About a year ago our three year old rottie discovered whining.At first it was no big deal. He whined when he needed something, like going out. We talk to him a lot so probably inadvertently when he whines we have reinforced it. he whines when you are getting ready to go for a walk or a hike or to go on a ride somewhere, and we are talking to him.

He started to whine when he thinks we should be where we are going in the truck. He started to whine when he is ready for you to get up in the morning. He will not actively wake you unless he really needs to go out, but he will lay somewhere and whine under his breath, or with every breath.

it has started to get bad lately. It seems like he is whining all the time, and for no reason a lot of times. A few days ago we decided no more whining. SO we are going to ignore him when he whines. Ok. it seemed ok for a day or so, hard since he whines a lot but we can get through this, but apparently not paying him attention for it has convinced him he needs to ratchet it up a notch.

Today he wanted out so he started whining. I was doing something and needed him to wait, but was trying to ignore him since he was whining. This has been ingrained in him now so he thinks it's the right way to do things and he starts pacing by me and whining louder. I ignore him. He starts really giving me the eye and trying to get my attention. Then he starts walking around the room and bumping into a couple things and whining louder.

Now at home I can correct him with my voice, so I finally say "That's Enough!" He quits and came walking up in front of me with his head down a little and his ears back and sat in front of me facing away with his head down just a little and waited. I let him wait a minute, then I got up and praised him real big, and let him out.

Can I get input here, we created this, and we want to fix it the best, fastest and the easiest on him and us. Julie

Have you thought about capturing moments of silence no matter how short) to mark and reward?

BTW, yes, of course he'll ratchet it up. It has always worked, and what he has been "trained" is that "sometimes I REALLY have to whine like crazy."


http://leerburg.com/webboard/thread.php?topic_id=30152&page=1#335435

http://leerburg.com/webboard/thread.php?topic_id=25573&page=1#267720

http://leerburg.com/webboard/thread.php?topic_id=26958&page=2#288640

http://leerburg.com/webboard/thread.php?topic_id=30105&page=1#334966

Wow, great. I taught him quiet in relation to barking because he was a barker when he was young, so I taught him to bark on command and then to quiet. he doesn't seem to relate it to whining.

How dumb of me to not think about marking quiet. We do marker training. it is nice to know there is an end in site.

I love the idea about the alarm. I have been wanting to get up regularly earlier than I have been. I work for myself and would like to get more early morning work done, so the alarm could work well. he is smart as a whip so it shouldn't take long for him to figure that out. Just have to fill hubby in on that I am not just trying to wait him out so he is the one to get up. :-)

You can absolutely do this. You've let it become very ingrained, second nature, but that just means that he'll rev it up like crazy before it's extinguished, and you have to be 100% (one hundred percent!) consistent. Even ONE failure on a human's part puts you back at Step One .... but worse, because now he has been taught that "even if they have ignored me for two weeks, if I just keep it up to the max, it WILL work."

Vocalizing is self-rewarding. It's not quite like the stuff dogs do to get something that is not fun in and of itself .... this takes more care to extinguish.

Also, the lightbulb that comes on when the line between you "bored looking away" and you "engaged" becomes a very perceivable instant switch is a biggy.

How long of quiet is enough to reward? Instant?

A very short time is ok at first. Capture what you can. If you don't even have time to say the marker, half say it and then turn to stone. But a whining dog who stops, and then sees this instant shift in the atmosphere and in the action, is likely to be surprised enough even at first to keep looking at you to see WTH is happening.


You are going to have to limber up your jekyll-and-hyde face, because you need a distinct and instantaneous switch on and off. Bright to indifferent. Cheerful to bored and uninterested. Engaged to unseeing.

I think one of those links mentioned how fluidly I learned to turn and speak to the dog, open the crate, and reach for the walk-leash. But the inverse was true too ...... the first instant of the whining stopped me in my tracks, removed my attention, ended all action.

Negative attention is also verboten!

NO attention. No correction, no shouting, no glaring.

Whining make him invisible .... a blank spot in the room.


JMO, of course. But this has worked for me more than once, with one I created and a couple who came that way.

great. Makes perfect sense.

Thanks!

My 10 1/2 month old rottie does this also but it's getting progressively better because we just ignore it. Now he only does it in the morning when he knows he's getting ready to be fed or if we sleep a little later than normal. But even those times are becoming less and less because we simply ignore it and he doesn't get out of the crate if he's whining period.