Hoover whines for everything he wants and when he gets excited, which is about almost everything. I have tried treat training, water spray bottle, citronella spray. The whining is making our relationship stressful for both of us. Any suggestions?
Thank you,
Susie
Veteran Advisor Helen Fines says:
December 27th, 2007 at 10:55 PM
Hi, sorry to hear that you're having a stressful time- the good news is that you can solve this! Dogs are relatively simple mental processors. They learn by the consequences of their behaviour whether to repeat it or not. If whining means something good happens, or something bad stops, he will repeat it. He's probably been longtime conditioned to do this. Aversives (citronella etc) are relatively ineffective. You need to go back to first principles and think about what he is getting from the behaviour. Train him only to be rewarded for calmness- he doesn't get what he wants (food, attention, toys, door opening etc) until he is calm and stops whining. Ignore the whining completely- but be warned he will probably get worse before he gets better, he'll try harder at first to get the same effect. So persevere and you will be rewarded for absolute consistency and a logical approach. Best of luck..
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