# Cat Whistles

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-whistles/276300>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 23, 2004, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-whistles/276300 "2004-11-23T16:43:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\
**Post date:** [November 23, 2004, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-whistles/276300/1 "2004-11-23T16:43:11Z")

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I don’t know the range of sounds that cats hear at, but I was wondering…if you blew a dog whistle around a cat,would the cat hear it?

I don’t have a dog whistles and I don’t intend to buy one just to test this, but I’m curious.

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**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\
**Post date:** [November 23, 2004, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-whistles/276300/2 "2004-11-23T16:58:49Z")

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Dogs hear sounds up to 40 kHz, cats as high as 60 kHz. Yes, the typical cat will hear a dog whistle. Of course, they’ll completely ignore it.

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**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\
**Post date:** [November 23, 2004, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-whistles/276300/3 "2004-11-23T17:19:15Z")

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> [@Q.E.D.](#):
>
> … cats as high as 60 kHz. Yes, the typical cat will hear a dog whistle. Of course, they’ll completely ignore it.

So how do we know they hear it?  
:dubious:

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**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\
**Post date:** [November 23, 2004, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-whistles/276300/4 "2004-11-23T19:03:51Z")

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They will react – their ears will go up and might turn toward the sound. But they aren’t going to come when called, unless you manage to teach them to associate the sound with food.