Pup whines ALOT!!!!

[tacklejunkie]

He often comes up stairs and looks at me and whines. So I take him outside for bathroom duty thinking this is his problem. Comes back in, and when I sit down, he looks at me and whines. He sits nicely by me but if I move, he moves and whines when I sit back down. My wife thought that maybe something is hurting but that's not it. When we go for our walks, he's excited and moves just fine and even stays in good gun range but when we come back home, we watches me and will whine again. He also sleeps at night but if I try to sleep in, he's at my bedside doing, you guessed it, whining. Also, my mother and law watched him recently and said he kept looking at the door whining while my wife and I were gone. He came from a litter and is otherwise a very sweet dog

Is this normal and will he outgrow this? He's a year old and a very mild mannered lab, but a whiner. And is there a way to correct this?

[TylerS]

Looks like he's trained you pretty well! I'm guessing you've relented to his whining often enough where he knows you'll do something about it.

Ignoring him would be a good start. If it persists, a a stout swat on the nose and a firm "NO" may be in order.

[Jcup]

Just know that if you go the route of ignoring it, there will be a large increase in whining before it starts to be less and less. If you want it to work you need to ignore it every time no matter how bad it gets. I thinks the increase in whining is called an extinction burst and is pretty common with small children. I would think the same applies to dogs.

Edit- Straight from wikipedia on extinction.

"While extinction, when implemented consistently over time, results in the eventual decrease of the undesired behavior, in the short-term the subject might exhibit what is called an extinction burst. An extinction burst will often occur when the extinction procedure has just begun. This consists of a sudden and temporary increase in the response's frequency, followed by the eventual decline and extinction of the behavior targeted for elimination."

[tacklejunkie]

Thanks guys for the help.

My wife and I will now follow this plan. He is an obedient dog with a great disposition but his whining is getting increasingly annoying.

Looking back, we have been giving in when he whines. His behavior modification program starts today

[PurpleFloyd]

What breed of dog?

[tacklejunkie]

Labrador Retriever

[Matt Breuer]

My female GSP is a whiner, and trust me, it has nothing to do with us giving in to her. We both work non-stop and have two small children, so she's often ignored or forced to wait her turn...

She's always done it. Staring at me, when she needs to be let out, when she gets outside, when she needs in, when she needs to move from spot to spot, when she's taking a dump... okay, now I'm exaggerating. It's excessive though. Often times for what seems to be for no other reason than to do it.

She's 7. On my really bad days I can't stand her face.

[mpester]

I am not a puppy expert. I am raising my first puppy right now. My parents always did the puppy raising. For barking, I carry a spray bottle of water with me. When Porter barks, I spray him in the face and say no bark. Not sure if this would work for whining but I would try it. Hit him in the face with the spray and say no whining.

Porter never has barked much but two of the four dogs that live around our yard bark their little lap dog faces off every time they see Porter. I am now working on the barkers with the spray bottle. They are starting to quiet down and I should have them trained in a week or so.

[nofishfisherman]

The main thing is to not reward the behavior with any sort of attention. When my vizsla was a pup he was a big whiner as well. We always made a point to ignore it and wouldn't give him any attention when he was doing it. If he whined to get out of the kennel he wouldn't be let out until he had been quiet for a period of time and then we'd do our best to praise him when he was quiet. It was the same thing anytime he whined, he wouldn't get what he wanted until he was quiet.

Now at 3 1/2 he still does whine but its much less. I think some dogs are just born to whine a little. Now my dogs whining is always related to too much energy and being ignored. If he hasn't run enough during the day and you stop paying attention to him he'll whine to get your attention.

[PartyWhine]

Here' my view.

With the usual disclaimer ... I own herding dogs.

This is an easy one.

Your young dog is asking to do something with or for you.

That's a good thing, so don't hit it.

Oblige it. Satisfy the need.

Give it some work.

Start firing out every command the dog knows.

You don't even have to leave the couch / house.

Sit, down, come, stay, hold (x in mouth), give (same), etc

Your dog will LOVE it !

Do it during random commercial breaks and see what happens.

You'll have a more relaxed and contented dog in your home.

And a very obedient one too.

Start tonight and you might not hear a whine all weekend.

It's that easy.

Every working dog needs a boss, a job and a chance to shine.