The handlers whom I recorded modeled a simple set of rules that I have incorporated into my repertoire ever since. They universally used a flat, unwavering pitch to soothe or slow animals and the opposite to stimulate them. And so those short, repeated words to excite animals were often rising in pitch. But the single notes used to stop fast-moving animals usually varied considerably in pitch, going up and down like a roller coaster within just one syllable. “Whoa!” for example, starts by rising in pitch and then falling.
