Beautiful dog, beautiful videos, beautiful post and brave of you to share it. Also very good advice. My little Joy has followed me everywhere since we got her in June last year. Then last night when I went to the kitchen to stir food she stayed by the fire with my husband.First time she hasn't followed me! I know it's a sign that she's growing up and becoming more confident but I was thinking 'Where's my girl? Where's my little best friend?'
The video was just to show the whining, her being outside looking in is not the norm. She whined at the door to go out, she saw a squirrel, but by time she got out the squirrel ran up the tree. She turned right around and began whining, so I took a video of it, I had already walked into the kitchen so I was not visible when she began whining. We try to take her places but she does the super loud whining in the Tahoe. Imagine being in a confined space like that and the dog is whining really really loud the entire time. I already have 80% hearing lose in the left ear from Iraq and she has literally made both ears ring. I'd love to be able to take her all over with me, I use to with my other Lab Buster, but its not possible with the whining. When we take her to the park or the beach I take her in the Tahoe and my wife drives with the 2 kids in a another car. I planned to do a little test and take her in the Tahoe with just me and put a frozen Kong in with her, see if that helps her with the ride.
I walk her, at first she tends to pull a bit. I have the E-Z Walker for her so that helps. After she has chased the ball and worn out a bit she is much easier to walk. I will admit we don't go on walks right now, living in the Pacific Northwest it cold, windy and rainy all winter. I will start walking her regularly though, as I could use the exercise as well lol. I would really like to get back into running and loved running with my last Lab. I should be able to start walks tomorrow. Oh yeah, she was named Tandy but we changed her name to Lightening. My 5 year old son named her that, "Because she is so fast!!" lol. She took to the new name easily with positive reinforcement training. I'd say "Lightening" and give her a treat. After a day she was responding to it no problem. Now if you say Tandy she doesn't even look.
When my boy was a small puppy he howled in the car. It was just awful, made me very upset to hear his crying. I thought I’d never be able to drive anywhere, although I had to take him in the car to training. Then one day it stopped. I have no idea why he howled - I asked the breeder and she said his mother was very vocal in the car. Now he gets vocal when he knows he’s going to a favourite walking spot, and when my mom is in the car and chatting to me, she tells him to Keep Quiet! Like a granny to a grandchild - it’s not harsh, just exasperated. He listens to her! She’s hard of hearing so it’s difficult having a conversation with a yowling dog. But when it’s just me and him, I usually sing in the car and I don’t mind if he wants to sing along. But in general he’s quiet in the car, and after a walk he sleeps on the back seat. In our case we simply persevered because we had no option: we wanted him with us and it meant car rides. (I didn’t know about using frozen kongs then - I’m guessing they would’ve been very effective. Or a meaty bone.) He also barks at me when we sit at a cafe - he doesn’t like doing nothing. But we’ve persevered with this, too, usually raining treats down to keep the peace. He is 6 yo now and things have improved dramatically in the past year. He’s the easiest dog in the world now - I probably exaggerate cos he still has a loud bark, but you can take him anywhere and nothing fazes him. If we do a good walk to a cafe, he’s tired and happy to lie down and quietly watch the world go by and of course share our meal! I hope you can get through this. She looks very sweet in your video.
I'm glad to hear that you're going to start walking her, because you've absolutely got to start exercising her, regardless of weather. We've got several members in rural Canada, and if they can exercise their dogs in -25 in deep snow then none of us have any excuse! Cold, windy, and wet is standard winter weather for most us - you just nut up and get wet. It's not going to solve your whining problem, but it will definitely help her quality of life and make her a little happier.
