A dog whistle is a helpful dog training tool you can use to teach your dog to come to you at the sound of the whistle.

It can also be used to interrupt unwanted behavior such as barking or digging. 

In this post, I'll go over how you can use your dog whistle to begin training your dog today! 

*Note that a dog whistle is much quieter to us than it is our dogs. You probably noticed your dog perk up his ears at the sound of the whistle when you could barely hear it. With our Mighty Paw dog whistle, you should hear a slight sound.

How to use a dog whistle to train your dog

I'll go over three different ways you can use your dog whistle for training.

1. Use the dog whistle to interrupt unwanted behavior.

This is probably the most common use for a dog whistle. You can use it to interrupt unwanted behavior such as barking, digging, counter surfing or jumping.

The sound of the whistle really gets your dog's attention, so if you give a quick, short blast on the whistle he will likely stop what he's doing. At that moment, you want to make sure to reward your dog.

For example: Your dog is barking in the yard. You give a short blast on the whistle. He stops and looks at you. You reward your dog with a treat or praise.

Our dog whistle is here for just $8.99.

2. Use your dog whistle to teach your dog "sit."

The whistle works well to interrupt a dog's behavior, but you can take this a step further and actually teach your dog that a short, quick blast on the whistle means "sit."

That way, if your dog is barking at the door, for example, you can give a quick blast on the whistle and he would sit. Then you can reward him for sitting quietly vs. barking.

To train this behavior, you would simply pair a short blast on the whistle with the verbal command "sit" followed by a highly valued treat.

With a few short training sessions, your dog will learn to sit when he hears the short blast. It's best to train for just 2-3 minutes at a time but do so every day or a few short sessions per day.

Once your dog understand that a short blast on the whistle means "sit," you can use this to your advantage to interrupt all sorts of behaviors such as jumping on people, counter surfing, barking in the yard, etc.

(Remember, people can barely hear the dog whistle. It is much more audible to our dogs.)

3. How to use your dog whistle to teach your dog to come.

The benefit to this is your dog can hear the dog whistle from a greater distance, sometimes easier than she can hear your voice. And then you don't have to yell!

We recommend giving a longer blast on the whistle to signal "come" and a shorter blast for "sit." That way, your dog won't get confused.

If you're going to use your whistle to train both behaviors ("come" and "sit"), choose one at a time so your dog doesn't get confused. Wait a few weeks before you introduce the second concept.

When training your dog to come to you at the sound of the whistle, you'll want to start out by using your voice command in addition to the whistle. Practice indoors or in a fenced yard with your dog on a leash. Reward your dog with a high-value treat when she comes to you.

Eventually, your dog will learn to come to a long blast on the whistle with or without your voice command. I recommend continuing to reward with high-valued treats.

Really, the options are unlimited when it comes to using a dog whistle, so you can get creative and use it as you'd like.

One of the benefits is you won't be annoying people with the whistle since it's not easily heard by people.

The Mighty Paw dog whistle comes with two attachment options: a super soft neck lanyard or a modern retractable clip option.

When training, the whistle will be right where you need it. Attach it to your belt loop or treat pouch.

Check out our dog whistle here.

If you have questions on how to use your Mighty Paw dog whistle, you can always email our customer service team using: Team@MightyPaw.com.

-Lindsay