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The doghouse

Dog whining constantly in the early morning.

21 replies

FyreFly · 26/09/2014 08:33

He's 5 Angry not a bloody pup but you wouldn't know it by the way he goes on. He's done this all his life and nothing we've tried has had any effect.

He can start anywhere from 6am (sometimes earlier) and carry on at a constant inhale...... whiiiiinnne..... inhale..... whiiiiiiiiiine..... until I'm out of the bedroom (we do not alllow dogs in bedrooms overnight and have the doors closed. We did try allowing him in last year thinking maybe he'd settle down, but all it meant was he pestered us and licked himself - loudly - all night, and come the morning instead of whining he'd just get on the bed - v much not allowed here!).

There is absolutely no bloody (can you tell I've been gotten up again by it this morning??) reason for it. It really makes me murderous sometimes and in the past in a sleep-deprived anger I've swung the door open to throw a newspaper or slipper at him with an angry "Get to your bed!" (they know this command - all our dogs have their own bed and space). He slinks off pretty sharpish, but 5, 10, 20 mins later he's back.

He is not on his own - we have two dogs. Other dog perfectly normal, as with every other dog we've had. Would only whine if something was wrong (we can tell the difference between them).

He is not thirsty - we redo their water at bedtime every night and I don't think I've ever come out to find an empty bowl.

He is not hungry - they get fed after walks and most of the time it doesn't get touched til the afternoon. He's not a typical greedy labrador.

He does not need to go out with any urgency - if I get up and let them out the backdoor for a quick trip he'll turn right round and come back in. If I'm having a lie-in and someone else takes them out for a proper walk, as soon as he's back it's nose-pressed-to-the-door whining again.

Everyone else in the house can be up and he will STILL whine at my door. Apparently he lies with his nose jammed firmly into the corner where the door opens, and I can believe it as I can hear the little sod snuffling away as well as whining.

I think it's just the fact that he wants ME to get up, NOW. Well tough, frankly.

I have no experience with this kind of behaviour. We've tried treats on the odd mornings we don't hear anything, we've tried shutting him in other rooms so he can't get to the bedroom door - he just gets louder and yips (yes, he is 5, and a big labrador, and yes, he yips), we've tried other people getting up and distracting him, but he gravitates back every time. Usually my first step would be not to reward the behaviour, but when that would involve me staying in my room all day it's not really practical.

I just wish he'd shut up!

OP posts:
Luxaroma · 26/09/2014 09:10

Ours whines every morning too - after he gets out of bed and expects someone to join him on the sofa for a cuddle we generally oblige - I could be writing your post in a few years!

moosemama · 26/09/2014 11:54

Sounds like he has an over-attachment to you. Doing some 'on your bed' and 'stay' training (often called mat training) using treat toys like kongs and rewarding generously, building up slowly to leaving him there and going into your bedroom for a while should help to teach him to settle and remain relaxed in his bed without you around.

FyreFly · 26/09/2014 12:15

Well we've never rewarded it like that Lux, it's just a habit he's always had.

He settles fine at night moose, I don't hear a peep out of him, even if I go to bed early! There's no problem getting him to bed and to settle - we have a routine. I know he doesn't necessarily go to sleep immediately as often we hear him wandering round the kitchen, deciding to sleep in the hall or going up and down the stairs. It's just in the morning - he wakes up at 6 or so and decides I need to be up!

OP posts:
FyreFly · 26/09/2014 12:24

Daylight does seem to be a factor. Sometimes in the winter we might not hear from him until about 7 / half 7, but he definitely starts early in the summer. Unfortunatley becuase of the way our house is laid out it's impossible to shut out all the light and have them in a dark room - at least not without confining him to one room all night, which I think he'd complain about!

OP posts:
moosemama · 26/09/2014 18:25

It could still be a degree of over-attachment. Dogs are situational learners and therefore not great at generalising.

