Who Uses Whistles?

[Lablover]

Especially interested to hear from owners/trainers, who expect their dogs to obey over long distances.

(1) Which whistle do you use?

(2) Over what distances?

(3) Which factors (wind, cover, temperature)?

(4) Your ability to "blow"?

(5) Breed of dog?

[Lablover]

Sorry, sorry, sorry, another question added:

(6) Human/canine hearing differences and why?

[Rusky]

lablover a herding friend of mine wears a whistle constantly, it is always worn, even socially I have noticed I will email and get some answers for you.

[Rusky]

here is the reply

Obedience over distance has to be built up very slowly and you have to have 100% obedience close up before starting to increase distance. If you have only 99% you will quickly teach the dog it can ignore you at a distance. Working Border Collies are by nature an extremely biddabledog. The traditional sheepdog whistle comes in plastic, metal, jade and buffalo horn. The last two are thicker and more expensive but I find them easier to blow. Even these took me months of practice while driving alone in my car. I use them over 500 meters but others use them overtwice that distance. The sound carries fairly well even when voices don't. It can be blown even when you are suffering a cold and could not shout. The sound carries through moderate wind, over grassland and through forest and works in cold to warm conditions. I know of someone who uses a referee's whistle but they have only one whistle not a range of sounds for different commands. This does carry further.

[oceanaussi]

We use a whistle for obedience at distance and during retrieving.

1) the Blackdog whistle

2) Anyting from close-by to out of sight, probably several 100 m

3) Not sure what you mean with that one???

4) Much easier than yelling!

5) Weimaraner

6) Not 100% sure what you mean with that one either. I used a normal sports whistle at the beginning but felt to embarrassed to use it at places with people or early in the morning ect. So I bought a special whistle (high pitch) which isn't loud on me or my surroundings but can be heard well by dogs.

[stumped]

1, l whistle myself

2, Up to 2 km

3, High wind and thick cover can affect distance

4, Very good

5, multiple breeds of working and hunting dogs

6, Dogs are able to hear in pitches higher and lower than our effective range,

and the whistle that operates in a pitch above the range of more common noises

of voice and stock noises will therefore stand out to the dog , once associated with

an action. l also prefer to use whistle commands as frustration, anger etc can not be relayed in a

whistle, where as when you have to yell a command more often than not a gruff inflection is added which can

confuse a dog when working.

[Jessca]

i really want to try one of the 'dog' (high pitch) whistles.

do they work well??

and would anyone recommend them??

thanks

[Luke GSP]

i really want to try one of the 'dog' (high pitch) whistles.

do they work well??

and would anyone recommend them??

thanks

Yes they are fine but I find that I prefer one I can hear as a reassurance to me!

Here is something I found on canine hearing

Humans can hear sounds approximately within the frequencies of 20 Hz and 20,000 Hz. Anything below 20 Hz, typically cannot be heard although it can be felt. This can be experienced to when you feel the bass of a song. Likewise humans normally cannot hear any sounds above the frequency of 20,000 Hz. Although human hearing is limited to this frequency range, many animals have a wider range of sounds of which they can hear, like dogs for example.

The frequency range of dog hearing is approximately 40 Hz to 60,000 Hz, of course depending on the breed of dog as well as its age. Like humans, dogs can begin to go deaf as they become older. In some breeds of dogs it is natural for them to go completely deaf in their old age.

As an animal that hears higher sounds than humans, a dog has a different perception of the world as opposed to humans. One example of this is the dog whistle, which is above human hearing, will catch the ear of any well hearing dog. A vacuum cleaner, which merely sounds loud to us, can produce a high frequency sound which may scare dogs away.

As a rule of thumb Sound decreases at a rate of roughly 6db everytime you double the distance ie if the whistle was

120db 1 metre away it would be 114db 2 metres away and then 108db 4 metres away until eventually the sound level was below any background noise such as cars, wind, leaves etc so it is not so much how loud the whistle as how much louder the whistle is in comparison to the background noise.

[Janba]

I use a metal shepherd a lip whistle that took ages to learn to blow. I am only using it over trial distances and at the moment just for the "stop", but now that I can make more different sounds from it I will put the sides, walk up etc on whistle command.

[Lablover]

i really want to try one of the 'dog' (high pitch) whistles.

do they work well??

and would anyone recommend them??

thanks

Yes they are fine but I find that I prefer one I can hear as a reassurance to me!

Here is something I found on canine hearing

Humans can hear sounds approximately within the frequencies of 20 Hz and 20,000 Hz. Anything below 20 Hz, typically cannot be heard although it can be felt. This can be experienced to when you feel the bass of a song. Likewise humans normally cannot hear any sounds above the frequency of 20,000 Hz. Although human hearing is limited to this frequency range, many animals have a wider range of sounds of which they can hear, like dogs for example.

The frequency range of dog hearing is approximately 40 Hz to 60,000 Hz, of course depending on the breed of dog as well as its age. Like humans, dogs can begin to go deaf as they become older. In some breeds of dogs it is natural for them to go completely deaf in their old age.

As an animal that hears higher sounds than humans, a dog has a different perception of the world as opposed to humans. One example of this is the dog whistle, which is above human hearing, will catch the ear of any well hearing dog. A vacuum cleaner, which merely sounds loud to us, can produce a high frequency sound which may scare dogs away.

As a rule of thumb Sound decreases at a rate of roughly 6db everytime you double the distance ie if the whistle was

120db 1 metre away it would be 114db 2 metres away and then 108db 4 metres away until eventually the sound level was below any background noise such as cars, wind, leaves etc so it is not so much how loud the whistle as how much louder the whistle is in comparison to the background noise.

Thanks everyone. I had forgotten this past post.

Luke, good one!!!!!!!!

[gspx3]

I just use a normal hiker's whistle - my dogs all respond well to it - as well as every other dog in the off lead park. I also do a sort of rrrrrrrrrrrrr with my tongue and roof of mouth which works well to get my dogs attention. I don't believe it matters which whistle you use (contrary to many old time retrieving types) as my dogs respond to my friend's whistle and hers to mine - even though they were taught on very different ones.

[poodlefan]

I use a whistle to recall my dogs from distance when I walk them off lead.

I use a plastic Thunderer (sports ref) whistle. $4.50 from the sports shop. It's rated as "loud". They have "very loud" ones but I think you'd need ear defenders to use it if the "loud" one is anything to go by.

The pea is going in it so I'll probably upgrade to a metal one.

I like it because it's louder than I can screech and it has no emotion or change of tone when I use it. I suppose that's not really formal training but it's bloody handy to have dogs that recall to it. I can blow it for mine and get FHRPs dogs too!

I use it for up to several hundred yards. .. mostly when dogs are out of sight and it's dead easy to blow (the challenge is not to deafen yourself or anyone you walk with)

Breed of dog: I use it for my poodles, utility gundogs, a whippet and assorted other varieties.. when some start to come you tend to get the whole bunch!

Edited September 17, 2008 by poodlefan

[ZEPING]

do you think its possible to give command to your dog thru a seris of whistles?

[poodlefan]

do you think its possible to give command to your dog thru a seris of whistles?

Gundog folk and herders do it every day.