Hello, maybe this is not the best way to ask for help, but I'm at my wits end ! I came across this site and read a lot of articles that have given me an idea on what to do, but I want some reinforcement on what I'm suppose to do. I have a golden lab, 3 years old, he hasn't had much contact with other dogs, he has contact with my cat, gets along, likes to annoy her, and I am the only person he has constant contact with, but is It's whining that's driving me nuts, I live alone, him and my cat are my only company, he usually is inside the house when I'm in the house and recently even when I'm not . I can't have him inside when there's company because he jumps, he weights 40kg, so it's dangerous, if he is outside and I'm inside he WHINES and whines and whines. When I'm with him, he will let me know when he wants to pee, when I'm not , even if he has access to the outside pees inside in the same places and if I put a mat down, he will pee somewhere else, he has tons of toys but choses to chew on my things, I try toys that release food but if it's not easy, he will stop playing, he will bring his toys to me, and I try throwing them, he gets it like 2 times and stops, try tug of war, also won't play more than a couple of seconds, I can run 2 miles with him and he won't stay put even after, he eats very well, but is always begging for food. I read about mental stimulation, so got him a cong, the cups game, the cupcake tin thing, he knows sit, lay down, paw, hi5, play dead, beg, talk, only does them when there are treats available, if not he is uninterested but restless at the same time. It's this just the way I raised him? Is it all bad behavior because I gave him everything or made everything easy?, like he doesn't have to work for them, Is there a way to fix this ? I love my Bruss! There's is no way I will ever give up on him, But I get really frustrated with him, I'm an emergency medicine doctor, and sometimes I need to relax, right now he is outside, and he hasn't stop whining for 2 hours! I'm waiting for the silence to let him in, but they don't last enough for me to get to the doorI just want to know If and how I can fix him. Trainers in Mexico are not as readily available like in the states, so that is not really an option. Please help me! What can I do?
I would work on training him to settle. There are many aspects to this and I learned the hard way with Mollie (10 months) as she doesn't settle easily. My other pups happily settled after walks/training etc. The first is to teach them to be alone, slowly building this up from one minute to a couple of hours. On return I don't have a 'welcome ceremony' as this means they anticipate your return, which adds the stress, your return is enough reward for being quiet. I wouldn't leave him outside I'd go out with him. I'd do the 'alone' training indoors in a place he feels really safe. When he's with you yes, play games, do training etc - but also train a 'settle'. You put the lead on and simply wait until the dog proplerly relaxes, which usually involves their head down - a bit of a sigh - and hips flopping over. Then you throw a treat for them, repeat a few times a day. Then begin to add the cue 'settle' and treat when they do it. It takes time but it works. The problem with giving Kongs, chews etc where you are there is that dogs like Mollie constantly anticipate more. So I save the filled Kongs for when I'm leaving the house.
Is your dog neutered? I have a friend who, after 3 years, had his male neutered and it made a huge difference. It really calmed him down.
Please try what @Boogie suggests before even considering neutering. Absolutely no offence to @Mary Lily , but the "neutering to calm him down" thing is really unsubstantiated. For every person who thinks it helped their dog, there are at least as many who will say it had no effect whatsoever. Also something to try or keep in mind as you work with him is that he is likely getting something positive out of whining, or he wouldn't do it. Sometimes dogs get reinforcement out of the tiniest moment of attention or even what we'd consider negative attention. Not the same situation, but I had a foster dog a few months ago who would scratch and bite me for attention. It was SO hard for me to simply turn my back and give him no negative or positive feedback whatsoever...especially as my back was literally black and blue after a few days of that! But what I learned is that if I gave him even the slightest attention (my voice, a look, gently pushing him away, trying to move away from him), he'd take that as positive reinforcement and we'd take a step back. It was really amazing what he considered a "reward"! Once I learned to be 100% consistent and give no reinforcement to the scratching and lots of praise for the NOT scratching moments, we started to make real progress. But it was seriously hard for me to be consistent! Again, this is a different behaviour than your dog, but just an idea to really look at your reactions seen from your dog's point of view and understand what is a reward to him. I hope you can make progress and start de-stressing WITH your dog and not stressing more BECAUSE of your dog.
My chocolate lab Fiona used to do this(she has since passed), but she would whine whenever she was bored. I had to give her a good workout everyday for a couple of hours to tire her out and that always did the trick! She eventually stopped thankfully.
