Dog Whistle

[BusterBoo]

Last week on my weekly shopping trip for the boys, I was feeling very frustrated because Buster (11 months) doesn't listen and I was looking for something to help me out. He is the typical little "brat" ... terrible "2s" I presume When he starts rough-housing with Harley too much, all I have to do is say "I'll whistle" and it gets his attention. A quick shrill whistle works. So....

I saw these "high pitch" dog whistles and I figured i would get one. They were only $3.99 so I thought I would give it a try. Well....a week has gone by and I haven't taken it out of the package yet. I am afraid to use it! I am worried about it being so "high pitched" that it could hurt the dog's ears/hearing.

Does anyone use the whistle for training? If so, is it effective and is there any danger of damaging Harley and Buster's hearing??

Thanks!

[hazelrunpack]

We use whistles, but just the garden variety, little league coach kind of whistle. I prefer to use whistles that I can hear, too, because it lets me gauge how forcefully I'm signalling.

We've never tried an ultrasonic (to humans) one...but I suspect it's the same as for the lower frequency whistles--if you're not blowing it forcefully right in Buster's and Harley's ears, I doubt that it would be loud enough to do any damage. The biggest problem might be that when a dog begins to lose hearing with age (yes, just like people), he usually loses it at the upper range first--at which point the whistle will become ineffective.

But I think whistle training per se is a great thing! We've used it quite effectively for recall in the field.