He knows you go to bed every night and there will then be have a certain amount of time when everyone is asleep. He's learned to settle himself in that situation - possibly as it's the one we all go to a lot of trouble teaching them to settle in when they're pups.

Once it's daytime though, especially when others are up and about, he sees that as a completely different situation. To his mind, he expects to be with you during the day and being separated from you during daylight hours therefore causes him some anxiety - hence the whining.

Mat training during the day should help him to learn that daylight separations are ok and teach him to self-settle under those circumstances. At the very least, if you teach a sound 'mat' cue you will be able to instruct him to go back to bed for a bit once he starts whinging.

FyreFly · 27/09/2014 00:09

I agree it's an over-attachment issue, but honestly once I'm up he's not that bothered. Effusive morning greetings, naturally, but then he'll happily snooze in his bed during the day, or find a sunny spot in a room I'm not in. Most of his behaviour is perfectly normal - if you saw him during the day you wouldn't think he was overly attached.

Perhaps when I notice he's settled in his bed I should reward him? (Then other fatso dog will want a treat too, and he's on a diet for nicking his brothers food!)

They do have a "go to your bed" / "onto your beds" cue, and at all other times of day it works Confused - I just wish it would work between about 5.30 and 8. It's not like I ever get up at 5.30, and rarely get up before 7, so I don't know where he's got this notion from. He's a weird dog to say the least!

OP posts:
FyreFly · 27/09/2014 00:25

It's ironic as the first night we had him - not a peep! Only pup I've ever known not to have even a little whimper.

Second night the little darling howled bloody murder. Went through to find him cuddled up to DDog The First who was giving us his best put-upon "What have you done??" look. Once again though, about 5 minutes after, when he'd been calmed, he was sound off and nothing from him ever again, until he was about 6 months old which is when I think this started. He would have been 5 in July. Four and a half years of this!! The odd thing is there are very occasional mornings where he doesn't whine. I have no idea what's different about those Confused but like I say, we reward him when that happens.

OP posts:
SteveBrucesNose · 27/09/2014 12:13

Have you stolen GirlDog?

She does the same. Whimpers, yips, whines. It's going well if we get to lie in til 5:30 (this morning was 4:15 with stinking hangovers. Eurgh). We've tried making it warmer or cooler, completely dark their bedroom is an internal room with no windows to leaving doors and curtains open so they can tell it's still dark. She also isn't desperate to go out, although she will always eat. She's a Hoover dalmatian. Feeding her doesn't help, as she's overweight and then whinges when she gets no food when she's back from her pre6am walkies.

Our room is a no no - she settles ok but when they're jn our room, BoyDog barks with his big deep mandog woofs at 1am until he gets a belly rub, and they won't be separated

We've decided that, the only thing we can do , is to become nocturnal. It's the only sensible thing

angeltulips · 27/09/2014 17:16

My lab does this too (he's 3). Except he's now figured how to open our bedroom door Hmm In the end I let him select a blanket and crumpled it up at the bottom of our bed, he will come in the morning and lie there for a couple of hours.

Are you absolutely sure he doesn't need a long walk and some stimulation? My boy is actually whining because he wants someone to walk him/play with him - so letting him into our bedroom was the compromise we made as I'm not getting out of bed at 6am to walk him

FyreFly · 27/09/2014 20:48

Angel - yes, someone else can take him out for a good walk and when he gets back he'll still do it if I'm in bed! The trouble is if we let him in the bedroom he doesn't settle. He pesters and pushes manky toys under the duvet and tries to climb on the bed and licks your face / hand / foot and will basically do everything except go back to sleep. If he settled down at night and didn't pester I would allow him in the room if it meant he wouldn't whine! As it is it's just trading one form of irritation for another.

Steve I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one. I'd offer solutions but I don't have any myself!!

