My dog won't stop whining and barking?

Question

He's a Schnauzer and is almost a year old.Two weeks ago he was neutered and developed a blood clot around the wound. He's wearing a "lamp shade" collar but we're walking him 3 times a day and he's still whining/barking/howling constantly. Last week we received an anonymous note from one of our neighbours about the noise he's been making and we don't know what to do. He's always been a bit hyper but he woke us up at 6 this morning and my nerves are frazzled because of this. I've phoned a trainer and we're going to try that route.

Can anyone suggest something that could help?

Answer 1

Completely ignoring him is the best solution--especially if he's a puppy (and thus hasn't had enough time to turn this behavior into a habit). By ignoring him, you'll teach him that that whining doesn't get him anything.

The only problem with this method is that most owners can only ignore their dog's behavior for a short time before they give in and either pet the dog to "comfort" him, or verbally reprimand him. In either case the dog is being rewarded (most dogs seem to feel that negative attention is better than no attention). So, if you can tough it out, then just ignore him completely.

Another idea is to teach him that whining means he will be banished from the room. To do this, you should calmly take the dog to his long- or short-term confinement area for a time out. Finally, you might want to teach him to lie down on request and get him hooked on white hollow bones stuffed with good stuff (like cheese, meat or peanut butter). This way he will be busy chewing his bone which means he can't be whining.

Answer 2

Take him back to the vet, it sounds like the poor thing's in pain. If you have an idea of which neighbour sent you the note, send a note back saying you'd be whining/barking and howling if you'd just had your tookers removed.

Answer 3

He might just be frustrated because of the 'lamp shade' collar he has to wear, so to solve this you could take it off when you can watch him. Or he might be in pain so you could take him to see the vet just to make sure he isn't. I think taking him to the trainer is a good idea as they will probably know how to stop it.

Hope this helped.

Answer 4

He sounds either bored, or frustrated with the collar.

Possibly he is in pain with his wound ?

Dogs will only make noise as a signal of something else - he's trying to tell you something.

Answer 5

PLEASE IGNORE THE CRUEL HARDHEARTED PEOPLE WHO SAY THAT YOU SHOULD IGNORE YOUR PUPPY. He has had a op, a blood clot and he is now wearing a lamp shade.If your dog has just started doing this, I think that he may be in pain. Does he stop crying when you take his collar off and is he happy when he goes for a walk??Trainers can help with a lot of situations. Unfortunately  your dogs has had a lot to cope with and until he stops wearing his collar and his wound has healed, he should not have any more stress and at this stage training will be stressful. If there as a possibility of him being in pain, you should take him to see the vets.

Also he will have been traumatised by being left at the vets for his op, let him sleep in your bedroom for a while.