A
dog whistle (also known as
silent whistle or
Galton's whistle) is a type of
whistleA whistle or call is a simple aerophone, an instrument which produces sound from a stream of forced air. It may be mouth-operated, or powered by air pressure, steam, or other means...
used in the
trainingThe term training refers to the acquisition of knowledge, skills, and competencies as a result of the teaching of vocational or practical skills and knowledge that relate to specific useful competencies. It forms the core of apprenticeships and provides the backbone of content at institutes of...
of
dogThe dog is a domesticated form of the Gray Wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The domestic dog has been one of the most widely kept working and companion animals in human history...
s and
catThe cat , also known as the domestic cat or housecat to distinguish it from other felines and felids, is a small carnivorous mammal that is valued by humans for its companionship and its ability to hunt vermin and household pests...
s. It was invented by
Francis GaltonSir Francis Galton FRS , cousin of Sir Douglas Galton, was an English Victorian polymath, anthropologist, eugenicist, tropical explorer, geographer, inventor, meteorologist, proto-geneticist, psychometrician, and statistician. He was knighted in 1909.Galton had a prolific intellect, and produced...
. This is discussed quite briefly in his book
Inquiries into Human Faculty and its Development (Galton 1883:27). In his discussion (Galton 1883:26-27) of his experiments to test the range of frequencies that could be heard by various animals, he notes that cats had the most sensitive hearing, being able to hear notes too shrill for humans to hear from a considerable distance, and small dogs can also hear these notes, while large dogs cannot.
The
frequencyFrequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit time. It is also referred to as temporal frequency.The period is the duration of one cycle in a repeating event, so the period is the reciprocal of the frequency....
range of a dog whistle is largely out of the range of human
hearingHearing is one of the traditional five senses. It is the ability to perceive sound by detecting vibrations via an organ such as the ear...
.
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A
dog whistle (also known as
silent whistle or
Galton's whistle) is a type of
whistleA whistle or call is a simple aerophone, an instrument which produces sound from a stream of forced air. It may be mouth-operated, or powered by air pressure, steam, or other means...
used in the
trainingThe term training refers to the acquisition of knowledge, skills, and competencies as a result of the teaching of vocational or practical skills and knowledge that relate to specific useful competencies. It forms the core of apprenticeships and provides the backbone of content at institutes of...
of
dogThe dog is a domesticated form of the Gray Wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The domestic dog has been one of the most widely kept working and companion animals in human history...
s and
catThe cat , also known as the domestic cat or housecat to distinguish it from other felines and felids, is a small carnivorous mammal that is valued by humans for its companionship and its ability to hunt vermin and household pests...
s. It was invented by
Francis GaltonSir Francis Galton FRS , cousin of Sir Douglas Galton, was an English Victorian polymath, anthropologist, eugenicist, tropical explorer, geographer, inventor, meteorologist, proto-geneticist, psychometrician, and statistician. He was knighted in 1909.Galton had a prolific intellect, and produced...
. This is discussed quite briefly in his book
Inquiries into Human Faculty and its Development (Galton 1883:27). In his discussion (Galton 1883:26-27) of his experiments to test the range of frequencies that could be heard by various animals, he notes that cats had the most sensitive hearing, being able to hear notes too shrill for humans to hear from a considerable distance, and small dogs can also hear these notes, while large dogs cannot.
The
frequencyFrequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit time. It is also referred to as temporal frequency.The period is the duration of one cycle in a repeating event, so the period is the reciprocal of the frequency....
range of a dog whistle is largely out of the range of human
hearingHearing is one of the traditional five senses. It is the ability to perceive sound by detecting vibrations via an organ such as the ear...
. Typically, a dog whistle is within the range of 16
kHzThe hertz is a unit of frequency. It is defined as the number of complete cycles per second. It is the basic unit of frequency in the International System of Units , and is used worldwide in both general-purpose and scientific contexts...
to 22 kHz with only the frequencies below k20 kHz audible to the human ear. Some dog whistles have adjustable sliders for active control of the frequency produced.
Depending on the way the whistle is used, a trainer may simply gather a dog's attention or inflict pain for the purpose of behavior modification.
The name dog whistle is often used for both lung-powered whistles as well as electronic devices that emit
ultrasonicUltrasound is cyclic sound pressure with a frequency greater than the upper limit of human hearing. Although this limit varies from person to person, it is approximately 20 kilohertz in healthy, young adults and thus, 20 kHz serves as a useful lower limit in describing ultrasound...
sound via
piezoelectricPiezoelectricity is the ability of some materials to generate an electric field or electric potential in response to applied mechanical stress. The effect is closely related to a change of polarization density within the material's volume...
emitters. The electronic variety are sometimes coupled with bark detection circuits in an effort to curb barking behavior.
These kind of whistles are also used to determine the hearing range of people or for physics demonstrations.
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