A little background: My pup is a 4yo choc lab, good retriever, hard charger, great with dove and ducks. Trained him myself. NOT force fetched(bc I wussed out). Any how, been a great dog so far, and has successfully brought to hand several hundred birds in his 4 years. Hes also still intact.

The Problem: The little shIt has started whining to no end when he sees birds on the water. I'll have 50 birds on my spread 10 min before shooting light, and that bast@ard dog will whine and whine and whine. I've tried telling him NO and BAD dog, things he definitely knows. Next was the shock collar, which he would ignore until I turned it up so strong that causes severe pain and is more like a tazer (maybe hes just acting and is overly dramatic, in which case, I bought it). I've tapped his muzzle/head/nose, gotten frustrated and moved to hitting heavy handed, and this last weekend i stooped so low as start tapping/slapping/ and then essentially grabbing his throat to prevent him from the act of breathing/and whining, yet he continues. Then, after a choking incident this last sunday, he quit whining for a 5 min or so. After a short bit a bird splashed down into the spread, and then the freaking dog barked. HE BARKED!!!

WTF? hes getting worse, and I'm not getting anywhere with corporal punishment, and I feel awful about it. This is one thing that he has not been able to overcome, and I need some serious help/advice.

I hope you get an answer, mine does the same thing. I just learned to live with it. They get as excited as the owner when birds hit the water. We just know how to controll it and they don't.

I am sorry to say there isn't any good way to break this habbit. I have watched a close hunting partner fight this for the last five years. He has tried shocking, beating, punching, kicking yelling, you name it. He just got used to it and I just slowly stopped going if he was bringing the dog. He even explored having the dogs vocal cords cut but no vet would touch it. The only time we made a break through and he got quiet was when we just kept throwing the dead bird out and making him go get it. After about 10 consecutive trips he started getting tired and sat quietly the rest of the hunt. Good luck to you and post up if you find a way to keep him quiet!!

Maybe you keep him locked up for extended periods? I was working a ton last year and not getting to exercise him like I should. Everytime I hooked boat up and put his kennel in the bed, he would go ballistic. Every day before I've hunted this year I've worked him and has helped with the built up excitement.

My advice would be to talk w/ a guy who trains retrievers or any hunting dog for that matter and tell him what problems you're having. Chances are he's seen it before and might be able to help.

This is a reply and my response from another forum:


"Originally Posted By: Angie B
Boy this is a tough one. I gotta ask do you train your dog at all in the off season? Other then just throwing a few fun bumpers out into a pond. My guess is not really. Which puts you in a almost impossible position. Neither you nor your dog have a skill set in place to mediate the problem. If you had been in a training program you would have some tools to keep the problem from happening in the first place or when the problem did occur you could nip it in the bud... I'm not saying you had to have your dog with a pro. There's lots of good "do it yourself" programs out there for the weekend warrior.

Continuing to punish your dog in the duck blind is fruitless and unfair as you've found out.

Good Luck,

Angie"



Yes, I work him at least 5 days a week. We change from multiple marks, to blinds, to the water, and combinations of the above. Hes no expert, nor am I, but I know not to expect a master hunter, either. The whining literally just came up the last couple hunts. I immediately started corrective action, but to no avail. He's never whined at home with dummies or live/dead birds in the field. Since he was introduced to live birds, his drive for dummies has always been about 1/2 to 3/4 speed.

Something different this year is that I have been hunting the river, from the bank. The three previous years I've hunted tanks and from the water in lakes. He heels fine, doesn't break.

To clarify, this is not a constant uncontrollable whine. This is more of a whimper thats on and off with every breath.

Unfortunately for me, saturday morning I think we are waking up around 330 to go for a mile jog/sprint. He hates jogging long distances, so I hope to wear him out a little. We normally jog a half mile a day(evening time, not morning of hunts), then I drop him at the house and complete my run.

When I hunted the lake, I would let him swim around as we got setup with dekes and such, so the theory is a little blood flow will maybe calm his nerves. Being the last weekend of the season, I'm not missing any opportunities to get some final birds. Im also not fortunate enough to have buddies with dogs, so making him suffer through watching someone else get "his" birds isnt an option, unless we hunt a different area of the river(fewer birds).

