Any Help???

I have a 1 yr 3 month old Choc Lab male...
Did the best I could at the training, can't complain. If he sees it fall he's going to get it on command, and responds to hand signals with whistle (some what). The only problem that I am having is on our first hunt he got so exited after seeing the first birds come in that he started whining. The only thing I could do was bring him closer and pet him to stop the whining. I see this as reinforcing the behavior, but it was a quick fix at the time. I read in another post this is a tricky and hard behavior to nipp...

Some of the responses were that if you correct the dog when he starts to whine it can lead the dog to believe that he is being corrected for concentrating on the birds (the dog does not know he is whining). His solution was to start out using the sit command. Treat the whining as breaking on sit. The minute he starts to whine use "Sit Nick Sit" treat it as if he stood up or ran for a bird. Then he knows while at sit he cannot whine.

Any thoughts with this approach or other solutions???jack.jpg

Squeese his muzzel and command quiet. Do it everywhere. When he is barking at home or anywhere else. It helps if he is barking because it is a thing he knows he/she is doing. Then once he's got it with the barking, you can bring it into the field. When you correct him it will have nothing to do with the birds. Even if he doesn't realize he is doing it it will bring it to his attention that he is actually making noise and youe correction has nothing to do with him paying attention to what's going on ,but actually to be Quiet.

If u find out a cure let me know because my dog is on his 5th season going to 6 years old in december and still whines, especially when i start the feed call and he knows its about to be game time. I hate to be to aggressive with the correction cause his drive to hunt is great. I have tried grabbing his muzzle saying quiet like i do when he barks at home but it doesn't seem to work for the whining. Sometime I have to smack him in da head it gets so bad. GOOD LUCK!

A buddy of mine who seems to know his stuff said he cured his dog by giving him a little whack on the ass with a heeling stick every time his dog whined. I'm sure a sapling would work just as well. Looks like I'm gonna be going through this too with my new chessie. He already knows what "shut up" means cuz the whole family tells him that when he starts barking, so I figure that's half the battle. One thing I have heard and read in a couple places is that a shock collar will actually produce a whine. It may be wise to use an alternative punishment since he's right by your side anyway.

Do you let the dog pick up all the bumpers when you are training? If you are he believes that everything that hits the ground is his. Only let him pick up about 50% of the bumpers thrown for a while. Even if you can take him hunting a couple of times and dont let him get any birds unless he doesnt is quiet.


chris