Car Whining
We have a whining problem that hopefully people can offer some solutions to. Casey whines a lot, and while I don’t have the space here to go into details about all her whining, there is one instance in particular that I would like to address: whining while travelling.
Casey travels in her crate in the backseat of my car. She’ll sometimes whine a bit while in the crate and I’m driving, but the real problem occurs when we stop at our destination. The instant I put the car into park and turn off the engine, she starts whining. Every time, without fail, I put the car into park and it starts. Here’s the thing about it: Casey has never, not once, been allowed out of her crate or out of the car while whining. Not a single time, in the whole 8 months that she’s been with us, have either my husband or myself allowed her out while whining. NEVER has this behaviour been rewarded with exiting the crate. I understand why she’s whining: she wants out. She knows we’re somewhere fun (the dog park, an off-leash hiking trail, petsmart) and she wants to get out and have fun. But what I’d like is for her to just sit and relax while I’m getting ready to get out of the bloody car.
Here’s what I’m currently doing in this scenario: Firstly, I’ve begun covering the back of her crate with a towel so she can’t see me. I’ve found that when she can’t see me, she quiets down quicker than when she can look at me. Now when we arrive at a location, this is our typical routine:
1) I turn off the car; she starts to whine; I sit quietly doing nothing in the driver’s seat waiting.
2) Casey whines for anywhere from 2-10 minutes. During this time, she’ll whine on and off, sometimes stopping for 5-10 seconds straight. I’ve learned in the past that these “pauses” in whining DO NOT mean that’s she calm, or done whining, she’s just taking a little break. If I start moving around in the car or talking to her, she will immediately start up whining again.
3) Eventually, Casey gives a frustrated sigh/whine and lays down.
4) At this point, I’ll start moving in the car, getting my stuff ready to get out (grabbing my purse, whatever else I need to do). She may or may not start whining again. If she does start whining again, we go back to step 1) – sitting quietly doing nothing and waiting.
5) If she’s still quiet, I’ll get out of the car and walk over to the side door to open it up and let her out. At this point, there’s a 50/50 chance that when I open the side door, she’ll start whining again. If she starts whining again, I drape the towel that’s sitting on top of her crate over the front (so she can’t see me) and stand and wait for her to quiet down (with the door open obviously, or else I couldn’t hear if she was whining or not).
6) When she quiets down again, I’ll lift off the towel. If she starts whining, back to step 5). If she’s quiet, I open the crate door to attach her leash and let her out. If at any point, she starts whining, the door is closed, the towel is once again placed over the front, and again we wait for quiet.
7) This process can take anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes. If we’re at the dog park and there are dogs in her line of sight when I open up the door, it can take longer.
What I would like is to turn off my car and get out with her in a few minutes or less. I actually like taking her to the dog park, or to hiking trails, but sometimes I just don’t feel like going through this process and so decide against it because it’s just a frustrating waste of my time. I don’t like sitting in the car doing nothing at the dog park for 20 minutes every time we go, and sitting in a confined area doing nothing but listening to a whining dog is not my idea of a good time.
Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated!
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Bev Levy on
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How long have you been doing this? Sometimes it can take a while to change a habit. Have you tried giving her a kong with some cheese smeared in it in the crate for the car ride? It might give her something to take her mind off where you are going.
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Permalink Reply by Carla on
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We've been doing it for months now. The thing is, she's a bright pup. Everything else she figures out so quickly, but the whining, for whatever reason, she just doesn't get the connection. I'm certain that there is some sort of mis-communication happening here; I'm somehow not communicating to her what it is that she needs to do.
I'm 100% convinced that if she understood that quiet=getting out of the car, that she would lay quietly and wait for me to take her out of the car. In every other scenario of her life, the instant she realizes what she needs to do to get what she wants, she does it. And she does it consistently (sitting at the door to go outside, sitting at her food dish, going on her mat, going into her crate, keeping all 4 feet on the ground if she wants to say "hi" to guests, etc).
For whatever reason, she doesn't get this. I can't help but wonder if she understands that "whining" is a "thing" (I mean "thing" in the sense of something she can do to make things happen/not happen - similar to how she understands the concept of sitting or laying down). She spends enormous amounts of time whining (sometimes just walking around the house mindlessly) and I can't help but wonder if she knows that she's doing it at all.
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Permalink Reply by Beth on
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Jack starts whining as soon as he sees his car harness, he's so excited. Honestly most dogs I've known whine when they know they are about to do something fabulous, and I just take it as a compliment that they are thrilled with what we're doing. If it were me, I'd just let her whine. Unlike barking, I think that it is very hard for an excited dog to control its whine. It's almost involuntary, and if she stops when you make her wait it might not be because she's "learning" to be calm, but because she's getting bored/disappointed OR thinks maybe she was wrong and you've just stopped at a red light or something.
Just my two cents. :-)
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Permalink Reply by Avyon on
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Yea.. Corgi's being herding dogs can be very vocal when it comes to being excited. I've been trying to train Charlie to be a little more quieter but its like trying to teach a fish not to breath water but air. Plus he's got Roxi going now... Excitement is contagious!
I think its nice as a compliment to get that excited cry of "Yay! We're here! We're gunna play!" If you watch videos of corgs. you'll notice they're rarely quiet (notice that when they are it usually involves sleeping? and even then they SNORE!)
