Hi, I have a 10 month old working line Malinois who I am training for IGP. He is a great dog, sociable, friendly, great drive, easy to train. However my biggest daily grind with him is that he whines a lot. I am very experienced with dogs but I have not been able to sort this issue and was hoping that someone may have come across something similar.
I expect some level of whining as he is always eager to get going with everything. That's fine. However he has gotten into the habit of whining and digging in this crate every morning. He used to bark, but telling him to 'settle down' has put an end to this and that is no longer a problem, but the whining continues. He will sometimes start whining an hour before getting up, sometimes less, sometimes only when he hears me get up. There does not seem to be a pattern to it. As a young puppy I would write down when he started whining and get up the next day before this time to try and get him out of the crate before he felt the need to whine. However, this never changed anything and now I just get up when I'm ready to get up and it has made no difference. He's not stressed at all by the crate and happily goes into it, I think he is just in the habit of it and is so eager to get going with any activity. It is also not related to needing the toilet. It would be great to have him just be quiet in the crate until I am ready to let him out. He is never in the crate later than 7am, so I am not asking him to stay settled for an unreasonable time in the morning. It may sound a bit picky, but I live in a terraced house and I'm sure my neighbours can hear it and it absolutely gets to me every morning. He has wrecked a plastic crate tray before from the digging so he now has a metal tray.
Just to note I have NEVER let him out when whining or barking, I always wait for him to lie down and be quiet before ever letting him out so it is not something that has been reinforced. I also don't let him out as soon as I am downstairs so there isn't a daily ritual of being released as soon as anyone wakes up.
Many thanks for any advice!
I expect some level of whining as he is always eager to get going with everything. That's fine. However he has gotten into the habit of whining and digging in this crate every morning. He used to bark, but telling him to 'settle down' has put an end to this and that is no longer a problem, but the whining continues. He will sometimes start whining an hour before getting up, sometimes less, sometimes only when he hears me get up. There does not seem to be a pattern to it. As a young puppy I would write down when he started whining and get up the next day before this time to try and get him out of the crate before he felt the need to whine. However, this never changed anything and now I just get up when I'm ready to get up and it has made no difference. He's not stressed at all by the crate and happily goes into it, I think he is just in the habit of it and is so eager to get going with any activity. It is also not related to needing the toilet. It would be great to have him just be quiet in the crate until I am ready to let him out. He is never in the crate later than 7am, so I am not asking him to stay settled for an unreasonable time in the morning. It may sound a bit picky, but I live in a terraced house and I'm sure my neighbours can hear it and it absolutely gets to me every morning. He has wrecked a plastic crate tray before from the digging so he now has a metal tray.
Just to note I have NEVER let him out when whining or barking, I always wait for him to lie down and be quiet before ever letting him out so it is not something that has been reinforced. I also don't let him out as soon as I am downstairs so there isn't a daily ritual of being released as soon as anyone wakes up.
Many thanks for any advice!