dog whining?!?

Question

we adopted a rescue maltese about 6 months ago. he's wonderful. he did develope some seperation anxiety wit me but we did overcome this as good as we can. by chance we got outselves a rescued silky lady. this seemed to help alot; draw some of the attention or fixation from me. they sleep, eat cuddle, do everything together.
now the only thing is he whines like crazy in the morning.
they are "fenced" up in the kitchen during the night where they have a basket to sleep in as they otherwise "soil" the whole house. i think time in the house should be supervised. in the kitchen they can't hurt themselves.
now i do everything with the dogs. i take for a walk in the morning, a walk when i get home & they come to the stables with me for a run. my husband takes them for 1 walk before he goes to uni. also he plays in a very human way with them as i threat them as dogs. my maltese will whine in the mornings for me until i come out. now how do i get my dog to stop whining in the morning?

i must add, my 2 dogs do not listen to my husband and they cower when they do finally come. they always sleep on my side of the couch.
i don't know if they are scared of men because of their bad past? or if i am leader of the pack?
my dog stops whining when i come out but it still really excited. when my husband comes out the whining stops too but he is not as excited anymore.
so does he whine for me or more for the walk? does he get excited as he really has to go out to "relive" himself?
how do we get him to stop doing the whining?
thanks for reading this long question!!

Answer 1

Dogs whine when they are anxious or want something, lot like kids..lol..and hubbies but the dog often does not know he is whining. I take it the dog whines when you are still in bed until you come into the kitchen? You can try, when he is whining, to tell him QUIET and when he doesn't get up and use a spray bottle set to stream. You will have to be diligent about this and if he is doing it because he is anxious it may make it worse. But it is worth a try. Also how about if your hubby gets up first and takes the dogs out for a pee they could come into the bedroom and sleep in a crate until you get up? Or he can try giving them toys or chewies to keep them occupied. Or he(the dog) might be satisfied with a used t-shirt of yours. If your hubby gets up first does he feed them or do they wait for you to feed? Possibly the dogs are hungry, maybe your hubby could fed them or give them a large biscuit? Sometimes putting a name to the habit and teaching him to whine will help to kill the habit. Some breeds, Dobes and Gsps come to mind, are whiners by breed trait.

Answer 2

I would think the whining is related to the dogs needing to go out to potty first thing in the morning. I like your idea of the safe overnight area (kitchen) for them. You obviously spend plenty of time with them. But dogs don't like to soil the area they sleep/eat in, as a rule. So my guess would be whining to go potty. By the way, cuddos for rescuing a Maltese (or any dog). You're already a hero to your dog!

Answer 3

Hm.. they probably don't like being in the kitchen.

You could try training them.

Give them a treat as soon as they stop whining.

Ignore them when they whine.

Give treat when they are quiet.

Repeat. Eventually they could get the idea that being quiet is a good thing. Ween them off the treats, and maybe they'll be quiet. I used this method for my dogs to be quiet on command; not sure how effective it would be to stop them from whining altogether...

Answer 4

I suggest that you tape record your voice and give the a blanket that has your scent on it.. From what you describe these two were abused by a man or a boy... it will take time for them to understand that your husband does not really mean to hurt.

Answer 5

sounds like a maltese to me