My 6 month old has been extremely whiny lately. In the morning when I get up, I've always got up and got ready for work, etc before acknowledging him just so he wouldn't expect attention at the first site of someone in the morning. Then once I'm ready, I go grab him, potty, go for a walk, some play and then feed before I go to work. Lately, as soon as he hears someone is up he starts whining. He is quiet until he hears someone is up, usually me.

Same thing after work. He can be in his crate or xpen hangin out with the rest of the family quietly, but when he sees or hears me pull up, he starts going nuts, whining and making a huge fuss! I come in, ignore it as I always do until I'm ready to take him out, usually 10 minutes or so sometimes longer If he is still carrying on. They say he is always quiet and doesn't whine until I come home!

What is this all about? I've never let him out while whining. Seems to be getting worse lately. Is he just starving for attention? is he trying to see if ill give in? Is this a phase? Is it something I'm doing that I'm not realizing?

If it is a matter of teaching the quiet command, what is the proper way to go about it? Command, then when he pauses, mark and reward? Do you let him out at that point, or just keep commanding and marking, rewarding, while remaining in the crate or xpen?
I mentioned this in. Previous post, and luckily the house has been void of visitors lately, but I also need to teach this for when he acts up in his crate when visitors come over, not sure if its taught the same way or not. I haven't taught this before, so any help on the proper way to teach it is appreciated.

I'm guessing that the whining is rewarded somehow. Attention, maybe? I guess it could be just fun to do. (I sure have known dogs who found barking a rewarding pastime in and of itself. )

But anyway, here's a thread about a barker:

http://leerburg.com/webboard/thread.php?topic_id=31587&page=1#352193

(Same m.o. for me .... capture the instant of silence and make it very clear where the mark/reward came from when it happens, then proceed as for any behavior you captured ... or "free shaped" ... )

http://leerburg.com/webboard/thread.php?topic_id=32789&page=1#368546

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

You may not be ignoring him hard enough.

That is, as long as he's exercised and pottied, you may need to be more clear that you're ignoring him. Standing there gazing at something to his side is pretty clear.

JMO! I know lots of folks here have excellent "quiet" hints.

i agree with connie re the mark and reward for quiet , but what i do to make it even more clear to the dog what i want is to teach the speak command first .

it will probably be easy to elicit a bark out of that dog . while he is still enjoying the reward from that mark , command quiet , hand over the muzzle , finger on your lips , mark / reward that .

that little process makes it very clear to the dog what you want and you are then training two markable / rewardable behaviours in succession , creating more opportunities for the dog to succeed and be engaged with you .

Ok, this is driving us nuts. Morning is just a whine over and over, but in the afternoon he sounds like damn hyena!!! It's like he can't control himself!

Typically the way it goes is my alarm goes off at say 4am. He is quiet. I get up and leave the bedroom (he is crated in the living room). It's dark, no lights, as soon as he hears my up, the whining starts. I have always ignored the whining. I go in the bathroom, get ready for work, get dressed, go in the kitchen walking past him but never acknowledging that he is even in the house, he is Usually still half ass whining. Sometimes he will quiet for a split second when i come through the living room to get to the kitchen. If he does end up quiet once i. In the kitchen for a few minutes, I go get him and bring him with me in the kitchen to make my lunch, etc. then outside to go potty, then usually a walk and a little training session before I go to work. Now if I am in the kitchen and he quiets I mark and walk in and reward.

I was re-reading some of the links that were posted and one said that it should not be followed by an entrance into the room as that is rewarding. So by me walking into the room is that encouraging the whining? I'm now thinking that by me even walking through the living room in the dark is rewarding him somehow for the whining, even though I'm completely ignoring him. He whines and I appear!! Should I be letting him out of the crate every time he complies as well?

In the evening after work....as soon as I close my car door....I hear it start. Crate or xpen, doesn't matter. I come in, put my stuff down, talk to the kids, etc, ignoring him until eventually he stops(sometimes lasting 10 or 15 minutes), then ill go over have him sit or lay down then acknowledge him.

