How to Stop a Dog From Whining

Trying to stop a dog from whining can seem like a never ending task, especially when your dog is very young or has been adopted at an older age and wasn’t properly trained by its previous owners. Here’s what you can do to appropriately curb your dog’s whining.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Stop reinforcing bad behavior. When you pet your dog after it whines, or respond to the whining you are providing it with a response to that unwanted behavior and creating a habit. Instead, you need to ignore the dog when it is whining and focus your attention on something else.

2. Start to reward your dog for positive behavior. Take the time to give your dog a treat or reward when it is acting appropriately and not whining. This will help your dog to learn what is acceptable and what is not.

3. Attend to your dog promptly when it has to go outside to use the bathroom. Even the best behaved dogs may whine if they need to go outside to use the bathroom and you've neglected to let them out. This can create a bad situation because you're putting your dog in undue distress and also reinforcing the bad behavior when you do eventually let it outside, so be prompt and don't make your dog wait to go outside to relieve itself.

4. Make sure that your dog is getting everything that it needs to be happy and healthy. Proper attention, plenty of food, and fresh clean water are extremely important to your pet's health and happiness. The absence of any of these things can cause a dog to whine regardless of the situation, and it's your responsibility as a pet owner to see to their needs.

5. Bring your dog to the vet to ensure that it has a clean bill of health. Sometimes recurrent whining can signal a health problem within your dog, so you need to pay attention to the cause of the whining and investigate further if it seems to be unrelated to any specific behavior.