Whistle for recall?

[Alec Swan]

I find the plastic Acme whistles uncomfortable to use, the plastic burns my tongue, and I find the whistle note to be a bit soft. Turner Richards produce excellent whistles in cow horn and they have a harder and sharper note, I think. Because sheepdogs can sometimes need instruction at 5-600 yards, most who keep sheep and dogs tend to use a shepherd's whistle. They take a bit of getting used to, but the tone and pitch are variable and almost as a musical instrument! I now use a shepherd's whistle for all dogs, and it seems to work fairly well when they listen!

As with all things 'dog', there are no magical tools or aids, the attention of the dog needs to be focused on the owner, and the key to that, generally, is 'consistency'.

Alec.

 

[Cinnamontoast]

I like the Acme, I have a purple one, matches my hands in the winter. Oddly, the dogs went deaf this morning at the river, first swim in a long time, funny that.

The shepherd's whistle is fab, so loud! We used it to call for the naughty ones when they escaped in the woods one time.

 

[Fiona]

Shepherd whistle sounds fab Alec..

I have an Acme 211.5 and a metal clix one too. She seems to respond to both..

I called her away from food on the table this morning which is supposed to be one of the harder exercises in the total recall book and she came first time

However yesterday I had to go back and get her as she was licking something no doubt disgusting off the gravel beach at the lake, so not foolproof yet..

F iona

 

[Clodagh]

I would say with the labs we have 100% recall, we can call them off a retrieve, another dog, a running anything blah blah blah...but a rotten carcass for either rolling on or eating and they go completely deaf...
With the lurcher when she could hear you couldn't always tell and now she is really deaf I just save my breath.

 

[Thistle]

Tawny is thoroughly qualified to teach him, keeping her out is the problem. Bring him over sometime?

Will do

 

[Dry Rot]

When I was field trialing, I was rather fussy about whistles. A shepherd's whistle is fine. You can make your own from a piece of bent tin with a hole in it! But they are not the easiest to blow if you are out of breath.

I found a design that suited me perfectly. Not only that, they were right in my price bracket at 30p each! But there were two problems. First, they were made of a rather soft plastic and got chewed up. I clench my teeth in times of stress and running hot bird dogs can be stressful. Second, the supplied dried up and I couldn't find them on sale anywhere after I'd chewed up my meagre supply. So I wrote to Acme about my problems. I got a very enthusiastic and excited reply from the managing director. Apparently, not many are interested enough about whistles to write in about them!

He told me that they'd actually stopped production of that design and scrapped the mould. But he did send me one whistle that was perfect, with a warning. He told me it was made of a very hard plastic that would smash if I dropped it as it was like glass! Of course, after a year of use, it shattered! But it really was good while it lasted.

There's a wider selection of whistles about these days and I did get a supply from the USA that suited my particular requirements with such a piercing tone that, if blown hard, would actually hurt your ears! But I wouldn't bother with a whistle like that unless wanting to control a dog several hundred yards away. The Acme 201, if they still make it, should be powerful enough for handling most gundogs. Stag horn whistles are good too, but the tone can vary and change with the age of the horn as it deteriorates.

It all seems a bit sad now, but a good whistle really can make a difference if you are keen on working dogs!

 

[Alec Swan]

Dry Rot, you're thoughts on whistles, are interesting! The best whistle that I ever heard was owned by an Irish lady-shepherd. No whistle at all, it was just her mouth, and without pursed lips. The next best is one that I have now which was made for me as a gift by a highly skilled stick maker, and of ivory. The piercing pitch is as sharp as glass! It's too valuable to use and lose though.

I always used, as you have, stag-horn whistles, but as you say, they seem to deteriorate. I suspect that rather than the stag-horn it's the wooden plug which fails. I still have one from 40 years ago complete with the teeth marks from taking a firm grip, but all that I get is a rush of air! It still hangs with the rest though reminding me of some happy and fretful spaniel-days!

Have you ever tried the Turner Richards cow horn whistles? I'll send you one unused, if you wish!

Alec.

