Need Advice on how to correct a whining dog?

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Elle

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Does anyone have any suggestions? We have a one year old doberman that is a great dog but when it hits 6AM (when we usually get up) or 5PM he starts to pace around rooms. He is doing this because its getting close to feeding times. We have two other dogs that just chill and don't get all anxious. But when we finally wake up and we brush our teeth, wash face he whines the whole time until we put food in his dog bowl. Also whenever we let the dogs out to play or use the bathroom he gets so frantic at the backdoor. He wants to make sure he's the first one out the door and will push you over to make sure of it. I really think these things can be corrected and if they were it would make for much smoother mornings and nights. With a baby about to come I would rather it not be so loud in our bedroom early in the morning assuming a baby is sleeping. :)
 
I would guess he's not getting enough exercise in general.

Ever watch CEASAR MILAN - Dog Whisperer? He goes through many corrections with owners/dogs and how to correct these issues.

Mine used to whine non-stop as soon as we'd get 2 miles from any park she knew. With the help of his show and advice she's a well behaved QUIET girl :)
 
The poor dogs body clock is at 6am and 5pm and being just a year old he needs to go to the bathroom as soon as he wakes, First thing I do when I get up is let House dog out to go bathroom sound like you need to do the same. Forget your bathroom time and let the dogs out.He is getting frantic because he has to go bad and you are not letting him out.
Same with food he has gotten used to being fed at certain ties and you are putting him off. forget your own stomach and feed this dog before he gets so frantic

When you sooth the savage beast in dogs they will then go and lie down and let you have a smoother more comfortable morning
 
Can you change you routine for feeding him?

It just seems to be an overexcited pup. How is his exercise? May need to be increased.

Start by changing your feeding schedule which will not get him the reward for whining. He should never know when you might feed him. If you go to the food and he starts to whine, walk away sit down and wait until the dog stops thinking about it(looks calm). The procedure will have to be done more than once to give him the message, but it should send it to him. Be patient with him as he is still a pup and he has just gotten used to his schedule.

My dog when I first got him had to get up at 5am. First night he woke me up at 4 pouncing on me and this is a 140lb great dane I am talking about. He quickly figured out he didnt get to go to sleep at 8pm and wake up that early. Try to keep the pup up an hour or so later than he currently is as well because he is waking you up, which is the leaders job. I have all my dogs doing a wait while I move all toes out of the way. Once I say OK they all bolt, but if I were to say wait, they would stop if they could.

Dont reward the behavior, ignore it because its been learned. He just gets so excited and cant control it. Typically dogs will take the calmer action if they are taught it so keep trying. You can add treats to the mix for if he doesnt whine. Work in small steps too, if he still gets excited but didnt whine, thats major improvement.
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You have inadvertantly trained him to whine for food. When he whines you give him food? Stop it. Don't praise behaviors you don't like. Only give him food when he's behaving. As for the door thing, stop him, call him back or go get him. Make him stay until you go first. You need to take a leadership role and make him listen to you. If you don't, you will have bigger problems when that baby comes.
 
get a clicker and teach your dog that the click means that a treat is coming by clicking it randomly 20 times and immediately feed a treat after each click. Then in the morning whenever you see him relax or stop whining- even its just to take a breath, click and give him some of his kibble. have him earn the majority of his kibble this way and within a couple of weeks you should see a pretty large improvement on the whining thing- because only being quiet gets him what he wants.

Teach your dog to sit and wait at the door when he's alone first- don't try this with other dogs around just yet. ask him to sit, click/treat (c/t). then ask him to sit and start to reach for the door, c/t, then ask him to sit, touch the door, c/t- continue like this in little tiny baby steps until you can open the door entirely and your dog will just sit there. Remember the clicker releases the dog- so no punishment for gettin up after the click. If your dog doesn't stay at any level- shut the door if its open and stand between him and the door (called body blocking) ask him to sit again and go back at least two steps to a point where he was successful at this game. Then break the next steps down into smaller increments. Teach your other dogs this behavior by themselves also then start to add one dog at a time. It also helps that during the teaching process, you teach each dog his own personal release cue. I like to proof the release by trying one of the other dog's release cues and body blocking the dog if he tries to go on it- and asking him to start over again
When you start adding dogs to this group wait, release one dog and if the other dog goes- you may want to leash them both and drop the leash of the dog you released but hold onto the other leash- or better yet have someone else stand behind the dogs and hold the leashes- or you can get your body out of the way of the dog you released and body block the other dog if he moves and just ask him to start over. Do not under any circumstance let the dog who supposed to still be waiting go out the door- if you do you have just reinforced him for not waiting- thats exactly opposite of what you wanted to do!!

There is absolutely no need for punishment- if your dog is anxious, punishment wont help calm him down- it will only supress the outward symptoms or it could even make his issue worse, because punishment tends to add stress to a situation. I know you are only human and its 5:00 am, but do your best to keep it possitive.
 
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