Whining!

MrsElle

MrsElle

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JRT x Lakeland is 15 months old and has always been a bit of a whiner. He cried at night for a good month when we got him, and you could hear him a quarter of a mile away, despite him being indoors. He is loud!

He now has a lovely outside kennel, a former pig sty, with carpet (spoilt dogs!), heat lamp, radio 4, plenty of toys and our ESS pup. But he howls and whines and it is driving me mad. The dogs aren't outside all the time, just when we are busy with work during the day, or if there is a lot going on on the livery yard.

Is it a question of leaving him to it, as when he was a pup and cried at night, in the hope he eventually shuts up? I don't want to go out and reward him for whining by letting him out, so he is probably in the kennel longer than he need be as I wait for him to be quiet before going out.

Any tips?

On the plus side, he isn't a barker, probably quite uncommon for a JRT!
 
Fill a Kong, freeze it, shove it in his gob, go to work. Don't know if that will last and if as soon as he finishes, he starts whining again! Would he rather be indoors? Is he used to be outdoors?
 
cinnamontoast said:
Fill a Kong, freeze it, shove it in his gob, go to work. Don't know if that will last and if as soon as he finishes, he starts whining again! Would he rather be indoors? Is he used to be outdoors?
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He is used to being indoors, but is still whiney in the house over nothing in particular. We give him stuffed bones and stuff to keep him occupied when he goes in the kennel, but starts whining as soon as he gets fed up with them.
 
amymay said:
Is he less whinny when he's in your company, as opposed to shut up in a kennel?
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He is, yes, although he still whines. He doesn't whine at night now, but blimey, it took a long time for him to stop. I was like a zombie, he never let up for a good month or so!

He will happily go in the kennel of his own accord when he is pottering about outside, but doesn't like the gate being closed so he can't get out. It's not as if he hasn't got much room in the kennel, it is about 6' x 12' internally, with the same outside. He also has our ESS for company. The dogs aren't shut away for too long, around four hours a day max when we are doing guests' breakfasts' and cleaning up after.

After my experiences of him whining I changed my choice of ESS pup when the one I initially chose seemed to be a bit of a whiner! It drives me mad!
 
twiggy2 said:
tricky one, there is a thought that dogs are not actually producing the noise intentionally but that stress/excitment in the dog result in the noise
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That makes sense, as a dog that whines on the peg seems impossible to cure, even if they are intimidated or beaten they still cower and whine. (I haven't ever had one that did, so haven't had to deal with it myself).
 
Clodagh said:
That makes sense, as a dog that whines on the peg seems impossible to cure, even if they are intimidated or beaten they still cower and whine. (I haven't ever had one that did, so haven't had to deal with it myself).
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This ^^^^^.

It is also genetic! I feel for the OP. My worst nightmare.

This is when it pays to have enemies. You could give the dog away.... :(
 
Thanks all, so there is no hope then! He has quietened down slightly over the last few days, as when he shuts up I go and let him out of the kennel, so by being quiet he is getting rewarded. It is all too easy to go out and shout at him when he is screaming his head off, but I try really hard not to!

I think he will always be a whiner, but hopefully we can minimalise the length of time he whines. The intention initially was to have the dogs sleep in the kennels, but they are a bit too close to the house and I worry he will howl all night and disturb our guests. As I said, at least he doesn't bark as we have trained him not to, unless there is really something to bark about. Dogs eh!
 
It should be possible to minimise the noise by some careful design of the kennels. Straw bales are good for sound absorption. We used to stick egg cartons on the walls to reduce reverberation in a DIY sound studio. Sound barriers can actually be deigned to absorb specific wave lengths. But I'm afraid that is all I can suggest. Piped radio in the kennel to distract him? That would drown out other sounds he might react to.
 
There's an argument within the cognisant that whining dogs aren't actually aware that they're doing it (or at least they can't help themselves), which would explain that those dogs which are committed whiners, are rarely stopped or stoppable!

Alec.
 
There aren't any sounds he reacts to Dry Rot, and he isn't a barky dog anyway. They have a radio on, radio 4 so lots of chat. He does seem to have quietened slightly but still gives it some welly sometimes!
 
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