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 Avyon on
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oh well the looong "wait" is something you work up to. It takes a little while and a bit of training so no worries if she doesn't do it quickly :)
We've almost had Charlie for a year and we're still working on a good callback for him... every corgi is different though they are all pretty smart in their own way.
Sounds to me for what she's already doing - she's ahead of a lot of doggies at her age lol
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Permalink Reply by Beth on
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I taught "wait" around the food bowl. A few instances of walking into a dog who is trying to get around you for dinner teaches it quickly enough. "Wait" is not the same as "stay." I change up "wait" with a "sit" or "down" for dinner bowls.
You can then progress to teaching "wait" in front of an open door, using the same concept as the dinner dish.
It comes in handy walking down steep hills, too, where my pace is much slower than normal and the dogs' tends to be much faster. If I don't have them on a formal "heel" I will call out "wait" to let them know charging forward is not in order.
Not sure whether or not it will cure whining, but it might because what you are doing is cuing the dog on your arrival to "wait" and the dog is focused on waiting for the release command ("ok") instead of focusing on how excited she is to be getting out of the car. It also cues her that you've taken over the situation and a release is coming in short order, so no need to be impatient. "Wait" is a "pause" command and should not be used in place of stay. For long holds, always use "stay." "Wait" is more of a "hold your horses, you'll get to it in a few seconds" idea.
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ahh another good one to add to this about staying in a room is the 'out' command. The moment you say "out" your dog has to leave the room its currently in and then "wait" outside of the room that you're in.
Same concept. They can wander around the rest of the house.. just not go into the room you're in until you tell them its ok. :)
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Permalink Reply by Julia on
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Carla, do you think all these steps are necessary? What would happen if:
You turn off the car, get your stuff, get out of the car and walk to the door. This eliminates 4 steps. Next:
You wait by her door until she stops whining. You may want a camp stool here. This may take just as long as the eliminated steps, but if you have a book, it may be less trying. Since it's summer now, leaving the window open would allow you to hear her, and let the air in.
When the whining stops...BIG PARTY!!! Treats!! Clicker if you use it. Open the door. The release may not be enough. Make it super special. Rewarding the silence BIG TIME may make an impression, unless there is a bigger, underlying issue behind the car whining. Party Time is called for!
This would be my planned schedule for this problem. But let me tell you, I have had a car whiner for 15 years. Why does he do it? No one knows. In those years we tried dog in front seat, dog in back seat, dog in seat belt, dog with mom in back, dog with dad in back, dog with head out window, dog with no window, dog in crate in back seat, crate in way-back with other crated dog, crate in way-back alone, etc., etc. Fifteen years. So now it is dog in crate in back seat because it fits best there, and is safest. Still whines. I have tried driving with ear plugs, but he's a bit quieter now. I never really tried to train him out of his whining, since he is NUTS (he's Springer Spaniel, notorious for being NUTS), and he's old, so he gets to do whatever he wants.
So take my suggestion with a grain of salt. But I really think my plan has some merit, and may be less stressful for you, but just as effective for the corgi, who I assume is not NUTS.
Julia
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Permalink Reply by Carla on
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Great advice Julia - up until about 3 weeks ago, it was definatley too cold here to sit outside the car for very long (or leave the window open) - probably why I stayed in the car for the duration of the whine-fest.
But this might work also. I'm going to try and see if the "wait" command helps, and go from there. If that doesn't work, I'll definatley try your method out. I'll look like a fool sitting next to my car with my dog screaming bloody murder while reading a book at the dog park, but that's OK with me!
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There have been some great training ideas given here, but I do want to point out again that excited whining is not the same as whining to get out of a crate, or whining for attention. I've just always sort of ignored dogs' excited whines and proceed with what I'm doing, unless they are whining out of context (they think we are doing something and we are not).
I suppose everyone is different, but to me my dogs' happy whines of anticipation are like a child who can't keep from laughing out loud in anticipation of a fun event and I don't really bother to try to stop it.
I grew up with hunting dogs and every last one of them started whining and pacing as soon as they saw appropriate clothes/gear coming out.
Learned whining, or whining for attention, can and should be worked on, since very often some human or other unwittingly taught the dog that carrying on would bring a desired effect.
But excited whining is not done as communication to you, it's done reflexively by a dog who is very aroused. "Training" it out is not really training per se, but using techniques to reduce the dog's excitement level. From there arises the question "Do I want to allow my dog to become excited by this event?"