Sorry @jasongind I actually think I used a trick question on you, asking about the lead walking was just a way to see how engaged you are and the effort you're putting into bonding with your girl Lightening I think you know what I mean by now. It is much up to your sincere willingness to get there, I am quite sure Lightening will turn out a wonderful lab just like they all tend to, which makes them sought after and popular if not the most popular breed pretty much everywhere in the world. I'm in Portugal by the way. My new lab is a black show one, he is 4 months old and his name is Gaston Welcome to this forum, it's really lovely and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do! Good luck to you, good luck to sweet girl Lightening (oh and jason read those threads on random dog thoughts and human thoughts, these 2: thelabradorforum.com/threads/random-hoomans-by-our-dogs.17219/page-229#post-358090 thelabradorforum.com/threads/random-dog-thoughts-thread.16838/page-225#post-358556 They're hilarious, maybe Lightening wants to pitch in with some of her thoughts on you too)
My girl used to howl in the car, it took months to get her out of the habit. I realised the only time she came in the car was if we were going for a walk or visiting someone, so high arousal places. Once I realised this I started taking her to the garage for fuel, or popping to the shop for milk and sometimes just to go around the block. This really helped as she realised that the end of the drive didn’t always end in an exciting adventure. Could you do something like this? I’m sure she is whining as she is bored. Labs need to get out every day for at least an hour. I have spinal injuries and got her to help me keep active. I walk her for 1-1.5 hours a day. This helps not only my health, but also our bond, plus it tires her out. We play lots of games when on a walk like hide and seek in the woods, or hiding a ball in the long grass for her to find, getting her to chase me and changing directions. All of these things keep her brain working which tires them out more. Hope this is of some help.
Were about to go take where on a walk. She gets super excited as soon as I put the EZ Walk on her. Hopefully that calms down some I erroneous too. I put some of her food in a bag to use as a treat to try and help with the pulling g.
Took her in the Tahoe to go for a walk and as the norm she was whining and yelping the whole time. Went on a good hour 45 min walk, I put a few 16.5 oz water bottles in her little backpack saddles and put it on her. The first 10 mins she was pulling really bad, whining and yelping really loud. So I decided to throw the ball into the Puget Sound (took her backpack off first ) to help her burn off some energy. I did that for about 15 minutes then started walking again, still pulling, whining and yelping really loud. We did a mile and a half, then went to a field. I threw the ball with the chuck-it for 20 minutes. She was still going strong but we had to go eat, everyone was starving. On the ride home she did not whine once though. That was a nice change. Were going to keep this up and hope for change.
My Coco (age 4 nearly) can be a nightmare in the car. He is usually going somewhere good - like a walk or dog training. He makes very loud howly-yelps. It is pure excitement with him. I know I need to take him on lots of short car journeys that just end up at home - nothing exciting and I promise myself I WILL do this. But it's always "not today". Like your Lightening today, he tends not to make too much noise on the way home. Perhaps try doing something different with her like doing some obedience training in the garden. Coco really enjoys doing this, as do I and it helps strengthen our bond. You don't necessarily have to go to classes, there's lots of positive based training on Youtube. 20 minutes doing this might have her concentrating rather than whining. It might. It's worth a go. We now take our obedience training out and about on our walks.
Well the rest of the night Lightening just slept in the floor, she was pretty exhausted. We're talking her back out today, probably not to swim though incase she is sore. I have to run some errands today before her walk so ill take her worth me to start working on the winning in the vehicle.
All morning long the only time she whined was to go out to potty and come back in. I just took her in the Tahoe with me and the kids to run some errands. I did something a little different in the predation to leave though. Usually I put her EZ Walk harness on her and she goes ape sh*t and whines in the Tahoe the entire time. I think in anticipation of going to play. So this time I just loaded her up in the Tahoe without the harness. I brought the harness up front with me but didn't let her see it. She sat in the back quietly for about 5 minutes then did a little whine, not loud at all. We went to the post office and as we were getting out she whined some, still not nearly as loud or constant as before though. We came out and she was quiet, got in and went to Walmart. No whining on that leg of the trip. We were getting out and she did a little whining. Got back in and started to drive home. I did a little experiment and drove down by the water where we always take her to play, as soon as she recognized the area she started to get excited and whine, still not as bad as before though. I just kept driving home. Once we got out of the area her whining subsided. I really can't believe the difference the walk and playing has made. I feel like a turd for not doing it before. It makes complete sense now, improve her quality of life and it improves ours as well. Its 43* and raining but I'm going to put on my rain jacket and walk her again a few.
Well done. Don't fall into the trap of over-exercising her though - you'll just get a very fit dog, who needs more and more exercise to keep her happy! Best to do some mind games that will tire her out mentally, as well as physically, for instance searching games in the house or the yard.
I think she's still pooped from yesterday, I tried to get her to go out on a walk and she didn't want any part of it. She's just sleeping on the floor still lol. Is the no way to up load a picture unless it's hosted on another site first?
There are two options: you use a third party host like Imgur or Flickr, or you become a “Forum Supporter” for £10 a year which allows direct uploads of photos up to 1 MB in size.
