# How Long Until a Puppy Stops Whining for Attention?



## minisch0708 (Oct 7, 2010)

Hi,
My Miniature Schnauzer is now twelve weeks and one day old, and is growing stronger daily. I have had him for almost exactly a month.

However, one thing is becoming a little worrying, and that is the fact that he will not stop whining. Tonight, I took him over to visit a friend, we chilled out and watched some telly. The whole time, he was going between my chair and my friend's, putting his front paws up on the chair and crying.

We came home and since we got in, he is sitting behind me in the corner, staring at me (I know this as my webcam is pointed that way). I have not struck him, raised my voice to him, or 'sanctioned' him in any way verbal or physical. Nor can he (I think) 'sense' any bad mood on my part, as I'm not _in_ a bad mood. 

He has been doing this for a month, now. I thought that ignoring him completely whenever he whines would do the trick, and indeed, I've been doing that since the day and hour he walked through the door. Yet still the whining continues. Why?

I just went into the kitchen to make a bite to eat, and he slinked in after me, tail firmly between his legs, and went to the furthest corner, under a worktop, and sat down - again, back to the wall, and watched me.

If I filmed this scene and let you see it, I'm pretty sure you'd arrive at the conclusion that I'm kicking the crap out of him on a regular basis. 

What gives??????????????


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## drshdw (Sep 30, 2010)

Loves you. Never ends. Wants more attention.


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## RonE (Feb 3, 2007)

My son's 5-year-old lab mix does this. I ignore him when he whines and lavish him with attention when he doesn't.

I've been doing this for a couple of years (though he's actually with us for maybe a total of 8-10 weeks each year) and he's gradually improving. It also helps that we have two energetic dogs for him to run around with. Often, he's just too tired to whine. (Hint hint.)


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## minisch0708 (Oct 7, 2010)

drshdw said:


> Loves you. Never ends. Wants more attention.


Heh .. .the feeling's mutual. :whoo: He's just so adorable (YouTube)!



RonE said:


> My son's 5-year-old lab mix does this. I ignore him when he whines and lavish him with attention when he doesn't.
> 
> I've been doing this for a couple of years (though he's actually with us for maybe a total of 8-10 weeks each year) and he's gradually improving. It also helps that we have two energetic dogs for him to run around with. Often, he's just too tired to whine. (Hint hint.)


Actually, lying in bed last night thinking of reasons for this.. could it be that there are 'conflicting signals' being sent by the people with whom he's in contact?

For example, when he whines here at home, I ignore him. When he whines at my friend's house, my friend (who loves the little dog) pets him and picks him up. When he's at my mother's or at my sister's, he is given non-stop attention. I try telling them not to do so, but he just has to look at them with those eyes, tilt his head to the side and whine .. and they're all gooey-eyed....


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## hanksimon (Mar 18, 2009)

He does need exercise and attention. But you do have to stop people from sabotaging your efforts. You might tell them that he is in training.... Or figure out a way to get them to exercise him. But I did have neighbors re-teach my dog to jump on people after I spent 3 mos training him not to.... so, I learned that my long term relationship with the dog was more important than their short term interactions... so I'm more assertive with people who won't help me. The pup's environment has to be consistent, otherwise he'll choose the optimum for him...


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## minisch0708 (Oct 7, 2010)

hanksimon said:


> He does need exercise and attention. But you do have to stop people from sabotaging your efforts. You might tell them that he is in training.... Or figure out a way to get them to exercise him. But I did have neighbors re-teach my dog to jump on people after I spent 3 mos training him not to.... so, I learned that my long term relationship with the dog was more important than their short term interactions... so I'm more assertive with people who won't help me. The pup's environment has to be consistent, otherwise he'll choose the optimum for him...


There's a problem in that I _like_ it when he jumps up on me. Is there any way a dog can understand that he can jump up on his master, but not on other people?

Edit: I ask this because one constant with the little fella is that he loves children. He sees a young person and he goes _berserk_! I'm afraid that one day, he'll bite a child. Not through malice, but through sheer goodness (if you see what I mean).

My sister was in this evening, and he was so excited that he jumped up and nipped her hand. He didn't break the skin, but her shrill scream soon calmed him down. That's another thing with which I'm having problems - nipping. Every time he bites me, I yelp and ignore him. But he doesn't seem to care. If I ignore him, he just goes back to chasing his ball, or gnawing on his bone. And I've done the 'nip - yelp - ignore' trick _each and every time_ he has nipped me in the past month.

Edit: another thing is that I've trained him to do the 'leave it' thang. He'll pick up a toy or a stick and I'll say 'leave it'. He obeys like 90% of the time, now, and when he does, he gets a treat. But the other 10% is when we're out for our regular walkies, and the route takes us past some other appartments in this block, and one of my neighbours usually throws food out for the birds. Bread, corn on the cob and even a half-eaten burrito. When the dog goes for the food, I say 'leave it'. He does - immediately. He comes to me, gets the treat, munches it ... and goes straight back to the food on the ground! 

