What are the effects of a dog whistle on a cat?

Cat’s can hear pitches waaaay higher then Dogs can. So they can defiantly hear it. You could train them to react how ever you want. I guess you could use one before you feed the cat each time. Then he’d come everytime you whistles it (if he felt like it)

Why wouldn’t you use something that makes a noise people can also hear? Like a bell?

Mr. M, that’s simple, why would you want people coming for cat food? ;-)

My way, if people hear it and they see your cat, they can tell it you’re looking for it and want it to come home. :)

I always vote to eliminate the middle man! ;-)

Cats can hear it, but they ignore it; just like everything else.

Cats ignore the dog (or cat) whistle because they haven’t been trained in paired associates learning….a stimulus and a response with a reward ala Pavlov. There has to be a reward for cat within 5 seconds after the whistle is blown. Use some treats. Do this a few times and you’ll get action from your feline.

In fact, for fun and impressing your friends, you can teach your cat to do various things with this method you can use different words or different pitches of your voice with an IMMEDIATE reward to associate with a particular behavior to immediately reward the beast. This takes time because you have to catch your cat performing incremental behaviors toward the end goal behavior. But if you’re dedicated, you can tell your friends that your cat is smarter than theirs.

As a cat person for some 40 years now, I can attest that the dog whistle (along with the reward of course) works well.

My clowder (yesteryear’s name for a group of cats) consists of indoor males. The DO however love to venture outdoors for exercise and a sense of freedom (mostly in a large fenced-in yard.. but one or two do venture beyond).

You can just imagine the experiences of “herding” the crew back indoors.. usually one at a time… and with tons of patience. You KNOW that cats respond to negativity with stark fear or panic, and not respect or obedience… the opposite of the desired effect. So patience is an absolute MUST to train your cat AND keep your sanity!

Enter a “trigger” (like with Pavlov’s dogs) and the reward. Tap on a food bowl to call the group for a meal (ringing the “dinner-bell” so-to-speak), and they’d all come-a-running.

Enter the dog whistle. Now instead of walking about the grounds with a bowl & spoon in hand, I toot the dog whistle… much more discreet and easy. Of course the transfer of “dinner bowl sound” trigger to the dog whistle had to be done but that’s another story.. Again in dealing with your domestic felines, the emphasis is on PATIENCE and not anger, gets positive results.