My parents have this nearly 13 year old pomeranian who is pretty much their world. It shows, too; she's quite the brat from being spoiled.
I can ignore most of her behaviours that would generally annoy me in other dogs, but her whining drives me insane.
I know why she does it, I just want to know how to make it stop. She screams and cries and barks to the point of shaking and choking whenever someone goes to walk her or take her for a car ride. And this is when she wants to go.
So anyway, I like to drive out to a nearby forest to walk her on weekends which combines the two things that send her over the edge: walking, and driving.
I don't tell her we're going because I don't want to add excitement, so I just get up, put her harness on and attempt to go which always results in massive fits of screaming and barking and all that other fun stuff.
What I've been trying to do for the longest time is wait her out. Telling her "No" or "shh" or distracting her with loud, sudden noises doesn't phase her at all, so I don't talk to her at all when she cries. I'll clip the harness on and head for the door. She cries, so I wait. No eye contact, no physical contact, no nothing until she stops. She'll start to calm down (usually after 10 minutes!) to the point where it's a straining whine with 2 second breaks in between. I'll open the door when she's absolutely silent, then we're OK for two seconds before I touch the car when the whining starts up again full-blast.
Same deal. I go through all the waiting again before letting her in the car, then again before starting the car, again before getting out of the car (after we've stopped at the forest), and once more before letting her out of the car. Repeat all steps for the ride back.
Passer-bys probably think I'm ripping out her toenails one-by-one, her screaming is that bad.
Ah.. Well, this kind of works. It works if you don't mind waiting 10 minutes for her fits to stop every time you have to take a step towards doing anything, but it doesn't improve.
Do any of you have tips on how to stop this? I don't expect a quick fix, I'm willing to keep at it for years to eventually stop this if I have to.
I can ignore most of her behaviours that would generally annoy me in other dogs, but her whining drives me insane.
I know why she does it, I just want to know how to make it stop. She screams and cries and barks to the point of shaking and choking whenever someone goes to walk her or take her for a car ride. And this is when she wants to go.
So anyway, I like to drive out to a nearby forest to walk her on weekends which combines the two things that send her over the edge: walking, and driving.
I don't tell her we're going because I don't want to add excitement, so I just get up, put her harness on and attempt to go which always results in massive fits of screaming and barking and all that other fun stuff.
What I've been trying to do for the longest time is wait her out. Telling her "No" or "shh" or distracting her with loud, sudden noises doesn't phase her at all, so I don't talk to her at all when she cries. I'll clip the harness on and head for the door. She cries, so I wait. No eye contact, no physical contact, no nothing until she stops. She'll start to calm down (usually after 10 minutes!) to the point where it's a straining whine with 2 second breaks in between. I'll open the door when she's absolutely silent, then we're OK for two seconds before I touch the car when the whining starts up again full-blast.
Same deal. I go through all the waiting again before letting her in the car, then again before starting the car, again before getting out of the car (after we've stopped at the forest), and once more before letting her out of the car. Repeat all steps for the ride back.
Passer-bys probably think I'm ripping out her toenails one-by-one, her screaming is that bad.
Ah.. Well, this kind of works. It works if you don't mind waiting 10 minutes for her fits to stop every time you have to take a step towards doing anything, but it doesn't improve.
Do any of you have tips on how to stop this? I don't expect a quick fix, I'm willing to keep at it for years to eventually stop this if I have to.