Previous advice has been to try to stop the little toy Cockerpoo’s excessive whining. Methods already advised have including sudden noise and ‘No’.
The gentleman has put a lot of time and love into training Indie. She is perfect in all other respects apart from the whining. She walks beautifully; she loves her training sessions.
However, trying to ‘train’ a dog out of the kind of intense emotions that drive Indie’s whining isn’t going to work.
Something that shocks like a sudden noise, as advised, could certainly interrupt in the moment. Long-term it teaches nothing and may well make the whining even worse. Even very mild ‘punishment’ methods will simply add negative emotion to the existing emotions that are driving the whining.
Examples of whining and barking occasions
- When getting ready to leave the house without her.
- When getting ready to leave the house with her – going out to the car to get the pushchair which they keep in the boot. Dressing the little girl and so on.
- When waiting to get out of the car (constant whining whilst setting up the pushchair, putting boots on etc)
- Barking at the doorbell. As soon as the doorbell sounds she runs to her crate as they had trained her to do as a puppy but she keeps barking.
- If people come in, she will continue to bark from her crate.
When the man is alone during the day with Indie, she seldom whines. It’s when his wife and toddler daughter are with them that she is worst.
The underlying emotions
Anticipation? Excitement? Impatience? Anxiety?
After many months (Indie is now three), whining will have become a habit. A habit triggered by certain circumstances – a learned behaviour.
Indie whines in anticipation of things where they have an established routine. That will be anticipation and excitement.
Indie also may whine when unexpected things happen – out of routine. This could well include anxiety.
First step: management
They can alter the order in which things they do things – but not too much. Not so much that it causes Indie to become anxious.
For example, to make leaving the house with her easier, they can keep the pushchair indoors for now.
When they dress the little girl to go out, Indie whines. I suggest a Kong with a little peanut butter.
When they leave Indie at home to take the little girl to nursery, again Indie can have a peanut Kong in her crate. They will desensitise her to the doorbell with constant repetitions with food.
Why does Indie whine more when the lady is there?
The man has done all Indie’s training. He waits quietly for the behaviour he wants, like waiting for calm before he opens the crate. The lady just opens it and an excited little dog bombs out!
She will now copy some of the man’s little rituals. I also have a theory that dogs are more excitable the more people there are around.
Promoting ‘quiet’
What about showing Indie the behaviour that they DO want? Showing her in a way that also encourages calm. I suggested they use the clicker technique, only with the word ‘Yes’ replacing the click.
Now, at any time when Indie is whining and stops for a moment, immediately they will say ‘Yes’ and then feed her. At any time when they suspect Indie is about to start whining they will capture the quiet with ‘Yes’ and a treat.
Gradually they can go for duration, increasing the length of time she’s qiet before ‘Yes’ and treat.
The jigsaw puzzle
I believe this is a bit like a jigsaw puzzle. The more of the little ‘calming’ bits go in, the better the overall picture becomes. There will be less of the build-up of arousal that erupts into whining.
The bottom line is whining gives her release from emotions she can’t handle. Our job is to work on the emotions and also giving her alternative ways of getting that release. One is the frozen Kong. Another is scatter feeding.
Another piece of the jigsaw is to make their own movements much slower at certain times. Particularly the lady.
