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A dog whistle (also known as silent whistle or Galton's whistle) is a type of whistle used in the training of dogs and cats. It was invented by Francis Galton. 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 frequency range of a dog whistle is largely out of the range of human hearing. Typically, a dog whistle is within the range of 16 kHz to 22 kHz with only the frequencies below 20 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 ultrasonic sound via piezoelectric 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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• Dog whistle sounds
• Dog whistles pictures