Why Do Dogs Whine?
Before addressing the behavior, it’s important to understand the reasons:
- Appeasement: When feeling nervous or submissive around unfamiliar people or situations.
- Greeting: Excitement when guests arrive.
- Attention-Seeking: Wanting your attention or affection.
- Anxiety: Stress or separation anxiety.
- Alerting: Sensing something unusual or potential danger.
How to Stop Dog Whining: Situation-Specific Tips
- Appeasement Whining: Build your dog’s confidence through positive reinforcement training.
- Greeting Whining: Teach the “quiet” command or distract with toys and treats.
- Attention-Seeking Whining: Ignore whining and reward calm behavior.
- Anxiety Whining: Identify the cause of stress and seek help from a veterinarian or behaviorist. Consider calming aids like CBD oil (consult your vet first!).
- Alert Whining: Acknowledge your dog and investigate potential disturbances. Once assured there’s no danger, calmly reassure your dog that everything is alright.
Stopping Nighttime Whining
- Frequent Potty Breaks: Especially for puppies or older dogs.
- Provide Snacks: Prevent hunger.
- Comfortable Sleeping Space: Offer a soft bed or place to sleep near you.
- Reassurance: Especially for puppies; keeping them close at bedtime can bring comfort.
Crate Training to Reduce Whining
- Ignore Whining: Don’t give in, or you’ll reinforce the behavior.
- Proper Crate Sizing: Ensure it’s comfortable.
- Positive Crate Association: Gradually introduce your dog to the crate with treats and praise.
- Maintain Potty Schedule: Avoid accidents that can cause distress.
Key Takeaways
- Understanding the reason behind your dog’s whining is crucial for finding the right solution.
- Patience and consistency are key when addressing unwanted whining behavior.
- Don’t hesitate to seek professional help from a veterinarian or dog trainer if needed.
- Focus on positive reinforcement and addressing your dog’s underlying needs.
Contents
Why Do Dogs Whine?
Dogs don’t know how to speak, so they use some bodily movements or actions to make their owner understand what they are going through. We can categorize the whining of the dogs in four parts which are discussed below.
Appeasing Behavior
The appeasing behavior of dogs usually happens when they used to interact with new people because they get a bit nervous while interacting with unknown people. In contrast, they also whine when their tail is tucked and their haze is averted.
Greeting Behavior
Some dogs are officially trained by their owner to whine when some guests appear in their house. So the whining of a dog when the guests arrive is a type of greeting behavior.
Attention-Seeking Behavior
If the dog owners don’t pay attention to the pet, then the pet will also whine continuously because attention and love are all the pet wants from its owner. So the whining of a pet kept alone in a room is a type of attention-seeking behavior.
Anxiety-Releasing Behavior
Sometimes the dog may also whine continuously due to anxiety and stress, which may happen due to various situations. If it is suffering from some disorders that are causing pain to them, they will whine.
Making Alert Behavior
We all know that the sensing capability of dogs and their hearing capacity are much higher than that of humans. So the whining of dogs at night can also be a sign of something unwanted, like the appearance of a thief in the home.
How to Stop a Dog from Whining?
After discussing the different types of situations when a dog whines, we will now discuss the steps to stop a dog from whining in that particular situation.
Stopping a Dog Whining in an Appeasing Behavior
The appeasement whining behavior of the dog usually depends on the type of people they interact with. If the people your dog is interacting with are causing trouble to the pet, like tucking his tail, crouching over the back, and holding its ears from the backside, it causes them severe pain, which makes them whine.
To stop the appeasing whining behavior of your dog, you have to build some confidence in the pet which will help it fight back against the persons who are causing him trouble.
To create the dog’s confidence, the owner has to take some regular reward-based training sessions for the pet, including games like tug and fetch and involving sports like dog agility.
This will help the dog fight against this act as he will get trained on how to face when his tail gets tucked and many other situations. So this is the way by which you can stop a dog from whining in an appeasing behavior,
Stopping a Dog Whining While Greeting Others
Whining of dogs when guests arrive is a lovely gesture to welcome your guests, but it feels good at first, and excess of it doesn’t sound very pleasant. The excessive whining of a dog during the arrival of guests might be due to a lack of training.
