Tired of hearing your dog whining nonstop? No problem! In this article, we’ll go over how to stop a dog from whining in a couple of easy steps!
Understanding Why Your Dog Is Whining
Before we begin learning how to stop your dog from whining we have to understand why your dog is whining in the first place.
Here are various reasons why your dog may be whining:
Attention Seeking:
The first reason why your dog may be whining is simply seeking attention from its owners.
Dogs are smart animals that will find the best way to get your attention, whining may be one of the ways your pup has successfully gotten your attention.
Pain
Another reason your dog may be whining is it may be in pain. It’s not uncommon for a dog to vocalize and whine when your pup is feeling uncomfortable and under pain.
Anxiety
The third reason your dog may be whining is that it is anxious. Anxious dogs whine allot.
It’s essentially the dog’s way to relieve the stress that it feels towards either its environment or something else that triggers anxiety in that dog.
Fear
Another reason your dog is whining is due to fear. When a dog is extremely fearful it’s not uncommon for a dog to whine out of fear.
Excitement
When a dog is extremely excited you may hear your dog whine especially if the excitement becomes a routine.
An easy example of this when owners arrive home to there dog and their pups are overly excited and whining due to the excitement.
Learned Behavior
Another reason why your dog is whining is simply that your dog has learned that whining gets him what he wants.
An easy example is when your eating and giving your pup food after whining, This will teach your dog whining gets him access to something your dog wants.
How To Stop A Dog From Whining
Now that you know the various reason your dog may be whining here’s how to successfully stop your dog from whining for each specific reason!
Stop Whining For Attention-Seeking Pups
If your dog is whining in an attempt to get your attention the 2 easiest way to stop a dog from whining in that instance is:
First, you have to be able to completely ignore your dog regardless of how much your pup is whining, giving in will only teach your dog that whining does get your attention!
Second, you then want to be able to tell your pup “no” when he does whine and send them away from you, by telling your dog to go to his “place or bed”.
The more you practice this the more you’ll notice that your pup will be whining less and less to get your attention.
Stop Whining For Dogs In Pain
For dogs who you suspect are whining due to pain, I recommend taking your dog to the veterinarian immediately.
From a behavioral standpoint, you can’t stop a dog from whining due to pain.
The best option is to simply take your pup to a veterinarian where it can be looked at by a medical professional.
Stop Whining For Dogs With Anxiety and Fear
For dogs that are whining anxiously or due to fear, there are several things that you must be aware of.
First, you have to understand that there a wide variety of reasons why a dog may be feeling anxious or fearful.
Your job is to understand what is causing your dog to get anxious or fearful. Usually, there is a trigger that gets your dog in an anxious or fearful state of mind.
Once you have successfully deciphered what is triggering your pup to feel anxious or fearful and begin whining, the next step is to begin “desensitization and counter-conditioning.”
You have to begin rehabilitating your pup to feel more comfortable around your dog’s triggers. To learn more about the rehabilitation process click here.
Both the ways to stop whining due to fear and anxiety are very similar.
Stop Whining For Excited Dogs
For dogs that begin whining due to excitement, the way how to stop a dog from whining solution is fairly simple.
In this scenario, we know that what gets your dog whining is overexcitement so get your dog to stop whining you want to stop rewarding your dog when it’s exciting.
Although you may not think that you’re rewarding your pup for excitement if you pet your dog when he’s excited you have just rewarded your dog for his overexcitement.
Instead when it comes to dogs that whine due to excitement you want to wait until your pup has calmed down to give your dog any sort of attention or petting!
When you consistently do this you’ll begin to notice that your dog will be calmer around what would usually cause excitement whining!
Learned Behavior
The most common reason why your dog may be whining is that your pup has learned to get a rewarding response from you.
There can be the various reason your dog has learned to whine from begging for table scraps to whining to be lifted on to your bed.
The most important aspect of how to stop a dog from whining is to completely stop giving in to your dog whining!
Dogs learn through associations if your dog has associated his whining with getting a response from you, your dog has essentially trained you!
To stop your dog from whining, stop giving your dog a response for his whining, that means ignoring and not giving in to what you usually would if you had not read this article!
Conclusion
Training of course may fix all these issues but ultimately it’s up to you to understand your pup and not revert into what started the whining in the first place.
This articled went over how to stop a dog from whining, following the steps above will result in a pup that will be much more calmer and whining less!
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