Oh my god Eric can cry and whinge. On a normal work day Eric wakes as soon as the heating kicks in and my alarm goes off. He cries until we get up and let him out. On a weekend he wakes before the heating comes on and again cries until we get up and let him out. It is never for long - literally minutes. However now he is crying for anything he doesn't like eg, Hubbie leaves the house- he cries I go upstairs - he cries we shut the back door while one of us puts the bins out - he cries he wants to get onto a different room - he cries he doesn't want his toys - he cries He is waiting for a walk - he cries I have noticed it more today as we didn't take him for his morning walk - oh boy! Once in the vets (despite poorly foot) he just wanted to play. he couldn't so he cried and cried. I feel as though I've been a bit 'cocky' with my 'oh Eric doesn't bark' but I also think I've somehow allowed this to happen. Now he's on rest for a week or so and both me and hubbie are off work it's definitely time to work on this.... but where to start?
Is it real crying or just whining? I've heard it said that whining is more an emotion that a behaviour - that is, the dog is frustrated or excited, for example, and it manifests as a whine. This seems to be the case with my Willow. Some dogs seem oblivious to the fact they're actually making any noise. If you think of it in these terms, rather than thinking of it as a behaviour that you want to train out, then you can look at managing the environment to allow him to deal with this. So, for example, Willow used to whine when my husband and I were out training together, and she was waiting for her turn. She was frustrated because she wanted it to be her turn all the time! We managed this by building up the time she was expected to it and watch. Literally a few seconds to start with, and she now goes for several minutes quite happily, with no noise. She understands her turn is coming, so has learnt to be patient. I think adopting the same approach of building duration in the circumstances he whines will help young Eric, too
Oh, and other impulse control games might help alongside this, too. Since Eric is on rest at the moment, you can use the time you'd normally be walking to work on this, and wear his little brain out
I'll be watching this thread with interest, thanks for posting. Pongo has become a terrible whiner, and I don't really know how it has happened. He whines almost constantly for an hour or so in the morning, while trying to persuade us that it is time for his walk. After his walk he will normally settle, but still whines softly. OH gets really irritated by it and ends up shouting at him to stop (this works for about 30 seconds). I try very hard to just ignore him, not to reward him with any attention, but the noise is incredibly annoying. I don't think the whining is meant to be a communication to us. It is almost as if he is talking / muttering to himself under his breath, or singing a little song to himself.... He also whines very, very loudly with excitement if we are in the car going somewhere nice (which according to Pongo is pretty much any time we are in the car...). I have to admit the noise drives me spare, it's like fingernails on glass. Once the afternoon comes round he is perfectly quiet - curled up in one of his favourite sleeping places, dozing, watching us work, not a peep out of him. It only seems to be in the morning.
Charlie whines - and he can stop it. Whether he could always stop it in every circumstance, I don't know - more like, it's impractical to get him to stop in all circumstances. I am pretty sure in Charlie's case it is behaviour he learned. And the whine got louder and louder, and would turn into a strangled bark. Charlie has also learned to make other noises. If he makes a noise when he yawns in the morning, my OH will look at him and make the same noise back. Charlie loves attention, and so now he sounds like a pod of whales and dolphins in the morning as the dog (from the bed) and my OH (in the bathroom) make yawning noises to each other. It's quite ridiculous, and every time I object my OH just laughs and says "what? you reckon he's a gundog?" as he points to Charlie, flat on his back on the bed, waiting for his tummy rub. No authority in my own house, that's the problem...grumble, moan...etc. Anyway, I'm a broken record! Treat and Train does stop Charlie whining. In the car Charlie would whine like crazy, getting worse and worse as I parked the car. I could not just wait for quiet as any next movement would set him off again. Car in reverse - whine - wait - stop - parking sensors beep - whine - wait - stop - stop the car - whine - wait - stop - open door - whine - wait - stop. Drove me nuts! Here he is, down to one small whine while I park the car for his walk: one whine by julieandcharlie julieandcharlie, on Flickr
oh I'm sorry @JulieT but this did make me laugh! I will be trying some 'control' games this fortnight while we're off work. It is good (not for you I'm sure) to know we are not alone in the whining stakes! Eric is also worse in the mornings @Rosie We usually combat that by taking him for a walk. This week will be lots of mind games!
@snowbunny It's whining not crying. I'm sure he does it when he can't get his own way immediately. I know I've said it before but it really is like having my son (ASD and ADHD) in dog form! Will be working on some self control games lol
Heheh! I have to admit to copying Willow when she makes a noise when she yawns, too . She's obviously not as much of a "pleaser", though, because it doesn't seem to encourage her to do it more
Lucan will whine in the morning, I think to wake us up. I've made a point of never getting out of bed while he's whining so as not to reward him, he's 6 now and it hasn't worked yet!
And I thought we were the only ones!! We can't remember when we started copying Snowie... or if he started copying us. But now we all make the same groans and squeaks and snorts. We haven't made it to the pod of whales -- that I would love to hear! As whining for attention: it really pulls at your heartstrings, doesn't it? Snowie only learned to whine recently, as an adult. Perhaps he had to delve into his bag of tricks to find something that would really make us do what he wanted to do. And it certainly worked! For a time. Until we got back our nerves of steel. He usually whines when he wants to go to bed, but he doesn't want to go by himself, we must come with him. Have you ever??!! So, if we're downstairs working at our laptops and he wants to go upstairs to bed, he will stand in the middle of the kitchen and look mournfully at us and start whining. Little pitiful whines. Either we decide, yes, it is time for bed (and thank goodness for a dog who knows a sensible bedtime) or if it is too early for bed, then we tell him to go sleep on his bed (downstairs). Eventually he gives in and does that, sometimes emitting a hilarious (to us) groan as he lies down.
I know this groan! Pongo does it too....when he finally realises that whining is NOT going to make us move.
Gypsy used to whine for attention. I was taught to get my book/newspaper and (very obviously) turn my back on her and completely ignore it. It worked. I had encouraged it by speaking to her and 'explaining' what was happening "No, we're not going out yet" etc. As soon as I made it clear she was being ignored and stopped talking to her when she whined - it completely stopped. .
Just watched your video -- that was impressive! If this were me, I'd be reversing instead of clicking, dispensing treats when I should be stopping, I would be an uncoordinated mess!! When Snowie was a puppy, the only reason I persevered taking him the car was because that was how we got to training class. Otherwise I think I would've resorted to walking everywhere, his cries (and I don't think they were excited cries) cut me through the heart. As he got older, he would reach a crescendo of excited screams by the time we reached a favourite walking spot. Drove me insane. And my poor mother, when she'd join us, she'd have to remove her hearing aid because you can imagine what a screaming dog sounds like through one of those! Thankfully all has changed and he quietened down on his own.
Charlie cried a bit in the car when he was young, but soon stopped. He was then silent, no barking, no whining until way after he was a year old. He first started whining watching other dogs retrieve, I wasn't then with the right trainers, and I failed to get a proper grip on his excitement, and then when he was in kennels rehabilitating from injury. Once it started, it just seemed to get worse and worse.
