I was at a student’s house the other day. As we were wrapping up the lesson, her dog came running into the room, came to her, and started whining. It then ran back towards the hallway, and then came back to her, whining again. We immediately got up and encouraged the dog to “tell” us what was wrong. The dog led us to the back fence in the yard. While we couldn’t detect what the dog had noticed, it had clearly signaled to us that something was wrong. It was either a coyote or some other kind of animal in the neighbor’s yard. A clear threat to the life of her dog. This dog didn’t “need” to be punished for whining.
In another case, I was at a student’s home and while starting the lesson, her puppy was playing with the other dog in the home. But the puppy jumped up and off a chair and went splat on the floor. The dog howled and whined because it was in pain. The owner ran over to comfort him and picked him up since the puppy was stunned and hurt. He recovered emotionally but then limped for the next 20 minutes as he shook off the pain. He wasn’t permanently injured, but he had hurt himself. This dog didn’t “need” to be punished for whining.
Some dogs also are “leakers”. When they have an expectancy regarding some situations, they will whine. An example is a dog that whines when they are in a Down/ Stay. They would rather be with you or running around rather than being stuck in that spot. You don’t fix that kind of leakage with punishment. Instead, you change the expectancy through proper training. Some dogs are natural leakers, and even if you do the very best training, you’ll still get some noise. So be it. If you lose a few points in the show or obedience ring, then so be it. That’s the dog you adopted or purchased. In some cases, if it is very mild, you can “Uh uh” the dog and the dog can hold some of that in, but if you have a leaker, that won’t work.
Whining is generally in the category of a care seeking vocalization. Diagnose it, possibly try a different motivational technique to minimize it, but it doesn’t justify punishment. My advice also applies to barking, which is why I am not a fan of bark collars or yelling at dogs.
What should you do if your dog whines?
The wrong answer is to either ignore it or punish the dog as a form of “training”. That kind of answer is goofy and any trainer that has that as his or her method should quit the profession.
Plan accordingly.