A shepherd's whistle is a specialized, modulatable, variable-pitch whistle used to train and transmit commands to

working dog A working dog is a dog used to perform practical tasks, as opposed to pet or companion dogs. Definitions vary on what a working dog is, they are sometimes described as any dog trained for and employed in meaningful work; other times as any dog ...

s and other animals. Unlike other whistles, they are placed inside the mouth. The pitch is controlled by the placement of the tongue; physically, shepherd's whistles are

vessel flute A vessel flute is a type of flute with a body which acts as a Helmholtz resonator. The body is vessel-shaped, not tube- or cone-shaped; that is, the far end is closed. Most flutes have cylindrical or conical bore (examples: concert flute, shawm) ...

s with the tongue forming one side of the resonating chamber, and controlling its size. Like

tin whistles The tin whistle, also called the penny whistle, is a simple six-holed woodwind instrument. It is a type of fipple flute, putting it in the same class as the recorder, Native American flute, and other woodwind instruments that meet such criteria. ...

, while simple, they can be used as musical instruments in their own right.

Purpose

A shepherd's whistle is traditionally used for communicating commands to a

sheepdog A sheep dog or sheepdog is generally a dog or breed of dogs historically used in connection with the raising of sheep. These include livestock guardian dogs used to guard sheep and other livestock and herding dogs used to move, manage and co ...

to aid in

herding Herding is the act of bringing individual animals together into a group (herd), maintaining the group, and moving the group from place to place—or any combination of those. Herding can refer either to the process of animals forming herds in ...

. They are typically seen used at

sheepdog trials A sheepdog trial (also herding event, stock dog trial or simply dog trial) — is a competition or test for working abilities of Herding dog, herding breeds dogs. It is a type of List of dog sports, dog sport that emerged in the 1860s in New Zeala ...

, but are also used for other working dogs including gundogs, and for falconry. Shepherd's whistles are used to communicate clearly, and at distances up to , the commands of the owner to their working dog. They produce clear, high-frequency tones of an easily modulated and variable pitch, allowing the shepherd to communicate a variety of commands. The pitch is at an optimal frequency for the herding dog's hearing, and for penetration and distance to cut through adverse weather when gathering sheep. There are some standard whistle commands, although the commands in use vary. If you are herding a big flock with two or three sheepdogs at once, you can control any one of the dogs, by whistling the individual command-tune which you only taught to that particular dog.

Materials

Oral histories have noted primitive whistles made by of folding over a sheet cut from a tin, a jam lid,"A Homemade Whistle in less than a Minute"
/ref> or dog-food lid, punching a hole, and smoothing sharp edges. They are also produced commercially. Simple whistles may cost less than 1 USD in bulk; expensive ones may be quite ornate. They are commonly made of plastic, aluminum, stainless steel, silver, brass,

titanium Titanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ti and atomic number 22. Found in nature only as an oxide, it can be reduced to produce a lustrous transition metal with a silver color, low density, and high strength, resistant to corrosion in ...

Corian Corian is a brand of solid surface material created by DuPont. Its primary use is as a countertop and benchtop surface, though it has many other applications. It is composed of acrylic polymer and alumina trihydrate (ATH), a material derived ...

, jade, buffalo horn and other materials. The material affects the properties of the whistle, including the loudness,

timbre In music, timbre ( ), also known as tone color or tone quality (from psychoacoustics), is the perceived sound quality of a musical note, sound or tone. Timbre distinguishes different types of sound production, such as choir voices and musica ...

, and range in pitch.

Design

The size of the whistle can vary to fit the mouth of the whistler. The whistle's shape is best described as a flat circle of material, folded in half on a center line. This forms a very narrow U-shape in cross-section. The open space between the two sides is quite narrow - approximately 4–5 mm. A hole is drilled about 5 mm from the fold, through the center line of both faces. The visible faces are then a half-circle shape. The design can also be varied to make the faces squarish, rectangular, or even a triangular A-shape, and handles or a hole for suspending the whistle as a

pendant A pendant is a loose-hanging piece of jewellery, generally attached by a small loop to a necklace, which may be known as a "pendant necklace". A pendant earring is an earring with a piece hanging down. Its name stems from the Latin word ' ...

can be added. Some whistles have two holes, to make them louder.

Use

The whistle position is not at all like that of a standard

whistle A whistle is an instrument which produces sound from a stream of gas, most commonly air. It may be mouth-operated, or powered by air pressure, steam, or other means. Whistles vary in size from a small slide whistle or nose flute type to a lar ...

diagram
. The whistle is pushed into the mouth fold-first. The curved open side of the U is the mouth of the whistle - where the air exits. The lips seal against the outside of the curved edges, such that the inside of the fold can be seen between the lips. The back of the fold is sealed against the tongue when in use, but the tongue must not block the holes. Air travels over the tongue, through the top hole, past the top of the bottom hole, and out of the mouth between the lips. The edge of the hole acts as a

fipple The term fipple specifies a variety of end-blown flute that includes the flageolet, recorder, and tin whistle. The Hornbostel–Sachs system for classifying musical instruments places this group under the heading "Flutes with duct or duct flute ...

. The lower hole opens onto an otherwise closed pocket of air, in the space between the whistle and the bottom of the mouth. This space acts as a

sound box A sound box or sounding box (sometimes written soundbox) is an open chamber in the body of a musical instrument which modifies the sound of the instrument, and helps transfer that sound to the surrounding air. Objects respond more strongly to vibr ...

; the sound resonates in it. Blowing over the lip of a bottle or jug also makes resonances by blowing across an opening. Unlike typical, single-tone whistles, the shepherd's whistle can emit a range of pitches, by using the tongue and mouth to change the shape and size of the "sound box". By moving the tongue and mouth, the

resonance Resonance describes the phenomenon of increased amplitude that occurs when the frequency of an applied Periodic function, periodic force (or a Fourier analysis, Fourier component of it) is equal or close to a natural frequency of the system ...

, and therefore the sound, can be varied. See

. A range of over an octave is possible, but whistle vary in the range of pitches and loudness they can produce; Denser material typcally have greater ranges. When a dog is trained to voice commands, whistle commands are added in parallel; when the dog is responding to the whistle commands, the voice commands can be omitted. Commands may be lengthened and loudened to get the dog's attention.

References

External links

Shepherd's whistle sounds
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shepherd's whistle Whistles Dog training and behavior Vessel flutes Animal communication Sheep farming simple:Whistle

Purpose

Materials

Design

Use

See also

References

External links