I can understand wanting to tune it down a little.. if your pup is constantly staring at you crying allll dayyyy lonnnggg there's a problem.
Have you tried throwing a favorite chewy in the crate? Something that may last the car trip? Distractions!
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Since Jack ONLY whines when he sees his car harness, and quiets down once we are packed and ready and in the car, I just ignore it. If he whined constantly I might feel differently! But he is a very vocal dog, and he huffs and a-rooos and grumbles and mumbles and makes chimp squawks all the time.
Madison vocalizes more like a "normal" dog, but Jack is master of the Corgi vocalizations!
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The other vocalizations I don't mind. Growling, barking, howling I can deal with, along with anything else she can come up with. But it's the whining that really gets on my nerves and it's very frequent. The car is the most annoying example because I don't really have the option to leave. At home, if it's getting on my nerves, I can put her in her crate and go upstairs/leave the room. In the car, I'm sitting in a small confined space with her just waiting.
She mostly seems to whine when we're at rest. If I'm busy doing something/walking around, she's fine. At soon as I sit down to take a break, watch TV, whatever, it starts up. I think part of it is that she doesn't "know what to do" when I'm not doing something. I think another part of it is that she's simply impatient and wants what she wants when she wants it. I think the last part of it is just that she doesn't like to sit still. I've never seen a dog move around so much. She gets a fair amount of exercise each day, but there's no way I'm actually tiring her out to her full potential.
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I've tried giving her a treat, but the second we arrive somewhere she looses interest and begins to whine. I've actually experienced her trying to eat and whine at the same time. Further to this, I've only got so many treats I can give her. She get's a frozen kong when I leave for work as a distraction. I also try to give her treats when I want to sit and relax and watch tv (and she will start whining), when I want to rest on the couch (and she starts whining), etc.
Eventually, there are only so many treat/distractions I can give before I need to do something about the problem. She can't eat a treat all day every day to keep her quiet. I'll have a 100 lbs Corgi!
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Permalink Reply by Stephanie on
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We learned wait at obedience school. Treat in hand - wait. Squeaky toy - wait. Stop the car - wait. Bear is great, Goldy on the other hand feels the need to start complaining when we TURN INTO the park, we'll be working on that this summer.
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Can you elaborate on what/how you do the "wait" command? I assume you start off making them wait for short periods (1-2 seconds) and then gradually increase? Does this actually teach them patience? How long can you get them to "wait" quietly for?
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It's similar to leave it. I think the most important thing is that you teach the behavior WITH a command. At this point, you're waiting on the behavior and watching for it to happen and trying to respond quick enough in the moment that the dog recognizes what triggered it, rather then teaching a behavior and then cuing it with a specific word/command. Does that make sense?
We learned wait as it applies to crossing streets and charging doors, staying out of the kitchen, etc....it naturally just carried over to the car and other things. Here's a link that might help. Best of luck :)
http://www.loveyourdog.com/wait.html
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ooo that's a good idea... also "back it up" if you have a door crammer which Im guessing goes with the impatient part.
I'm guessing Stephanie's wait can be 1 of 2 things which both can be very helpful to you.
First is wait/stay where you have your pup sit and you step backwards and your pup has to sit still till you call. At first yes you start with a few seconds and then gradually build it up. Eventually you can have them wait.. have a long conversation with someone and then give them a release command. The one I use is "free" because I don't use it often enough in conversation to confuse them. I've never timed it but Roxi will stay where I put her for a very long time till I give the command. She wont move even if I speak excitedly, hop around or wave my arms or go around the corner for a little bit. It's an agility trick so your dog doesn't shoot the gate too early if you're talking to someone for information.
The other is "leave it" where you put a treat on the ground and your pup can't touch or sniff it till you say ok. The best is if they make eye contact with you until you give the command. You can have fun with this if your pup gets good at it by putting it on their paws or nose or head lol.
Back it up is if your standing at the door and your pup is trying to get out before you or if you're trying to get somewhere and your pup is in the way and wont move. Basically you say "back it up" and your pup should walk backwards a little bit and sit down and wait for a free command or until you open the door for them.
I did this by walking into my pup a little bit saying back it up while they shuffle back out of my way. I then give a treat after they shuffle back saying "GOOD BACK IT UP!" At the door after this is achieved I made them sit after backing up... would open the door.. if they stand I close the door and make them sit and wait.. repeat until you can open the door while they're sitting without moving and until you give the free command.
I'm sure Stephanie has some good pointers too :) I didn't connect the commands to teaching them patience! That's a good call!
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It's funny, she does all of these things already, but it never occurred to me to attach a verbal command to it (except "out" - that one she knows because she used to try and lay down smack dab in the middle of the kitchen while I was trying to cook, lol).
She already waits at the door, waits at her food bowl, we even do the training where I'll put some kibble on the floor and make her sit and wait for me to give her "ok, take it" to eat it. I just never included a verbal command because she understood that she couldn't have/do whatever she wanted until I gave her the command to do so.
I certainly don't think she could "wait" while I carried on a long conversation, but maybe she's just too young for that just yet. I’ll try to incorporate the verbal queue and see if I can use it in other situations to keep her quiet, like while I’m getting ready in the car.
Great advice everyone!
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