I've done the "quiet" then mark and reward, then I leave to the next room to do something for a minute and he starts again...by me coming back in, is that encouraging it even though I'm waiting for him to stop?

I can't just stay in bed until he quiets down. I can't just sit in the driveway until he is quiet. Do I walk in and stand by him until he is quiet then mark/reward? If I mark out of the room and walk in to reward is that sending mixed singles to him?

I have not tried to mark a bark yet. The grasping the muzzle won't work when he is in the crate which he is in the morning and a lot of the time when I get home.

 Quote: Mychal Scott

, then ill go over have him sit or lay down then acknowledge him.

The difference between ignoring him and interacting with him needs to be obvious and instantaneous. When Tanner starts whining for his dinner I completely ignore him until the exact instant that he lies down on the chaise. Completely ignoring him means no eye contact, no reaction to him resting his head on my thigh, trying not to laugh at how pathetic he sounds, completely focusing on something else, etc. The second his elbows hit the chaise I suddenly give him direct eye contact, turn my body towards him, and say something like "What a good boy Tanner let's go get some dinner!" in a happy animated voice. The contrast has to be BIG for the dog to get it. Some dogs need you to turn around and do a statue impression to make it clear enough for them.

Even the best whiners have to take a breath, scratch, sniff, big disgusted sigh, etc at some point. That's your moment. You don't even have to be in the room. Just use that big happy voice and head over.

It will take a bit with you having to enter the room while he's whining but he'll eventually get it.

I have 12 dogs and all are howlers and whinners, genetically i guess.
But on my whisper 'quite' they are silent.
The last resor,t after u tried all the baby talk.
I took a whip and thrashed it around missing him by an inch, he will think he is lucky, now switch ur tone to a nicer note, talk to him not in word but a sentance. They get the tone better that way then in a word of command.
Say a Chinese man is mad at u and says it in a sentance u will understand him better than in a word, that simple.
It seems he rules ur life turn it around.
It works. My dogs know Dad dont liike it. Period.

Like criminal humans, all cant be rehabs.
Some are roughs, some mentally missing
Stuff. Long time ago i thought i could train any horse or dog now i took at humans and some
are gone cases so too dogs, just write them off after the whip dont work, there are lot many good ones then bad ones. Dont threat them like Humans, dogs are Carines and we
Humanoids. Caesar Milan said it too.
When the master is in the mode Watch out
enough is Enough it works. Amen, Period

 Quote: amit kumar

Dont threat them like Humans, dogs are Carines and we
Humanoids.

And as humans we have figured out more sophisticated and reliable methods to teach a dog to be quiet than threatening it with a whip.

A 6 month old pup experimenting with whining for attention is not a "rough" or "mentally missing stuff".

IMHO, there are beter ways to teach your dog to be quiet than by threatening or scaring the dog. However, simply marking the desired behavior didn't work for me, either. I had to leave my dog in the crate and deliberately ignore her until she not only quit acting out, but got tired and rested (switched "modes"). When I waited for a break to acknowledge her, she was evidently convinced that the whining had gotten my attention and thus what she sought, and the next time, the whining was just as bad.


After leaving her in the crate enough times even after she settled, the whining began to decrease. Now, she may make a little noise initially, but tires of it and settles pretty quickly.

 Quote: Cathy Goessman

 Quote: amit kumar

Dont threat them like Humans, dogs are Carines and we
Humanoids.

And as humans we have figured out more sophisticated and reliable methods to teach a dog to be quiet than threatening it with a whip.

A 6 month old pup experimenting with whining for attention is not a "rough" or "mentally missing stuff".

Ditto.

Let's not toss " just write them off after the whip dont work," into a discussion of whining from a six-month-old dog and the quiet command. We're not talking about a dog coming up the leash to take off a hand here; we're talking about a puppy whining.


I don't want to get too far off topic here -- just to mention that I evaluate and then work with the problem dogs at a shelter. And I haven't needed a whip yet, in all my decades of work with all kinds of dogs.

I make no mistake about them being dogs and not humans, and this is not a board that is rife with the "furkids" folks. But I like to think that we, as the ones with the bigger brains in the relationship with dogs, don't need to run out and buy whips.