Can You Train A Cat with A Dog Whistle?

[MoonstoneWolf]

I read that they can hear the ultrasonic tones but not sure if you can train them. I'm being paid to test a dog whistle so thought I could use it to stop the food fighting/aggression. . If not I"ll just use it to shut up the dog up the street who barks non stop at night when his neighbors let him out (not chained) but left to roam the street.

 

[amethyst]

I think you may be getting a dog whistle confused with those ultra sonic anti-bark devices. It might work to distract the cats maybe once, like "what was that noise? oh it's nothing" but whistles even for dogs aren't normally used to stop an action they are to train an action (or train to do one thing instead of another). If you do a whistle to distract it, give it a treat when it stops, basically you teach the whistle means treats (or petings or toy or whatever). So you first train the animal that the whistle sound means they get something, then you can use it to try to retrain the animal to do what you want it to do instead.

I use a whistle for my dogs for training, like to come and other commands (different whistle lengths and patterns mean different things), since the whistle carries farther then my voice if they are a ways away (I live on an acreage). I'm not sure it's going to do much good for a barking neighbor dog other then call it to you, not shut it up, unless you plan to work with and train it. I mean I guess it might work if you just blow hard making a loud high pitch sound to hurt the dog's ears, causing them pain and making them run away. If used when cats fight over food you will likely just end up teaching them that eating when you are around causes pain, and they will avoid you or at least avoid eating when you are anywhere around. Personally I think causing animals pain to get them to stop doing something is cruel though.

 

[MoonstoneWolf]

Sorry I was just going by the description in the Amazon product and since it's been 48 years since I had a dog and we never used whistles back then except my Dad whistling I didn't know. The money pays for the cats (they are feral btw) food. I was going to give them a treat after doing the whistle. BTW: I guess it isn't ultrasonic as it is not silent but it did call Shaman to the food bowl. Furballsmom what do you think? Treasure gave no reaction to it except look at me and go back to sleep. Shaman came to her food bowl when I blew and Sopdet ran back to bed down for the night.

 

[Caspers Human]

I agree that the stimulus of the whistle, alone, isn't enough.

Cats work more by Operant Conditioning where behavior begets response which, in time, begets new behavior.
(Whereas Classical Conditioning relates to the "stimulus vs. response" reaction.)

If you can teach the cat that the whistle is a signal that is triggered by some behavior and that signal is paired with some kind of response, you can use a silent whistle to "train" a cat. (In as much as cats can be trained.)

It isn't the whistle that's making the change in the cat's behavior. It's the "BEHAVIOR >> RESPONSE >> BEHAVIOR" cycle that's doing the work.

You might remember the legend of "Clever Hans" the counting horse.

Clever Hans - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

In summary, it was discovered that Hans, the horse, appeared to be able to answer questions because he picked up on subtle cues from people around him.

[An investigator] then proceeded to examine the behaviour of the questioner in detail, and showed that as the horse's taps approached the right answer, the questioner's posture and facial expression changed in ways that were consistent with an increase in tension, which was released when the horse made the final, correct tap. This provided a cue that the horse could use to tell it to stop tapping. The social communication systems of horses may depend on the detection of small postural changes, and this would explain why Hans so easily picked up on the cues given by von Osten, even if these cues were subconscious.

In fact, this phenomenon is now known as the "Clever Hans Effect."

Yes, cats can and do pick up on subtle, body language, cues from their humans and they do use these cues as a form of Operant Conditioning. It also works the other way, too... Cats condition their humans to get the behavior-responses that they want. If you ever woke up in the morning and immediately put food in your cat's bowl because she jumped on you, in bed, and pestered you until you went to the kitchen to feed her, you are the victim of your cat's Operant Conditioning on YOU!

I think the idea of a silent whistle is interesting but it doesn't have to be a whistle. Many people use a clicker-clacker to do the same thing. You could ring a bell, snap your fingers, clap your hands or even use a special signal word.

 

[MoonstoneWolf]

Ok but as I said I'm being paid to test this. They just send these to me I have no choice but to test them if I want to continue getting paid so I can feed the cats.

But yea I think Shaman has be trained very well? As she won't eat unless I'm standing there watching her. If I walk away she goes back up the street.

 

[Furballsmom]

but it did call Shaman to the food bowl

There might be something here that helps her, --in other words a training tool whether it's this or something else, which would be terrific

 

[Caspers Human]

They just send these to me I have no choice but to test them if I want to continue getting paid so I can feed the cats.

I think blowing a silent whistle is a capital idea if you are feeding feral cats!

Blow the whistle while you are feeding the cats. They may or may not react but it's a sure bet that they hear it.
Do this every time you feed the cats. After several repetitions, the cats will start associating the sound of the whistle with food. It won't take very long before the cats come at the sound of the whistle.

I like the idea because only the cats that you have conditioned to come for food should respond.
You could use your voice but the whistle will be something that only those, certain, cats that know the signal will understand.
Other cats or dogs that hear the sound of the whistle but they will think of it as just a noise.

If you wanted to use the whistle to teach cats not to be aggressive at feeding time, you could blow the whistle whenever you see cats acting aggressively. Immediately after blowing the whistle, do something to discourage the behavior you don't like. For instance, you might verbally scold them then take the food away until they settle down. After several repeats, the cats should start to get the idea "WHISTLE = NO FOOD"

Hopefully, after training, the cats will understand that the whistle means they have to stop misbehaving or else they'll lose their food. At that point, all you should have to do is toot the whistle whenever you want the cats to settle down.

Just to be clear, I don't think that either of these ideas are new or somehow ground breaking. I think they are cool ways to apply old concepts to new situations.

 

[basscat]

Training cats is like training fish (okay now...seriously it is).
It takes a lot of redundancy.
For weeks, I walked out to the pond, to the end of the dock. With an old metal cooking pan full of fish food. I'd throw the food in the water and then bang the pan on the edge of dock.
Weeks later: I throw the food, bank the pan, and the fish start churning the water eating the food.
Months later: I can walk out there with and empty pan, bang it on the dock, and the fish churn the water as if there's food, even though there isn't.
Training a cat is similar. And I think most people would have better luck training a cat if they were blindfolded and couldn't see what the cat was doing.

 

[maggie101]

I read that they can hear the ultrasonic tones but not sure if you can train them. I'm being paid to test a dog whistle so thought I could use it to stop the food fighting/aggression. . If not I"ll just use it to shut up the dog up the street who barks non stop at night when his neighbors let him out (not chained) but left to roam the street.

You can train a cat with a clicker. Maggie comes when I call. It took a few days. Other cats longer. The clicker I bought on Amazon. 3 pack.

 

[duncanmac]

I've trained my cats to do several things, mostly variations of coming when called ("who wants to eat" "who wants to play") but there is also "belly rub" and "get up" and "get down"

I've learned two things by this: First, it is easier to get a cat to do something because there is a cool reward coming than because there is something bad coming. Second, if a cat is intent on doing something "bad" he is going to do it almost no matter what.

So, if you want the cat's to stop "fighting" by giving them a treat when you call them that may or may not work depending on how "into it" they are. And, as a bonus, one of them might figure out that fighting gets them a treat.