My Lab whines constantly in the Blind

[swedishpimple]

Anybody have any tricks to help me with my 1.5 year old lab and his crying in the blind???

If I constantly pet him or rub his chest he will quit. Hard to do that while shooting or calling.

He just wants to get out in the water soooooooo.....bad, it drives him crazy just sitting there. He is young still, third time out, but I need to nip this in the butt asap!!!

[Dahitman44]

My pup does the same (1.5 years old) -- I think he is bored. I hope he gets over it.

[gonefishin11]

I was watching DU's "Water Dog" last night on Versus and a very well trained lab that was 4.5 years old whining like crazy every time ducks were circling.

My lab whines like this too but I don't worry too much about it. She just gets excited to see birds and retrieve birds if/when we shoot them.

[trailratedtj]

does it bother the birds when their tryhing to decoy?

[swedishpimple]

I am still trying to determine what affect it has on the ducks. I think they see our shotty workmanship on the blind long before they notice him.

[311Hemi]

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I am still trying to determine what affect it has on the ducks.

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I can tell you the teal that landed in my decoys 5 min before shooting on opener weekend didn't mind it. I scared them off trying to shut him up (unsuccessfully).

This can be a very hard thing to break in some dogs depending on whats causing it. I am not knowledgeable enough to tell you how (I am working on it myself). Maybe some others here will have some ideas.

A few things I have heard/read:

-Since this may stem from a desire to work taking away that work might help. For instance, have your dog and a couple other dogs in a line all set to retrieve one thrown item. Throw the item (bumper) and let another dog (a quiet one) retrieve the item. If your dog is vocal tell him "quiet" or "No-Quiet" and then let him see another dog (that is quiet) get the retrieve. I would then kennel him up for 15 min. Repeat as needed to see if this helps. This can also be used for teaching steadiness.

-Holding the muzzle while giving the "quiet" command.

-Give him a little tap up under the chin with "quiet" command

-Sit-knick-sit to get him to sit (even if he is already sitting). This will make him focus on the sitting vs what he was thinking about. Although a few people have mentioned the e-collar might work the opposite in this case and create more noise.

This was written today on another site from Evan Graham (Author of Smartworks), not that he goes into any detail at this point:

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Be careful about this. Being casual or superficial in your treatment of this noise problem is apt to result in yet a worse problem. It doesn’t tend to get better unless it’s treated effectively.

It starts in the yard. But let me dispel a long-standing misconception. Far too many trainers believe that to treat such a problematic behavior effectively, you must get the dog to do it in training. If he doesn’t vocalize, how can you treat it in a way he understands what a correction is for? In tandem with that is the notion that you can’t effectively treat creeping or breaking effectively unless you can get them to do it in training.

My steady reply is, “What you see is not always what you get”. That is, you must see things more as the dog does than as humans tend to. Canine logic and human logic are not always a match.

A quiet standard does not stand alone. Much like your steady standard does not stand alone, all are bound under the general heading of a “Sit” standard. What is key here is that the trainer must convey this context to the dog in training at all times. A dog with a strong sit standard will sit promptly, steadily, and quietly.

Another thing it would be good to understand about line manner issues (which this is) is that the e-collar is generally a substandard tool for effectively dealing with it. Indeed, the e-collar tends to naturally produce behaviors very much like those we are trying to eradicate on line. They tend to make the dog less stable online, to varying extents – dog to dog. They also tend to produce vocal responses to stimulus. It is unreasonable to tell your dog to be quiet, and then enforce such commands with a stimulus that makes him vocal.

In addition, you must decide if your approach as a trainer is to merely force your dog into submission, or if your goal is to engineer desired behavior, AND to leave your dog with a desire to do it. Does he end up feeling that the behavior is more rewarding than its counterpart; misbehavior? Or is it enough for you as a trainer that he behaves properly only because he fears you?

If this sounds deeper than you are willing to get into, I’ll let it go at this point, and someone else can offer a workable corporal punishment that may cover the problem. The question at this point is, how do you want to approach it?

EvanG

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[Dahitman44]

For my dog it is all about the excitement.