[Doc E]

Assuming that a dog's hearing is normal and there are no big factors affecting whistle sound (no high wind etc) -- Does whistle volume affect a dog's response to the whistle command?

 

[Nicki White]

Don't know for sure with my limited experience, but my dogs seem to know the difference between a regular toot and a "blow with all the air in my body because I'm pissed" toot. JMHO.

--Nicki

 

[Jesse Higgins]

I would vote for option 3. Dogs respond differently to different whistle volume levels.

It's close to Option 1 I know, but No. 1 implies that louder is always better which isn't necessarily true IMO.

 

[Chris Kingrea]

Does whistle volume affect a dog's response to the whistle command?

It can. BUT "it depends" on how you train. So I didn't vote.

 

[Doc E]

OK - added it

OK, I just added option 3.

 

[Gerard Rozas]

You may not realize it - but when you are training - you blow different when you are about to correct. Don't know if all dogs know the difference, know that most handlers don't realize it. One member of our training group, even when I am hiding in a holding blind - I can tell by the whistle when the dog is about to get it. Don't know many handlers that are smart enough to use this though.

How many of you have been running a blind at a trial and have found yourself reaching for a transmitter or instinctively pushing buttons on a transmitter when things go bad? Same thing with a whistle - each of us will blow instinctively when things go bad.

 

[achiro]

You may not realize it - but when you are training - you blow different when you are about to correct. Don't know if all dogs know the difference, know that most handlers don't realize it. One member of our training group, even when I am hiding in a holding blind - I can tell by the whistle when the dog is about to get it. Don't know many handlers that are smart enough to use this though.

How many of you have been running a blind at a trial and have found yourself reaching for a transmitter or instinctively pushing buttons on a transmitter when things go bad? Same thing with a whistle - each of us will blow instinctively when things go bad.

And I'd say that you have to be very aware of this. For instance, with a sensitive dog. Things can go downhill very quickly with some dogs when they get nervous and the "extra long and loud" tweet will do it for sure.
Seems like one of those things that a good handler uses to his/her advantage. :wink:

 

[Uncle Bill]

Assuming that a dog's hearing is normal and there are no big factors affecting whistle sound (no high wind etc) -- Does whistle volume affect a dog's response to the whistle command?

I didn't vote Doc, because I doubt if I'd know. But Gerard has a valid observation. And it seems that many handlers may THINK volumn has a purpose.

But my all time pet peeve is the handler that spits into his whistle when giving a come-in-and-hunt-it-up whistle. Why shouldn't that be as loud as the sit whistle? Where did the idea of making the come in trill just barely audible come from? Yet I hear handlers dribbling into their Gonias so often it's like fingernails on a blackboard to me.

UB

 

[Lisa Van Loo]

With Gypsy, the louder you blow, the deafer she gets. That was true ten years ago, and it's still true today.

Lisa

 

[Last Frontier Labs]

Hmm... The club was helping to train some young dogs and pups on Sat. I noticed a couple of new handlers were blowing their come in whistles rather wimpily. One just had a dimestore whistle. The other didn't blow the whistle properly. In both cases, the young dogs/pups dawdled around on their return. I told them to make the whistle more emphatic and demonstrated a loud and enthusiastic "TWEET, TWEET, TWEET" with the dogs the next time around. The improvement was dramatic.

If you are talking about a remote sit whistle, I truly don't know if whistle volume has an effect. I'm guessing it would vary with each dog and their personality.

 

[Guest]

My dogs do, I suppose mainly because of how I've trained them. Up close line corrections are very short, non-intimidating bursts. Louder, longer bursts mean trouble (like a very bad cheat). Regular sit whistles are short, but loud (or louder depending on the wind, road noise, etc). But as a Lardyite, I've heard at the workshop: "put emotion in your whistle". Large blasts up front (within the first 40 yards say) can really break a dog down... Short, lighter toots can help a dog stay relaxed and not get intimidated up front on a blind.

So, yes, I do feel that volume can affect a dog. And like LFL mentioned, wimpy whistles can be useless.

Depending on what you're getting at, Doc, whistle DURATION can be just as important as volume.

-Kristie

 

[Jesse Higgins]

I use a whimpy tweet tweet tweet to release my dog to hunt dead. Not something I do under judgement, but very practical in the field when I have to handle the dog into the approximate area of the fall, and then turn him loose to hunt up the bird.

 

[Terry A]

I think it depends on how you have trained them. I have seen somedogs who will sit with a "tweet" but cowl when the handler "TWEETS"

 

[LuckyLab]

Couldn't it be "sort of" compared to when you send your dog for a mark? Say on longer marks, marks that they really need to drive into the wind, or uphill we send them with a louder release versus on short marks. Short marks are sent more with a lower tone and less forceful. Don't we sort of use the remote sit the same way at times? If the dog is drifting down the side of a hill or being pushed by the crossing wind would you blow a louder whistle to get his attention and help enforce your next cast? I think sometimes we do.

Terry

 

[Fast Woody]

Has anyone on this list seen or heard the prototype whistle Pat Burns is working on? I think he told me it will be out in production in a month or two. They did a lot of research in sound chambers testing the range that the dog hears at. Then he developed a whistle that is best heard by the dog not the human. From what I have seen it looks like a ACME 635 peeless whistle mounted an a gonia magaphone. and it sounds like a freight train :lol:

Joe Harp has one or two he got from Pat at the National Amateur last year, I believe Pat passed several other out as well.
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