[OTIS SANDERS]

just pick the free ones up in the pasture

 

[Colonel Blimp]

I'm sure I have the Mega part right. Perhaps I'm wrong about the Acme.

AFAIK Acme don't make a "Mega" whistle similar to the Gonia or Fox types which are indeed a bit of a lump. The Acme Trialler 212 is a tiny wee plastic thing that you can hold in your lips much like a cigarette, no gnashers required, and only about 2" long. Has to be worth punting a few dollars to try. And yes, dogs do hear them at considerable distances, many hundreds of yards in my experience.

Eug

 

[Kenneth Niles Bora]

....... Also, assuming I don't have 99 calves needing castrating, any other uses for them?

hogs or goats

 

[Rick Hall]

The Acme Trialler 212 is a tiny wee plastic thing that you can hold in your lips much like a cigarette, no gnashers required, and only about 2" long. Has to be worth punting a few dollars to try. And yes, dogs do hear them at considerable distances, many hundreds of yards in my experience.

Having only seen such whistles used with close working springers, "many hundreds of yards" surprised me, and I'm wondering if anyone out there has actually tested them at distance against something like the Gonia Mega Whistle or Answer?

 

[Colonel Blimp]

Rick, even as I posted I wondered that too. Being a bloke from a science background and a bit of a forensic sort, I can only offer anecdotal experience which isn't worth the paper it isn't written on.

Some years ago I had to give a (successful) toot to "Eddie" on what was for us a long range retrieve. Using and Ordnance Survey map as near as I can judge it was 400 metres, certainly no less. The breeze was against us, but otherwise the conditions were good. That was with an Acme "Trialler". Again anecdotally I find the Acme "Silent" a very carrying whistle; never got a handle on any numbers, but in an Irish sea tideway at night in a half gale my ESS could pick it up well enough.

It would be interesting to get a valid test result; I believe there is a big difference between the human assessment of loudness at source and detectability at distance by a dog. Some physics undergraduate should make this his / her dissertation subject. If I was a gambling man (and I am) I'd back the Acme "Silent" to be in the first three horses home.

Eug

 

[MikeJFalkner]

This interests me - the Acme whistles are the most comfortable to use I've ever picked up. I put mine down in favor of a Gonia due to what may be my perception of loudness. I now use a Gonia mega with the bell to keep the blast away from my ears, but it's cumbersome and not really natural-feeling to use. My dog work "pocket" is almost always inside of 250 yards for sure; 95% of the time it's inside 100. You have the occasional "sailer" in a big delta rice field and there's always wind blowing. As far as competition, we do HRC so the runs are not long. I know my friends that train Brit style use Acme whistles and handle dogs a lot farther than my normal range with no problems, but my engineer brain thinks a comparitive test would be cool.

 

[Rick Hall]

Being something of a whistle fanatic, I broke down and bought an Acme 212 ($18 shipped from Gundog Supply) back when this thread was fresh and thought I'd share what little I think I've learned so far. The good news is that it's better than I would have guessed, given no more experience than a few pheasant hunts over springers handled with similar whistles, and the switch from our normal pealess clear Gonia was apparently seamless with my pup. (Though my functionally deaf older dog doesn't appear to hear it at all, even close in where he'll still respond to our loud whistle, a Sonic Blast.) It's been great for early morning in town training without worry of disturbing the neighborhood or folks visiting grave sites at a cemetery adjoining one of our training fields. And it's been fine out to the roughly 100yds in running water and twice that on land I've had occasion to use it for thus far - under good conditions.

The, perhaps, bad news is that the pup has failed to respond to it somewhat short of that distance on land but against a very stiff wind. Whether that was also a test of selective hearing (which has seldom been displayed) I could not say. And while I wish I'd had the presence of mind to hit the clear Gonia next, I didn't. Instead, I reflexively tooted our loud whistle, which he immediately responded to. Though, again, I wouldn't want to draw conclusion from that single case.

So while I've yet to replicate what Blimp and Falkner have witnessed (which isn't to say we eventually won't), I've found it a very pleasant and surprisingly useful little whistle and plan to continue on with it as the pup develops.

 

[mrman]

I always did like Rocky Mountain oysters...oh you meant new, not used...

 

[1tulip]

BTW: The little green bandy things are working great for sparing me dental discomfort. Just thought I'd let y'all know. Thanks for the help.