silent whistles

guy · silent whistles

I use a 'silent whistle' but i do wonder when i am really trying to make a point if i am over blowing it and the thing is indeed silent!! or is it just a case of selective hearing on the part of my Brittany?
any thoughts?

Allyson

TBH I have never seen the point of silent whistles?

I like to hear what I am "saying" so that I know that I am saying what I think I am saying if you see what I mean? Confused

I use a sheepdog whistle as I like the variation available which is not the case with a gundog whistle.

guy

Yep - i did follow that.
i have my 'silent' whistle tuned so that i can hear it. i use one as the dogs are with me all day and it is much easier for them to find me in a building than me find them. So a silent ish whistle is far less intrusive to the other humans around. Also on the shoot we go to having a quiet whistle allows one to keep control of the dog without many others knowing Smile

the bit i have not got clear in my head is if i blow the thing hard - as in 'I really want you to hear this and do as you are told' am I making the whistle not make any sound at all? I suppose a little visit to a science lab and a blast at an oscillascope would give me the answer.

Not even thought of a sheep dog whistle - will try and track one down and give it a go. where did you get yours?

regards.

Allyson

You can get sheepdog whistles from practically any agricultural store, you will probably have to ask for them, they are usually in some grotty little cardboard box next to other "odds and sods"

It took me about 3 months to learn how to use one, I used to blow it in the car whilst driving, got some funny looks.

This site has good whistles, I use the Montana variety in stainless steel but you have to be careful when it is very cold!

http://www.colliewobbles.org.uk/a...les___Lanyards__tapes_cds_12.html

munstyman

Good to hear from a fellow silent whistle user. I've been using mine for ...well since I got my first LM. In fact I just realised that its out lasted two dogs not bad for £6 I think I paid for it.
I use it for all general control and use a 211 1/2 as my Stop ( I blew a thunderer once and scared the willies out of myself Surprised

). The only alteration I made to the silent is a plastic tube to cover the mouth piece to stop it freezing to your lips on a cold winters day.
I too have it tuned so that I can hear it, more for my own psychology than for the dogs. Once trained to the whistle I expect my dogs to obey without question, I do take into account wind speed and direction when I give the command however, as some people forget that sound takes time to reach a far ranging dog. I will also take into account the dog working a scent when told by me to turn to quickly. In such a situation I give the dog a chance to prove itself right before giving the command again and expect instant reaction or I'm after it sharpish. I'm lucky in that I can quickly spot a dog turning a `deaf ear' and re-train as neccessary before it becomes habit. I'm always amused when I see people blowing their whistle louder and louder and getting redder and redder, when quite clearly the dog does not understand or has lost respect. It reminds me of a tale, Whilst walking my dogs around the local fields I heard this whistling, the blasts were coming thick and fast and my curiosity got the better of me so I headed towards where the sounds were coming from. I entered the next field and saw a dog busy doing what dogs do. A fair distance away was a gentleman blowing this whistle. I approached this man and asked what he was doing. He told me he had seen my dogs doing things to the whistle and thought he would give it a go, but he must have bought the wrong whistle because his dog didn't do anything when he blew it Confused

I realy didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but diplomatically informed him that dogs have to be trained, the next time I saw him the dog was on a flexylead need I say more Laughing

guy

I was thinking of taking the little one (in the water) to France to run in August - but there it is 'illegal' to use a silent whistle at at test/trial. So now I have bought a noisy whistle - that might as well be truely silent - the dog just does not hear it as 'his' whistle.

Any tips on making him work on two different whistles?

Also I use a short blast that trails off as the 'sit' whistle - as in the film Straw Dogs. The acme 212 does not seem to lend itself to this type of call. It blows the same note however hard you blow.

Finally the 212 hurts MY ears!

DesO'Neile

Silent Whistle Users of the World Unite. Today the UK tomorrow The World.

I use different whistles for different dogs and there is nothing to suggest that a dog is any less likely to obey a silent whistle than any other type. I have been told that you can't " Over blow " a silent whistle, I don't know how anybody can tell but apparently you can't.
I can play tunes on my sheep dog whistle but it is the loudest one I own (except for my Roy Gonia Field Trial Whistle – With Megaphone) and I am sure it is the sort of thing that would fail to work if you were excited.

I have over twenty different whistles all made by Acme, Roy Gonia, Fox and Tornado. As Will Slaon once said to me " Desi, It is vital that you know which whistle you are blowing, so you can tell which one the dog is ignoring."

MC

I've got an old stainless steel model silent whistle, about 4" long. It is adjustable and I set it so I can hear it, the dogs hear it really well and it is not as intrusive as a normal whistle can be.

guy

lagopuslagopus

I had exactly the same thing a few years ago down on the beach! The lady was also trying to use the clicker to recall her dog by clicking it!

windem bang

An old lady who lives near me asked where I'd bought my whistle and what type it was. I told her. The next time I saw her a few days later she told me she was taking the whistle back to the shop as her Jack Russel neither sat nor came back to it!

I'm not a silent whistle user, I like to know the dog can hear a whistle when I blow it. I did try one for a while but found the tiny aperture tended to get obstructed by all sorts of yad and it would not blow at all.

Shepherds whistles I found easy to use but a bit uncomfortable, I liked the plastic ones the most they didn't feel quite so "odd" in my mouth. I've noticed that shepherds whistle users tend to overuse these whistles possibly because it is just too handy.

Bill T.

cressy

My first whistle was a 210.5 and I struggled to use it, whatever I did was hopeless. In shame I mentioned to a friend how hard I was finding this whistle lowing malarky Embarassed

. I turned out I had a faulty whistle, no wonder I couldn't get a consistent noise out of the blessed thing Laughing

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