We just bought one of those 6ft poles with the fluffy pink static duster on the end. We already had a bunch of the shorter ones.

In the past, when dusting with the shorter ones, my dog would go nuts trying to get it, barking a lil bit, jumping around, then getting it wet n making it useless.

Now the one on the 6ft pole, he stands there barking at it constantly, chasing it around while dusting up high, trying to jump up the walls to get it, going absolutely nuts. If I put him in a sit/stay (which is pretty damn hard with that level distraction), he stops barking but he makes these loud closed-mouth whining sounds, constantly.

What are these whining sounds? Are they just the "I wanna go play with the pink fluffy thing" whining sounds? Or is it something bad?

We have a doorbell extender - the way it works is theres a receiver box u put up by the doorbell speaker, when the doorbell rings, the receiver box hears the sound and sends a signal to a 2nd speaker elsewhere in the house. When my dog hears this doorbell extender, he "knows" someones at the door so he starts barking.

Now imagine the level of chaos in the house this morning when we are trying to dust stuff with the 6ft duster - trying to talk about something, and have a dog jumping up the walls, his BARK setting off the doorbell extender, then barking even more because the doorbell went off so runs to the front door, sees nobody's there, jumps over every obstical on the way back to the 6ft duster n continues to do a perfect bark & hold on the thing. Perhaps this should be a new bark & hold training method for Schutzhund... have the decoy wear a pink fluffy duster on his arm.

Anyway my concern was the whining sounds, I don't want to put stupid amounts of stress on my dog from a pink duster - I hate hearing him whine like that, he does the same thing but nowhere near as bad when I won't let him break a sit/stay when my neighbors dog is walking past us.

Mike,

I know that this whining is because he wants to play. He sees you with the duster. aka. your attention is on the duster not him and he wants to be included. My pup does that too. Everytime we are involved in anything moving, he starts to bark and when tell him to stop, barking slowly turns into whining and jumping.

Hope this helps.

Rashmi

COME ON DAD LETS PLAY???????? PLEASE

Seems we have a similar problem...but mine is with the hose

MY boy is a water hog....Loves the water...the end of the
sprayer is dented from him biting at it...turn the sprinkler on and it funniest home vidieo time..the neighbor bought a new more powerful sprinkler, sprays farther, and makes more noise...he doesnt like ours anymore ..had to go buy one just like the neigbors so he wouldnt wreck theirs...So if you want to break into my house just turn on my sprinklers and let the dogs out and all is yours for the taking.....

What's your address? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

OK good to know the whining isn't a bad thing, so now I can add 6ft pink dusters to the list of things he goes crazy for... along with the vacuum cleaner, the mop, putting my tshirt over my head and whispering his name slowly.

Thanks!

Mike, If this is the same dog that will chase a laser pointer 2 hours after you have put it away and now he is becoming a little obsessive about the pink fluffy thing, you might want to teach him to "knock it off" before he becomes neurotic and obsessive-complusive. Prey drive is one thing but when the prey item is gone... it's gone. I would find an outlet for his prey dirve and help give him an "off" button. And no more lasers and pink thing until he can contain himself. That episode of the dog whisperer with the laser pointer dog would be an excellent example of what he could become! Ouch!

QUOTE: That episode of the dog whisperer with the laser pointer dog would be an excellent example of what he could become! END

I couldn't agree more. I've seen other dog OCDs, too, and they all started with a small amusing behavior. I'm NOT saying that all amusing quirks turn into OCD, but it's a heck of a lot easier to nip it in the bud than fix it when it's full-blown. I once worked with an older Shepherd mix, a pet, who took a month of daily work and A LOT OF EXERCISE to completely get rid of a tail-chasing/biting thing. A week of serious exercise with work (a backpack) minimized it, but it really did take a month to eliminate it.

And when she was doing it, she was not a happy dog.

He is fine when the pink thing is out of sight, it's just when he can see it that he wants to bite it, just like the vacuum cleaner, its all scratched up from bite marks - his problem with the lazer pointer is that he wants to grab it but can't which drives him nuts, then it disappears. Any physical object, he just wants to bite it, when it's gone he accepts that its gone.

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OK good to know the whining isn't a bad thing, so now I can add 6ft pink dusters to the list of things he goes crazy for... along with the vacuum cleaner, the mop, putting my tshirt over my head and whispering his name slowly.Thanks!

Do you do the whisper thing along with the t-shirt thing? That poor dog! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

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He is fine when the pink thing is out of sight, it's just when he can see it that he wants to bite it, just like the vacuum cleaner, its all scratched up from bite marks - his problem with the lazer pointer is that he wants to grab it but can't which drives him nuts, then it disappears. Any physical object, he just wants to bite it, when it's gone he accepts that its gone.

Then it's time to turn him "off" when those objects are out. When the pack leader says knock it off, the dog has to know to stop. Teach him to ignore those distractions competely or atleast contain himself when they are out. These kinds of obsessions can snowball into other areas and blow up faster than you can visually see. Let him go bonkers for the ball, sleeve, or tug- but that's about it.
You know your dog better than you can describe, so if it's a cutesie behavior, just hide the pink thing (and all the other stuff he gets excited for) but if he is starting to really get addicted, then start the training to stop it.

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Do you do the whisper thing along with the t-shirt thing? That poor dog! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

No the whispering thing works fine on its own, he comes right up to me n sticks his nose in my face to see if I'm ok lol. He's learnt that the tshirt thing is a game of peekaboo now, he loves it, no anxiety or unsureness at all.