Can anybody help me here?
About 6 months back, my mother-in-law and her dog moved in It's a long story which I won't bore you with, but the dog is getting to be a real PAIN.

He's a 13 year old Yorkie who now looks on me as his long lost friend and he is generally a lovely little character except for one personality trait.

Whenever food is around or while the family are eating, he constantly whimpers and whines, pacing up and down, looking up at family members as if he is starving to death. Even when he is banished to his basket he carries on whining and absolutely nothing will stop him.

If he is shut in the kitchen he manages to pee and poo all over the place, almost like a protest. Chuck him out in the garden and he makes noises that I didn't realise a dog could make!

When everyone has finished eating he toddles over to his food bowl and finally eats his own food and then settles down as if nothing has happened!

Any ideas? I am pretty new to this dog lark.

mains electricity or large hammer.

^^ Might be right!

Quite an old dog (ours are younger and still quite malleable) but generally need to reward what you want to happen - if its whining and the like - completely ignore it, as soon as its quiet then give it something it likes... that's the principal for most dog training. Reward the behaviour you want and ignore what you don't... 'clicker' training is advocated by lots of people, might be worth a try - have a google!

Chris

sounds spoilt and I'm bad for doing that too, one of my dogs always has its head on my lap when I'm having my dinner and watches every mouthful, then I give it a bit of food and the other one comes running over, so I give that one some aswell. In the end they get half my dinner so maybe I'm not the best to give advice...

oh yeah I let them on the sofa and they push me off onto the floor if I fall asleep! sods

here a picture of the pests, the little one is now bigger than the older dog

quote:

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Originally posted by chrsgrain
Reward the behaviour you want and ignore what you don't...

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so long as my dogs are happy so am I

I've always had rottweilers and this work with them so with yours shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Training should pretty much always be done with rewarding good behaviour and ignoring bad as said before however if in your case the dog is a little older and it's learnt al it's life it will get food at the table you'll have difficulty with this.

So get a small water pistol (not a supersoaker or high pressure one just a little cheap joby that can't do any harm) and when it whines give it a squirt. it will make it go quite briefly at first but as you persist the pause of whining will get longer then you can start rewarding it for being quiet. Only reward it with it's normal food so thats what it learns to expect.

Good Luck

You can also get a set of round metal discs on a ring (a bit like a bunch of keys with no points). These are dropped on the ground when the dog is doing what it shouldn't - they make quite a crash that makes the dog jump. Note that they are dropped near to the dog, not thrown at it! The only down-side is that the dog mustn't see you drop them - it must be a total surprise.

If the action results in a period of silence then the dog is given a reward - a DOG treat, given well away from the table.

There's a vet (I think his name is Fisher) who's written a very sensible book about living with a dog, based on dog pack rules. The idea is that the dog gets to consider itself as the lowest ranking member of the pack, and is perfectly happy in that state. It's a whole list of things to do around your dog - always be the first out of the door, don't let the dog sit on your bed or settee (Mr Whippy!), eat your meal before feeding the dog, and never feed the dog if he begs at the table.

We followed most of his ideas with our mutt, and he was as good as gold for most of his 15 years.

I should add that he also recommends the water pistol, although it can make things wet around the house!

get him a girl friend, he'll totally go off you and spend all day humping her (at 13 years old puppys should be unlikely that should keep him out your hair.

Ahhhh now I considered the water pistol idea but thought it might be too drastic. I will certainly give it a try now though.

He's quite jumpy anyway and hates loud noises so the jangly keyring idea will be next if he doesn't respond to the water pistol.

Time for some aiming practice methinks

quote:

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Originally posted by Mr Whippy
get him a girl friend, he'll totally go off you and spend all day humping her (at 13 years old puppys should be unlikely that should keep him out your hair.

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Found it...

Fisher link

Thanks David - I'll have a look

Another vote for the water effect.

It doesn't have to be a pistol, our vet reccomended the pistol style garden / household spray bottle with the nozzell you can adjust from a jet to a mist, and just mist him in the face. Worked on our Ridgebacks, stopped them jumping up on people.

A friend has weineramers and eventually he just had to make the hissing sound and they would behave even without seeing the bottle

Cheers

Fred W B

[Edited on 19/3/08 by Fred W B]

i totally agree with all of the above.

The water should work unless...........

Someone else in the house is feeding the dog when it whines when your not around and is undoing all of your work?

I have a 2.5 year old springer who is very well behaved but is incredibly nervous and hence when she was being trained a softly softly approach had to be used.

She is still nervous but is well behaved, the only thing i need to work on is her barking at the slightest noise outside, the water treatment may be a bit severe for her.

We will see!

quote:

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Originally posted by locoboy
i totally agree with all of the above.

The water should work unless...........

Someone else in the house is feeding the dog when it whines when your not around and is undoing all of your work?

I have a 2.5 year old springer who is very well behaved but is incredibly nervous and hence when she was being trained a softly softly approach had to be used.

She is still nervous but is well behaved, the only thing i need to work on is her barking at the slightest noise outside, the water treatment may be a bit severe for her.

We will see!

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Cheap alternative to the jangly rings thing is a 300ml plastic drinks bottle with a bit of gravel in it. Just give it a sharp shake to make a sudden noise, generally stops my Jack Russell doing whatever he's up to.

Mind you, a good shot to the back of the head with a water pistol is far more satisfying

Depends on your dog! Ours are working dogs who'll quite happily sit still and attentive while a firework display goes off over their heads - a bit of gravel in a pot, or a bunch of keys ain't gonna bother them! On the other hand they HATE water pistols!

Chris

The water pistol idea works a treat! I found a multi-pack of said weapons in Asda last week and while we eat our meals we now have a pistol as part of the cutlery set!

It only took a couple of days and he's certainly got the message and just the act of putting down a knife & reaching for the pistol is enough to quieten him down.

Excellent

oh such cruelty!

How can you ignore those eyes pleading for a tasty morsel....? if it could cry it would

You should try some dog food, then you'd understand why they'd rather have some of your dinner!

I once took Alice’s squeaky bone off her cos she was going OTT with the damn thing during a film and she growled stood up on her back legs and punched me in the chest! Oh the little sh%t! Fight! Fight!

[Edited on 25/3/08 by Mr Whippy]

LOL I did have a try of one of his biscuits the other day - God what a revolting taste!

Meal time did take on an 'It's a Knockout' theme for a while and was quite entertaining .... for us anyway. I just need the sniper rifle version to catch him when he hides behind the door now - crafty things these Yorkies

There's always the remote control electric collar

ATB

Simon

you want one of those high pressure water rifles!! with some practise you'll be able to shoot at the wall and water will bounce off to get doggie hiding behind the door.

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