I'll keep you posted on our pre hunt run.

Join the whinny dog club. Rex is not loud but it's annoying. I tie him to a real short leash so he can't see birds and only retrieves blinds. But he'll hear a splash and he'll hang himself trying to jump out...only once.

does he have alot of drive?

my yellow lab female did this some when she got really excited in the duck blind... she would wimper and shake so bad her teeth would chatter

Wow that's freaking insane, how would you like ur vocal cords cut out

If I invested thousands of dollars and countless hours of time on a well trained hunting dog, I would def cut his cords instead of giving him away as a pet or letting him rot away in a kennel because I couldn't stand to hunt with him. How would you like your nuts cut?

Man the way some people treat their dogs. I kill alot of shit and never think twice about it, but I guess I have a soft spot for labs. They are such loyal animals, I can't see how someone could treat them like a tool and treat them like chit just cause they cause inconviences in the blind. I had a lab that would whine occassionally in the bind, but she would also wake me up 5 min. before the alarm went off at the camp, ready to go hunting, every single time. These dogs live for hunting, and some times they are so amped up about it, they can't handle it. If I ever met someone that cut a lab's vocal cords cause it whines, I'd kick the chit out of em, no matter how big a boy they are.

if you spend time at the camp before hunting just let him run around and get his energy out

I wonder if a mild sedative before hunts would help. They gave mine pills after her surgery because she's so hyper, they didn't want her ripping her stitches 'cause she's batshit crazy. Kinda like a valium for dogs, I know they have them.

Not that that sounds real ethical either, but maybe he really needs them.

yea.. my girlfriend works at a vet clinic and she says some dogs are ADD and they give them meds thats something like aderol

When my dog was a puppy he would shit all over the bed of my truck EVERY FRIKKIN TIME he went for a ride. I got some of those doggy valiums, all I ended up with was a drunk dog, still shitting in the truck. He eventually stopped as he grew older.

My buddy has a prescription for valuum for his lab. Instead of constant whining u get 45-90 min spurts of silence. He pheasant hunts w the dog too and figures its a drive thing, aggravating none the less

If he has been collar conditioned, reinforcing sit may work. I had the same problem. Whining while at heel could be considered a break of the sit command, which means sit there quietly till told to do something else. Sit-nick-sit seemed to work. It took a while to get it through his thick skull, but it eventually sunk in. Just a thought.

You said your dog is high energy right. Beatings and collar pressure will only make hyper dogs MORE hyper! High amounts of pressure is almost never the answer with dogs like that, it only makes them more vocal. Direct pressure is thinking like a human. Also vocalization is very genetic, like creeping. The first and easiest way to bandaid (its almost unfixable) is to make sure the dog has been collar conditioned to sit (e-collar). Then you can try light(level one or two nick) e-collar pressure to "NO-Sit" when the dog is vocal. The pressure is indirrect because you are correcting for not sitting properly as described in the above post.
The other method is to throw a few bumpers in the opposite direction of the decoys, or away from the area of the dogs focus. When it whines, immediately heel and send the dog on a back command to one of the bumpers. This does a few things. It breaks the dogs focus on the thing that is causing it to whine, It confuses the dog as to where the action will come from, and it breaks the cycle of "ready-set-go" that causes the anxiety.
Some trainers may tell you never let the dog go or send it if it is making noise, however I have found that depriving the dog from what it wants only causes the vocalizing to increase. Good luck.
One more thing, somtimes a good pat on the head or scratch behind the ear will also let them relieve some their anxiety. I'd start there first if you havent.

^^ I'd say that is the best advise posted on this thread so far!!!

HAHA, no doubt!! I don't have a problem with parents beating their kids, bunch of little bastards running around!

A dog doesn't know any better though. They just get excited, and they can't say "holy shit, I'm really excited" so they whine a little. My dog does it, sure it can get annoying but it let's me know that he wants to be there as much as I do!