I'm really useless at training dogs, aren't I ..? :redface:


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## Kina_A (Jun 8, 2009)

I would do a search for "Nothing in life is free". I really love this method and I would also get your friend and mother to read it and follow it as well.

This has worked wonders on my whiny dog!


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## minisch0708 (Oct 7, 2010)

Kina_A said:


> I would do a search for "Nothing in life is free". I really love this method and I would also get your friend and mother to read it and follow it as well.
> 
> This has worked wonders on my whiny dog!


Yeah, I've seen that chapter in _The Puppy Whisperer_.


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## hanksimon (Mar 18, 2009)

You're "new" at puppy training... and you've learned not to kick the dog to get obedience  I know some old trainers who still use harsh methods.

For nipping, you have the technique, but not the location. In addition to training not to nip in all situations, you also want to have a 2 - 10 minute training session one - two times a day on Bite Inhibition, in a boring area with no distractions... so that you can leave the area, giving him a boring timeout for 30 seconds. Also, the intermediate goal is Not to stop nipping, but to reduce the force. And, as he is rewarded for backing off, and then "re-trained/punished" when he nips... he will incrementally develop a softer mouth.

The jumping on you concept is fairly straight forward. Teach him a cue to jump on you. Don't let anyone else ever trigger the behavior, and turn, back off, and ignore him, successively when you let him jump on yourself before you've given him the cue. If these ideas are unclear, let me know and when I have a little more time, I generate a few more steps, more clearly.


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## philovance (Jan 7, 2009)

Kina_A said:


> I would do a search for "Nothing in life is free". I really love this method and I would also get your friend and mother to read it and follow it as well.
> 
> This has worked wonders on my whiny dog!


I've got a whiny dog and since we live in an apartment without a dog door and he isn't reliably house trained . . . 

I get him to do a down stay and wait for a tiny teeny tidbit and eventually he quiets down but it's tiring for me


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## pitbullfriends (Oct 28, 2010)

Whatever you do don't give into the whining, The dog will pick up on that and whine more often and louder in hopes that it will get what it wants. Make the dog be quite for an extended period of time before you give the dog any positive reinforcement or attention. While I talk big I will admit I don't always have the patience to wait as long as that sometimes takes depending on what I'm doing and how much the whining is annoying me but I really try cause I want to put my puppies whining to an end as soon as possible.


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## minisch0708 (Oct 7, 2010)

hanksimon said:


> You're "new" at puppy training... and you've learned not to kick the dog to get obedience  I know some old trainers who still use harsh methods.
> 
> For nipping, you have the technique, but not the location. In addition to training not to nip in all situations, you also want to have a 2 - 10 minute training session one - two times a day on Bite Inhibition, in a boring area with no distractions... so that you can leave the area, giving him a boring timeout for 30 seconds. Also, the intermediate goal is Not to stop nipping, but to reduce the force. And, as he is rewarded for backing off, and then "re-trained/punished" when he nips... he will incrementally develop a softer mouth.
> 
> The jumping on you concept is fairly straight forward. Teach him a cue to jump on you. Don't let anyone else ever trigger the behavior, and turn, back off, and ignore him, successively when you let him jump on yourself before you've given him the cue. If these ideas are unclear, let me know and when I have a little more time, I generate a few more steps, more clearly.


Yes, I'd welcome any and all tips you can give. I really have to get some serious training done. My sister was over yesterday and he was so excited that he wasn't just putting his feet up on her legs - he was _launching_ himself horizontally at her. When I'm on the phone, he stands in front of me and barks. I'm getting really worried, and I can't currently afford a training professional, so I need to do this on my own.



pitbullfriends said:


> Whatever you do don't give into the whining, The dog will pick up on that and whine more often and louder in hopes that it will get what it wants. Make the dog be quite for an extended period of time before you give the dog any positive reinforcement or attention. While I talk big I will admit I don't always have the patience to wait as long as that sometimes takes depending on what I'm doing and how much the whining is annoying me but I really try cause I want to put my puppies whining to an end as soon as possible.


I don't really have a problem with not giving in, as the whining irritates me now, rather than my finding it 'cute'. A main part of my motivation is that I don't really like being the centre of attention in public, and with a puppy as excitable as this one .. I'm going to be! So I need to stop it and stop it soon!

Edit: Another strange habit he has is that when I don't give him attention, he eventually lies down at my feet with his chin on one of my feet, and his whole body is trembling. The weird thing is that he doesn't tremble continuously, but every 1.5 seconds or so, I feel a 'shiver' go through my foot. Then another one... and now he's licking my ankle under the trouser leg...


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