OP posts:
Mazs64 · 10/07/2018 10:22

I have the same problem and my choc lab is almost 9! He just wants me up then he happily snores away on the sofa whilst I am putting matchsticks in my eyes. It is a big problem for us because my son has autism very very sensitive hearing so when the dog whines even though son has earplugs in he has to get up and chunter at him. He does let him out and feed him but straight after he is whining at the foot of the stairs. Then the bigger problem arises my son always leaves back door open no matter how many signs I have put around and on it. He then gets upset because he has forgotton to close door. It really is getting us both down. As I type I am tired and the dog is sound asleep on the sofa!!

Vallahalagonebutnotforgotten · 10/07/2018 11:52

I don't think this is over attachment.

What happens when you get up?
What do you do in the first 20 mins of being up?

Mazs64 · 10/07/2018 15:51

I fuss him let him out make a drink then feed him then he goes and sleeps
This morning son got up let him out even fed him but he still whined bottom of stairs until I got up. He is very territorial likes to be in charge excellent guard dog bit its getting my son down 😣

HouseOfHorrors · 11/07/2018 01:27

I've got 3 ideas.

First I would try 100% ignoring dog for at least 20-30 minutes after you get up and making sure that you first greet dog at a set point in morning routine.

Or set an alarm (even if you set it for 1minutes time once you have already woken up) every morning and no matter what you do not leave the bedroom before that alarm signals the start of the day. Dog should begin to realise that you do not leave the room prior to that alarm and thus yiping achieves nothing.

The final "option" of course would be hibernate for days, with others bringing you food and taking dog out regularly so you can leave the bedroom, to use the toilet and wash/shower, without the dog knowing. Obviously that one is not practical and is rather extreme Grin.

Ollybush · 18/08/2018 08:42

Did you ever solve this problem as this post is 4 years old? I ask as we have exactly the same problem with our 4 year old Cocker Spaniel, he is great in every other way and is even fine when I leave him for a few hours daily as I have a camera on him to check. He will however start whining/crying/yelping as early as 3am, he never wants to go out he just wants to be in the same room as me. We also don't want him in our bedroom and he loves his crate. We have tried many things, like darkening the room, leaving music on, putting my T-shirt in his crate. We've had him 9 months now and cannot solve this problem. Our other dog is fine, she is a 3 year old Mini Schnauzer that we had since a puppy, we feel this may be the reason the previous owners re-homed him. Any ideas to solve this would be appreciated.

missbattenburg · 18/08/2018 10:14

Have you tried introducing a cue that you are getting up and then stretching that out?

e.g. set an alarm that the dog can hear for slighly earlier than he wakes you up. As soon as the alarm goes off, get up. The aim is that he learns the alarm is what indicates you are getting up, not his whining. Once he is used to the idea that alarm = you getting up you can set it for a few mins later, then later, then later.

Don't get up before the alarm, ever. I find a phone alarm is really usefu because you can sneakily change it to bring it forward a few mins if you want to get up early or push it back if you want a bit more snooeze.

missbattenburg · 18/08/2018 10:14

Ha! Just saw house had the same tip!

Mazs64 · 18/08/2018 17:59

Hi my post was very recent and the only thing I have found that works is taking him out for a run really late about 10pm and tiring him out. He still whines but we now all wear ear plugs 😂

Mazs64 · 18/08/2018 18:03

I meant to say he only whines when he has not been tired out 😁

Joyyy · 08/03/2020 14:30

I just wanted to know if anyone had been able to solve this issue! I have a 1 year old Pomeranian who does the exactly the same thing! Cries the house down in the morning for no particular reason, doesn’t stop until I’m out of bed. We’re at wits end and now resorted to using ear plugs

Mousefaye · 12/04/2020 04:51

St John's wart is a herb that is of great help to my 12 year old dog with anxiety. Half a human dose for a 20 to 30kg dog. I give him 200mg in tablet form every afternoon with his vitamin c . His whining has almost stopped and his chronic cough has also virtually gone !

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