 

[Dry Rot]

Yes, I know the ivory whistles, though I've never been fortunaye enough to own one, also the buffalo horn ones which are excellent. With the GSDs, I just use my mouth as I keep them in range. Field trialing pointers and setters is a young man's sport and, to my mind, they've ruined them now with their petty rules and regulations but don't get me going on that! Anyway, running up a heather bank when your young dog has disappeared over the top used to be a regular occurrence and if you hadn't enough puff left to blow the whistle when you got to the top it could set training back a month! Grouse shooting is so expensive now that access to suitable training ground is next to impossible anyway. I still have my landyard hanging up in the kitchen with the last one of those soft plastic whistles, the American ear buster, and the Acme silent whistle, but don't use them -- though I probably should. The ear buster was the ultimate deterrent, though people always asked why I had three whistles. I thought that would be obvious -- one to go, one to stop, and the third for reverse! Yes, the Acme 200 series are a bit like those dental gags the vets use to file a horse's teeth! But the trick to using a whistle is to use it as little as possible and just use body language.

The Aussies always made their own shepherd's whistles. The raw material was the tin lid off something (tabacco tin?) and it's annoying me that I can't remember what! The hole was punched with a 6 inch nail! That always appealed to my penny pinching nature but I never really got the hang of them.

 

[druid]

I find the plastic Acme whistles uncomfortable to use, the plastic burns my tongue, and I find the whistle note to be a bit soft. Turner Richards produce excellent whistles in cow horn and they have a harder and sharper note, I think. Because sheepdogs can sometimes need instruction at 5-600 yards, most who keep sheep and dogs tend to use a shepherd's whistle. They take a bit of getting used to, but the tone and pitch are variable and almost as a musical instrument! I now use a shepherd's whistle for all dogs, and it seems to work fairly well when they listen!

As with all things 'dog', there are no magical tools or aids, the attention of the dog needs to be focused on the owner, and the key to that, generally, is 'consistency'.

Alec.

Cow horn/Buffalo horn/Ivory/Antler whistles are lovely to look at but the tone is not reproduced from one to another simply because they are a natural material. Not great if the dogs spends years on the one whistle and it finally breaks and a new one has to be acquired!

The acme 212 works well out to 600-750 yards (American retriever distances!) and is designed for such. The new W25 whistles are giving Acme a run for their money also.

 

[Alec Swan]

D_R, I can play God Save the Queen on my shepherd's whistle (sort of)! See? I knew that I'd come in useful for something!

Alec.

 

[Dry Rot]

D_R, I can play God Save the Queen on my shepherd's whistle (sort of)! See? I knew that I'd come in useful for something!

Alec.

And so you should on her 90'th!

One for Britain's Got Talent, perhaps?

 

[Alec Swan]

Mine are all trained to a whistle - gundogs though. I hate hearing lots of shouting and roaring when a soft pip-pip-pip will do. I'd disagree with the person who thinks all acme whistles sound the same. The tone is the same but they whistle the owner gives is very individual....in Spaniel trials we hunt two dogs side by side and each handler is usually using an acme 211.5 and you don't see the dogs responding to the wrong whistle. Same in a beating line!

An interesting point, but I strongly suspect that a hunting dog knows exactly where the handler is and so they take the direction that the whistle comes from, and or, it's that we all blow a whistle in a slightly different fashion. Whatever it is, two identical whistles and for two dogs hunting will have each respond to their 'own'. How or why it works as it does, I'm not sure!

Alec.

 

[planete]

Thinking about it, I never call my lurchers when they are out of sight, I expect them to find me, so no shouting. If I change direction when they are within sight, I expect them to take their cue from me, in fact if I want them to change course, I change course first. But then we do not do gun work or competitions, a totally different mindset.

 

[Clodagh]

Thinking about it, I never call my lurchers when they are out of sight, I expect them to find me, so no shouting. If I change direction when they are within sight, I expect them to take their cue from me, in fact if I want them to change course, I change course first. But then we do not do gun work or competitions, a totally different mindset.

I never used to call my lurcher as it was a waste of time and my OH went mad when she killed things, so it was best not to draw his attention to the fact she was missing. I find it much easier having dogs that behave!!

 

[planete]

I never used to call my lurcher as it was a waste of time and my OH went mad when she killed things, so it was best not to draw his attention to the fact she was missing. I find it much easier having dogs that behave!!

I think mine prefer watching TV and chasing balls!

 

[Clodagh]

I think mine prefer watching TV and chasing balls!

Much safer!