dog whines in his kennel at night?

[unrlili86]

my boyfriend has an almost one year old black lab mix puppy and he drives us nuts at night. when my boyfriend first brought him home in the summer, he was an exclusively outside dog. before people start freaking out, this dog has always been kept outside since before we got him and the reason we continued to keep him outside was becuase my boyfriend has allergies. however, now that i've been giving him a hard time and his allergies are getting better and it's starting to get colder outside we're starting to bring him in more especially at night. we've always kept him in a kennel at night even when he was outside just to get him used to the idea and to ease our minds that he's not getting into trouble while we're sleeping. when he's outside in his kennel he's pretty quiet, except in the morning he'll wake up and start barking really early if he doesn't have his bark collar on. (i know, i know; lots of people think bark collars are cruel, but it's helped control his barking to the point where if we put it on he won't even bark at all so don't leave any mean comments regarding this). anyway, now that we've moved his kennel inside, he whines after we go to bed. we tried keeping him in the garage and he whined and barked, so we tried keeping him in the house and with the help of the bark collar, he doesn't bark, but he does whine like crazy. leaving a light on doesn't seem to help. because my boyfriend has allergies, we can't keep him in our room and even if we could there's no room in there anyway because it's a small room. we can't leave him loose in the house by himself because he'll tear everything up and we don't want to have to deal with that catastrophe in the morning. i understand that we should just let him whine until he goes to sleep which the two of us don't have a problem with. the problem lies in that my boyfriend has two roommates, and neither one really understands that we need to just let him cry until he stops. one of them has let him out when he was whining because she felt bad for him, and the other one starts to get mad if the dog is whining for more than 3 minutes even though his dog sits in the garage and barks for hours in the morning and during the day. we don't want to have to keep him outside at night, but it's the only place he's quiet and i'm not so sure it's because he's more comfortable out there because when he's out there during the day, he'll act like he'd rather be inside with us. we'll be moving in about 8 or 9 months but kind of need a solution until then so if anyone knows of anything that might help let me know!
My boyfriend does have allergy medication but his allergies aren’t going to get better over night, so we’re balancing keeping him out during part of the day and keeping him in the other part of the day and at night. We’ve already taken the dog through one course of obedience training and he’s a lot better in a lot of ways than when we first got him. We asked the trainers about it and all they told us was to not keep him in an area that he isn’t used to so he’s been in the house a lot more in the last few months.
I understand labs need a lot of attention. I was not the one that brought this dog home and I warned my boyfriend about it when he first told me about the dog. I told him that it would be a lot of work and that granted, labs are great dogs, but they can be crazy and require lots of attention. That being said, I don’t believe we give this dog any less attention than any other would. He’s outside by himself while my boyfriends at work during the day and then when he comes home he lets him in. We take him on hour long walks everyday to a field where we can let him loose and he can just run off some energy. And we play fetch with him in the backyard and we play with him when he’s inside.

 

[amivon27]

I'm gonna side with the Lab here so please have an open mind & kennel. The "whining" you are complaining about is REAL & yes annoying. This new adult is not getting enough stimulation. A LAB needs alot of inter-action to become "quiet". Your environment sounds very staid & non-conducive too an active verbal, young adult, Labrador. It almost sounds as if your facilitating problem after problem. Who is in the better interests of this canine? Re-home with an active family. I have never been this adamant...special needs always apply ! This pup would be happier with a family. I'm sorry...but try to make that happen !!!!

 

[Betsy]

1) Pets should be inside, always. Your boyfriend should look into allergy medication
2) Bark collars aren't cruel if you use them properly-- you're not using it properly.
3) If everyone in the house isn't on the same page with the dog (your roommates) then nothing will change because different behaviors will be fostered.

Enroll in obedience classes to deal with barking and for techniques on how to crate train him. When you learn the training techniques also train the b/f and roommates how to do them.

You're dog sounds nervous and confused, you'll need to be patient and persistent. Labs are smart, he'll get it if you do it right.

 

[Kira B]

retrievers have a tough time in kennels. Ignore him and get some sleep. Let the roomies know that they are gonna have to sacrifice sleep for a couple nights and they'll just have to deal with it. you could try having the kennel as close to the room as possible.

 

[don c]

First off, your boyfriend's dog has some problems that I can't see either of you resolving. The room mates should not have to listen to a whining dog, so agreed, that is not a solution. Labs are very, very great dogs. They are family oriented. Your boyfriend's dog, in all probablity whines out of loneliness. How much interaction do you and your boyfriend spend with the dog each and every day? I am thinking with the allergies, it would be best for all if you found a good home for this dog. The allergies will prevent the both of you from giving this dog what it needs.
Good luck.

 

[Mary O]

Perhaps you can put a nice bone in the kennel each night, making it seem more like a reward. You might also try to put a tee shirt of yours in there so that your scent can be a comfort. You can try to leave a night light on in the room where doggie is. In the morning, put the dog out first thing with lots of pets to show that the dog's behavior was good.