It’s been a LONG time since I became a member here and I’ve been away for a long while, so forgive me if this topic has already been addressed…
I live with five cats who don’t go outdoors. They absolutely HATE my whistle playing. I don’t think this is any comment on my skill or lack thereof; I think the high tones hurt their ears. One of them actually comes up and bites me whenever she sees I have the whistle out!
Do other people have this problem and how do you deal with it? I’m curious as to how dogs react, as well. Going in another room isn’t an option as we have a house with an open floor plan. I’d practice outside, but winter in Colorado isn’t much fun for sitting on the porch!
Whistle in a different room with a closed door would be the best solution, but it sounds like that’s out. Do you have an enclosed garage that you (or the cats) could use? Or maybe you could try to make a whistle mute, or get a really quiet whistle (Hoover, maybe?) for indoors practice.
Pet reactions can be pretty individual. Our cat loves whistle and flute, especially whistle. if I play whistle sitting down she comes running, gets into my lap, and sticks her head as close to the whistle as she can get it. Flute gets ecstatic head rubs against the body while I play. But she’s terrified of Uilleann pipes - every house session we’ve hosted featured her right in the middle of things (whistles, flute, fiddle, guitar, banjo, harmonica, bones, you name it) until the pipes started, then cowering under the bed (in the back bedroom) until they stopped.
Try a low whistle - go on, you have an excuse now…
Seriously, my susato playing would cause the dogs to leave the room. They ignore my low D’s except for maggie who showed interest in the dixon low D. Mind you, being plastic, she may have thought it more likely to be chewable. Strangely neither dog minds me the Dixon trad (high) d.
Which key is most likely to get rid of neighbours?
My dog did not like when I was learning the whistle. Depending on the weather, she would ask to go outside or go to the furthest corner of the house. She’s still not fond of the whistle but she’ll stay in the same room now. She doesn’t mind nor care about guitar, flute, harmonica, fife, ocarina, or singing. But, she must have her daily fix of my wife’s piano playing. We have an electronic keyboard. My wife could be playing in the highest pitched whistle mode and she’d be in heaven, it doesn’t matter. If I play the keyboard, the dog wouldn’t care and this wouldn’t count. Our prevous dog required a daily piano concert and I was a fine subsitute for my wife for that dog.
I have two dogs named Rascal and Rebel. Rascal is an older dog who loves to howl to the pennywhistle or harmonica. I don’t think it hurts his ears as he will come running from where he is at to come and join me. He genuinely seems to enjoy music. Rebel on the other hand doesn’t seem to care. He will go to sleep when I play. However, Rebel doesn’t seem to like my low d. The low d whistle will drive him away. Rebel is just a pup though and so as he gets older he may start to appreciate my talent. Or not
in a house with 2 cats and a dog, i’ve found that my more favored whistles are all deeply resented- walton’s little black D, Oak D, various other metal tube/plastic fipple whistles…
my LEAST favored is actually the only one that doesn’t get any adverse reaction from any of the animals- that’s my Clark D. it’s so breathy and chiffy with no sharpness to the notes that they ignore it quite happily.
my absolute favorite (my Rose) is one that occasionally gets me a nip or a yowl, but generally i’m so absorbed in the joy of playing it that it’s easy to ignore the pets!
however, one did try to bite the Rose once, and earned an instant rebate on free flying lessons… ;o)
And there was me thinking this thread would be about whistles AS pets - you know, a bit like those “pet pebbles” that were fashionable a couple of decades back, just before Tamagochis turned up…a whistle would be more interesting/tolerable/useful than either, and in this WhOAD community I just thought…
MTGuru, I LOVE it !
Just for the record, I have no animal pets - I’ve always been “cat people” but won’t have another cat while living in my present house after my last moggie got killed on the road outside about 9 months after I moved here, plus having no-one to look after any cat(s) if I’m away (cattery NOT an option).
I sort of use my cat as a good gauge of how my playing is progressing actually(beats using my session- mates as a gauge I suppose… lol) When I first started she hated it all, but now she is either resigned to it or it’s actually gotten better and she just lays there snoozing a few feet away- we both hang out near the woodstove as it is the only relatively warm spot in the house these days… I think I must have gotten better as she only protests if I don’t play a tune straight through but work on a short bar or two that is causing me a problem- she hates that- she seems ok with tunes played straight through once I know them.
I’m just starting on the flute and that doesn’t seem to phase her at all, and neither does my fiddle playing.
A friend I play with though- her dog hates it all- she(the friend, not the dog) plays recorder and if we try to play the dog goes beserk. She had to be locked up elsewhere for a session there the other night or it would have been nothing but barking all night.
So I guess if you can’t find kitty earplugs- wonder at the sound-deadening properties of MT’s suggestion there- lock up the beasties when you play I guess. Or you could try a set of GHB’s- after a few weeks of that, the kitties might welcome the whistle
My cat would run from the other room to me and try to swat it out of my mouth. I never understood if this meant she thought it was a toy or she was trying to destroy the source of her pain. She was an evil cat…so I just moved to higher ground and kept playing.
[/Shaft voice off ]
