Recall training a 6-week-old Poodle cross

Starting recall conditioning at six weeks is smart — you're not teaching a command at this stage, you're building an emotional association: your voice equals something wonderful. At this age, the tool is purely a treat, and it needs to be tiny, soft, and irresistible without overwhelming an immature digestive system. No long lines yet — these pups are still in the litter and you're working at arm's length. Tell me a bit more: are you conditioning the whole litter together or picking out individuals, and how are you currently getting their attention — a specific sound, your voice, a clicker?

Perfect setup. A whistle paired with food at this age is exactly the right approach — you're essentially imprinting the sound as a conditioned reinforcer before the pups even know what training is. For the treat, I'd go with Ziwi Peak air-dried lamb. It's real single-protein meat, no fillers, no sugar, and you can crumble it into pieces the size of a pea or smaller. Critically, it's rich but gentle — poodle crosses at six weeks can have sensitive systems, and Ziwi's ingredient profile is about as clean as it gets. One small piece per pup per session is plenty. The smell is strong enough that even a distracted newborn nose will lock onto it immediately. Use it exclusively for the whistle recall — don't let it appear in any other context — so the association stays sharp.

Start now, with one condition: keep it quiet. A full-blast dog whistle next to a six-week-old is overwhelming and could create a negative association — the opposite of what you want. Use a soft, consistent puff of the whistle, immediately followed by the treat landing in front of them. You're not asking for any behaviour yet, just: sound happens, good thing follows. Do this five or six times per session, a couple of sessions a day. By eight weeks when they go to their new homes, they'll already flinch toward food at that sound. That's a huge head start for the new owners.

Yes — absolutely do that. Send a small bag of the Ziwi Peak and a note explaining the whistle frequency you've used. Continuity of both the sound and the treat in the first week in the new home will help the recall association survive the stress of rehoming. A lot of good early conditioning gets lost simply because the new owner switches everything at once. If they keep the same whistle pitch and the same treat for the first two weeks, the foundation you've built will stick.

You're ahead of most breeders just by thinking about this now. Ziwi Peak lamb, a quiet whistle, consistency across multiple daily sessions — that's all you need at this stage. The new owners will thank you when their pup turns back to them at eight months in a field.