Hello,
I was wondering if someone can help me with this one. I NEVER let the dogs have their meal until they are quiet, sitting, and looking at ME, not the meal. However, they keep whining before the meal. I tried couple things. The older one gets fed Honest Kitchen which needs to be soaked about 10 minutes. So I get it mixed before or during the human dinner preparation so that they eat after us. When he sees me getting it and mixing it he starts whining and whines, whines, whines. Then I get up from our dinner and go give it to him. When he sees me bringing it he nicely sits and waits until I open the door of the crate, put it down, and give him the permission to eat. I tried getting it ready long in advance and he could whine for maybe 30 minutes to an hour after I got it ready. Then he figured out he wasn't getting it and stopped. I did it for about two weeks with no changes in behavior. Then I had my husband sit next to his crate and say No to him every time he whined. We did this for about two weeks with no changes in behavior. Any ideas? It drives me nuts. They also whine when we are arriving to a park or anywhere where they think they are getting out of the car (stop sign, traffic light, parking lots, etc, etc). They are not allowed out of the car until they sit quietly and look at me, and again, that does not seem to work for the previous whining. They are terriers 6 years and 1.5 years old. The older one it the worse one of the two.

thanks so much,

Lenka

I'll be watching this thread. Mine are becoming increasingly bad about whining when Im making their dinner. It's gotten to now if I don't feed them by say, 6pm, the older one will start his whining. Once they hear the feed pans come out he's almost as bad as he is when he's waiting his turn for bite work. I haven't tried to correct it. I figured it was good they were excited for their food. Tonight he irritated me with his "give me my food" whining to the point that I put him in the laundry room (his room) and shut the door. Ive been feeding around 9pm and he started his crap around 6-630.
When Im making their dinner they are either in a down stay on their beds or I let them come to the corner of the kitchen and down stay there. I put the bowls down, take the next day meal out of the freezer and they sanitize the counters before I ask them to sit or stand and then finally I release them and they go to their own bowls.
Dont know if it's a bad routine.

I read this:

http://www.houstonpettalk.com/behavior/does-your-dog-whine-a-lot/

And it makes me think of Ed's Pack video..

http://leerburg.com/308.htm


Just a thought.

Hi and thanks for the reply. The only thing I have not done that was in that article was reinforcing quiet. I actually thought of that after I posted this thread so I will try that. Otherwise we have done everything the article suggests. I do own the video and I will watch it again since I have only seen it once. We have been doing groundwork since July 5th. Thanks,

Lenka

Hi Angie,
I feel with you and the annoyance this causes. Tomorrow morning I will be reinforcing quiet while my husband gets the food and I will let you know how we are progressing.

 Quote: Angie Stark

I put the bowls down, take the next day meal out of the freezer and they sanitize the counters before I ask them to sit or stand and then finally I release them and they go to their own bowls.
Dont know if it's a bad routine.

If you've taught your dogs to sanitize the counters it's a GREAT routine. I couldn't even get my exes to put the dirty dishes in the sink, let alone have my dogs do any cleanup work.

Hysterical, I'm rolling on the floor laughing

Lenka,
I'm going to play the Devil's Advocate here - is the whining honestly that bad? I mean that there are so making things that a dog does by its nature, that with a high-drive dog I just don't think it's that big of a deal.
Just my 2 cents worth....

You know I don't know what to think. It does drive me crazy but that is secondary. First of all I think that a well behaved dog should not whine anywhere between 30 minutes to an hour when he sees his dinner getting ready? Yes? No? I don't know, I just want a well behaved dog and don't want to do things wrong as I stated in previous threads. Also when they whine at every slowing down of the car is that OK? I am not trying to be sarcastic or anything, I am seriously asking. That is why I write these posts because I seriously don't know. If you think that's OK then I will not make an issue out of it because God knows we have so much to deal with anyways but I don't want to support bad behavior.

If it took me 30mins to an hour to get the meal ready for mine, the whining would be the least of it. They'd probably eat each other.