For a dog living in an Indian home, the pressure cooker whistle is not background noise. It is sudden, high-pitched, and comes with no warning the dog can read. A dog that bolts behind the sofa, barks continuously, or trembles at the sound is not being dramatic, it is responding to a noise that sits well within the frequency range dogs find aversive, delivered at volumes that regularly exceed 90 decibels at close range. The good news is that fear responses to specific sounds are among the most trainable problems in companion dogs, and a kitchen whistle is a particularly workable case because you control when it happens.