To me, even though I am good to my dogs, they (like most domestic dogs) lead a rather boring life with 90% of it spent in the house while we are asleep or at work, daily walks, and twice-monthly or so outings in the car. Honestly if my dogs are excited enough to whine about those car outings, I'm not going to spend much time reducing their excitement about it. I let them be excited, and it makes me happy that I've given them a moment of such unbridled joy.
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I think I would call this "impatience whining." She does it whenever something is happening that she wants to speed up (like getting out of the car, if she waits too long at the door, whatever). Maybe it's excitement, but she's got to chill out - everything isn't the greatest thing on the face of the planet, even though she wants it to be.
It really does seem like it's directed at me, because prior to me covering her crate during the trip, when we stopped she would sit in her crate so she could stare right at me and whine. She wasn't looking outside, she was looking at me (I could see her in my rear-view mirror).
The thing is, right now I take her out in the car 1-2 times per week. If we go to the dog park, we're likely going to be there for 30-45 minutes (or longer, depending on the day). BUT, if it takes us 20-25 minutes to get out of the bloody car, instead of a 45 minute round-trip to the dog park (which is reasonable and I would happily do every couple days) it's an hour+ long trip, which starts off with an exhausting and annoying 20 minute escapade to actually get out and start playing. This is not my idea of a good time, and is a strong deterrent keeping me from going more often. Which is unfortunate, because I LOVE going to the dog park and the beautiful off-leash ravine trails my city has, and I would happily take Casey several times a week if she wasn't such an annoying brat!
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Permalink Reply by Bev Levy on
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I should add that when I was doing obedience with Sparty there was a gentleman with a lab that was a whiner. This guy was very experienced as a trainer. He taught classes and competed. He was never able to stop the lab from whining all the way through a session. All his dogs including the lab were exceptionally well trained and many won the competitions regularly. It drove him crazy but the lab was just too excited to stop. I have difficulty with Sparty in obedience because he barks after every command as if to say "all righty!!". Cute but really not acceptable. You just have a vocal corgi.
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When I was younger and lived at home, my parents had a lab who was a terrible whiner. The first few days he came home as a puppy, he wandered around whining the whole time and he was a regular whiner ever since.
Jack does what Sparty does when we are doing obedience work, especially in the house. He barks after nearly every command! I'll regularly put him on a sit/stay (he's quiet on stay) as the last thing before he gets a reward, but it doesn't seem to stop the commentiing. Then again, Jack gives a running commentary on most things that happen in this world, so I just sort of sigh and let it go. The bossiness/vocalness is one of the reasons I love Corgis!
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Yup Charlie does the bark after almost every command now too.. "Sit!" BARK "Dance!" BARK "Out!" Barroooorooo! "Free!" BARKBARK!. It bugged me at first and I still do a "SHH" every now and then that he understands now as "QUIETYOUANNOYINGLITTLEBOY!!" but he just woofs quieter hahah. Ive gotten to enjoy it more it gives him personality especially the different noises he makes.. its not just straight barking each time.
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Beth, this is disheartening...I guess I may be in for 10-15 years of whining. Casey whined constantly when we brought her home. I actually called the breeder the night we brought her home because I thought maybe she was dying she was whining so much. Just wandering around the house whining. Contrary to others' experiences, the only thing that shut her up was putting her in her crate (the first night she quieted down immediately upon going in, and didn't make a sound the entire night. To this day, being in her crate is the only time she really will be quiet for long periods of time - with the exception of being crated in the car, which I think she perceives as a different concept altogether).
She actually barks very little. Maybe 5 or 6 times a week she'll let out a couple of barks. Mostly she'll just do a low growl if something sounds funny or she's unsure about it. But the whining, oh lord the whining.
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Well, if it helps, the lab in question did whine less as he matured. I'm not sure why some dogs do it more than others. Jack only whines when we are getting ready to go in the car. Maddie shrieks a bark/whine if she sees other dogs and I'm making her sit and wait after she's already decided to run up to them; if I catch her attention before she decides to go, she'll listen just great (to that I owe her prior owner). Other than that I've rarely heard her whine.
As for barking, Jack has barked more by the time my husband finishes his morning shower than Casey does all week. :-) He is VERY impatient for his morning breakfast and short walk, and to be honest we lack the time and energy to wait him out; if I didn't do anything for him any time he barked, the dog would never eat or leave the house. He barks if the meal is late, barks when he's playing, barks when he hears something, barks while we're training, barks if we are late in going up to bed.... well, you get the idea.
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