To stop a dog whining due to guests’ arrival, all you can do is make him familiar with the cue word quiet so that he can understand when you make the command calm.
Or, if your dog is not friendly with a cue word, you can try to divert their attention from the guest’s arrival by giving them their favorite toy and feeding them with their favorite treats. This is an effective way to stop a dog from whining while guests arrive.
Stopping a Dog Whining to Seek Attention
If the dog cannot get sufficient attention from his owner due to his busy schedule, he may often whine to get a bit of attention from the owner.
To stop a dog from whining about seeking attention from the owner, the thing that the owner can do is reward him when he stays quiet. Doing this can make the pet understand that keeping quiet is better than whining about seeking attention from the owner.
The best way of stopping a dog from whining is to ignore the pet while it whins to get your attention and get closer to it while it stops whining. This will make the pet realize that staying calm and waiting for the partner is better than whining continuously.
Stopping a Dog Whining in Anxiety
It’s pretty difficult to stop a dog whining in anxiety because the owner has first to understand the reason behind the dog’s anxiousness and has to remove it first to prevent the dog from whining continuously.
Dogs usually lose control over their behaviors when they go through extreme stress. The only way to stop a dog from whining in anxiety is to take proper medications from a well-certified veterinarian.
You can also use CBD oil as a temporary solution as it will calm the dog in pressure, which will lead to the dog stopping whining.
Stopping a Dog Whining to Make their Owners Alert
Sometimes the dog may also whine by getting aware of an unknown person’s arrival at home.
To stop a dog from whining about alerting its owner, all the owner has to do is make him realize that nothing wrong is happening and introduce the pet to the guests who arrive home. Giving the pet hugs and cuddles to keep his nervousness away also works wonders in this case.
How Can You Stop a Dog from Whining at Night?
The whining of a dog at night can be due to various reasons like potty time, hunger for snacks, an uncomfortable place to sleep, and many other issues.
If you are facing difficulties in sleeping at night due to the continuous whining of your dog, then you can follow the below-mentioned steps to stop the whining of a dog at night.
Set a Potty Time at Night
If you realize that your dog can’t hold his pee for more than 3 to 4 hours, you have to introduce late-night potty time into your dog’s schedule. It can be beneficial in stopping your dog from whining at night if the potty is the main reason behind its whining.
Keep Snacks in the Bowl at Night
If your dog has a habit of eating within a gap of a few hours, then all you can do is keep some snacks in the dog’s bowl at night so that he can get free from late-night hunger strikes.
Give a Comfortable Place to Sleep
If you let your pet sleep on the floor at night, then it can be the primary reason behind its whining at night. To avoid this, you can give him a comfortable place like a cushion to sleep or let him sleep on the sofa or a couch.
Keep them Near You at Night.
If your dog is a pup, then it was suggested to keep the pet near you at night time. This is because during the night,
the puppies often get scared by a bit of sound and start whining, like the sleeping of the owner can even make your pup afraid at night. So keeping the dog near you at night will stop it from complaining.
These steps are well researched on the behavior of dogs at night. So if a dog owner wants to stop his dog from whining at night, the owner can entirely rely upon these steps.
How Do You Get a Dog to Stop Whining in a Crate?
If you are a dog owner who wants to keep your dog in a crate, you might have come to a point where your dog keeps on whining in the crate. The steps that a dog owner can follow to stop a dog from whining in a crate are discussed below:
- Ignore the pet whenever it whins in the crate to make him realize that it’s not a good option to go with.
- Pick a perfect size crate for the dog so that the pet doesn’t get uncomfortable in the crate.
- Make your puppy familiar with the crate so that he gets comfortable in it.
- Always maintain a frequency in the dog’s potty breaks and try never to miss any.
These steps are practical and based on experiments on dogs of various breeds. So a dog owner can go with these steps to stop a dog from whining in a crate.
With this, we have put on all the informative things to clear your doubts regarding how to stop a dog from whining and hope that you have understood the facts.
