I have a 4 year old GSP. He was trained when he was around 10 months - 1 year, but he was never taught whoa. He was on-site with the trainer for 2 months, and really what the training consisted of was getting him on birds regularly, and gun breaking (which is of course invaluable).
He finds everything, he retrieves quite consistently, and he will hold a point... until I get there. Once I'm there, he gets impatient and creeps. Unfortunately, here in Ohio its pen raised birds or nothing where I live, and he's been able to catch a couple on the ground at the end of last season. We've done 3 seasons together, and some days he's real good, some days he creeps. I'm trying to break this habit.
I tried the whoa post laid out in the following (http://huntsmith.com/article.php?id=15) and it went very poorly. AS soon as he got to the end of the rope he lost his mind, rolling on the ground and thrashing, then ultimately ended up afraid of it. Once I gave it up, it took me 20 minutes of walking with treats just to get him to stop leaning on me for security, and now, he's sitting or laying down every time we stop while he's walking at heel, which I don't think is a good sign.
I have 20 acres, I have a bird launcher, I have the space and the means to train, but I am really looking for some tips on getting Whoa put in on a dog who's never learned it.
Just as a reference, he will come on "here" reliably, he will wait till given the sign to eat, or to exit his crate, he will get in his crate on command. I really want to get Whoa in this season, and work on stopping the creeping in the field. Any help is appreciated.