Ive done the collar conditioning/ indirect pressure. He stops for a second or two. He does all this while at heel, usually laying and he's not a creeper. This morning I wrapped a lead around his muzzle and turned his head away from the river and kind of into the ground, all while giving praise for silence. He would hear ducks fly by or splash in and try like hell to turn and look, but the whining was severely decreased. Son of a bitch woulda killed just to look at the birds though.

I've tried just touching/petting/praising ; didn't do shit.

And I wouldn't classify him high energy: he's just birdy. And controllable. EXCEPT FOR THE WHINING. I didn't get to run him due to last minute planning in hunt, but it's coming this weekend.

And I've done alternate forced retrieves in training where I make him get one that he reaaalyyy doesn't want to retrieve over another, but then again, he doesn't whine in training.

Should I try forcing him after a dummy when there's a dead bird in the water? And let his praise be retrieving the actual bird after successful retrieve of the dummy?

A well placed .22 mag shuts them up every time.

No. Thats a "poison bird" concept and you can start more issues than you will fix if you and your dog have not mastered the skill. The concept must be taught and conditioned first.
I would try what I posted above. Timing is everything. The second the dog makes noise you have to heel away and send on a bumper you placed out prior to the hunt. I have been asked to repair a few dogs and this was the method that seemed to yeild the best results.
For any correction given you have to ask is the dog going to be able to put the correction to the infraction. Since we can't be positive why he/she is whining, then we must seek out a different route than dealing with the issue directly. Creepers, Freezers, Vocalizers are tough cases and there is no "one fix" for every problem. Usually you wind up having to settle for improvement.

Number one you need to establish a command for him to be quiet, whether its hush, quiet, no, whatever, and make him understand this. As soon as he makes ANY type of noise,grab him by the snot immediately and tell him NO (or hush,etc) and dont let go until he is completely silent. The duck blind is not a good place to try and fix this,or any problem for that matter. The biggest issue you may have is being able to provoke a whine in him, if he doesnt do it for bumpers your gunna have to find some live ducks, take him to a pond with ducks on it,etc, whatever it takes to get him going. Itll take alot of consistency on your part, I wouldnt let him whine over anything, whether its wanting a treat or let out of his kennel. Its a matter of opinion, but I wouldnt let him retrieve after any type of noise, NOTHING good happens for him after whining.there is no retrieve or reward per se

There are as many methods offered up to help with this as there are freezing, creeping,etc. Figuring out what works best for your dog is the key. If the duck blind offers me a chance to teach or correct that training does not, I will most definately sieze the moment. I certainly want to convey to the dog that our training standard is carried over to the blind as well. I have found that keeping a dog from ever making an issue a habit is one thing, and repairing one with a well established issue is quite different.

Had a dog do this to me as well...cant complain too much she was a ball of fire and this one i got now just isnt as into it when the action is slow ( Understandable for a young pup) i did the put the dog on lots and lots of birds trick...worked for me as my labs are used to upland retreive behind pointing dogs as well....they seem to get used to the idea and its not such a big deal anymore....maybe it will work for you but maybe not just an idea

How about trying a blindfold

kelly and mw46 both offer great advice on the issue
i have a 3yr old lab that i did all the training myself with the help from a friend i work with that used to train labs for a living, one of the very first commands he learned was "quiet" when i placed him in kennel at night. i would tell him quiet nicely from a distance and would get slightly more aggressive in tone until he learned. that same command still applies today with anything, if he whines or barks at stuff (which is very rare). I say quiet once nicely and if he does again i say more aggressive. that is usually all it takes. as Tank gets older the more excited he gets about going for that duck, this past season he too began to whine slightly when the birds started flying over or dropping in early. I do not consider all the whining a bad thing, sometimes he is telling "hey, there are some birds lets get them" he really is just excited. whenever he has whined i just pat him on the head and tell him....i see them or i hear them, talk a little more to him and then tell him "quiet". that is usually all it takes for Tank, if not then i will give him a more aggressive "quiet". i hope someone's advice works for you and best of luck