Whining/Begging

[chowmom]

helloI just got a new Chow Chow on Monday and he is relatively a good dog but once he has to go down for the night he becomes a loud obnoxious whiner!! I live in an apartment and I am afraid my neighbors will start complaining. I am ignoring him and I leave him in the crate in the bathroom but it is 11:30pm and he has been in there for 40min and has not stopped and this is for the 2nd night in a row!! The first night he merely whined not howled and barked so I put him in the crate near my bed and put my hand by the crate that worked the first night the second night it didn't work. so I put him in the bathroom and he howled, whined and barked for longer than I could stay awake! I don't know what to do-- I put him in the crate during the day so he will be use to it and if we are home he howls if we are out or in the car he is happy to be in the crate. How long till he gets it? I am tired and have children as well/

[catnapper]

This advice is based on knowing that the whining is merely for attention:

You are not ignoring him, I can tell by what you wrote -- if you even look at him, he's getting the attention he wants. Your family members yelling at you to kjeep him quiet are in actuality feeding his whining because he knows THEY will get you to look at HIM and give HIM attention.

Say you had a 30 minute meal and you ignored him for 29 minutes, then on the 30-minute mark, you looked down and told him to knock it off.... you just taught him that he'll get the attention he wants if he just persists and whines a little louder and a little longer.

When ignoring a bad behavior, you have to ignore it COMPLETELY. That drool running down your leg? You don't feel it. Him jumping up and scratching your knee? Nope, thats not felt either. You certainly don't hear his increasing volume. You don't see those sad eyes emploring you to look at him. NOTHING. You just continue eating as if he's not there. Continue conversation at a normal level, don't raise your voice over his whining, because he can tell you're raising your voice in effort to be heard over him... and he'll see that as a reinforcer to whine louder. Don't pay any attention to his antics and ignore him the entire meal. The first few meals will be a nightmare and you'll want to cave in -- you can't! And EVERYBODY HAS TO BE ON THE SAME PAGE! If they want him to stop, they can't continue to make you hush him. They have to be actively particpating in ignoring him. It takes one person to shout "BE QUIET!" to ruin 20 minutes worth of ignoring him and to train him that patience and louder whines gets what he wants. Remember, dogs want attention... good or bad, they just want attention. SO if we shout at him, he gets what he wants. I bet you'd much rather praise him than shout him.

[oscar love3]

Small update on Oscar:

Last night he kept whining and whining because he knew that my family was outside our bedroom eating some snacks. I ignored him an nobody came by to tell me to keep him quiet (I have informed everybody that when Oscar whines, don't talk to him and don't yell for him to be quiet. Don't even look at him...so far they are getting it.) and after about 20 minutes he quit whining and crawled into bed. It was a small step but major sigh of relief because I think he's starting to learn I'm not going to cave in anymore. Also this morning while I was eating breakfast I didn't even look at him when he was whining and he finally settled down onto my feet.