 gage gunfire. In this video, a variety of dogs with different temperaments are showcased from beginning to end throughout the process. First, they are taught just to stand and remain standing when asked. Once they understand that, they are conditioned on an increasingly enticing basis to remain in place, even when they’d really like to break whoa and move.
A whoa conditioning process which does not require heavy pressure or punishment results in a dog that goes on point with complete confidence and conviction. They are not afraid of what happens if they move, they do not really consider moving. The point style and confidence remain for the life of the dog. It takes time and patience, but brings remarkable results that allow for the proverbial “over the hill whoa broke” dog. This approach works well on the soft dogs and maybe even better on the fire breathing dragons that can take a lot of pressure and still break. It works equally well on both because we wear them into the right thinking, we don’t fight with them at all.
Watch the small details of this process, which vary with individual dogs. If done with patience and diligently, the results can be remarkable. And it is a pleasant, nonpressure-based process.