Blind Whining

Griffin Williford

Griffin Williford

Member
So my furry partner has decided that he likes to whine an excessive amount when in the blind/boat and birds are working. I am thrilled that he is excited to be out chasing birds, but the whining I fear may spook the ducks we are after.

Do any of you have any suggestions to help curve this?

-Thanks

Griffin
 
Teach him what "no" means. If instead of whining at the ducks he was growling at your kids, how would you treat that? Treat the whining, in the same way you would treat any undesirable action he does.
 
I agree with Dave on teaching NO. Add in a few other factors...If they have been in the cold water and are sitting in water in the bottom of the boat, that will induce whining. Give the dog a comfortable place to sit. Another way to reduce this issue is taking the dog to a park where there are birds in the off season. You go and sit with the dog next to you just as in the blind. Work on the excitement. Whining is also a precursor to then next act,...breaking. It's all about teaching the dog self control. I've had two male Chessies that were whiners. The second one was also campaigned in Field Trials and I was dealing with the whining as a pup in Derby training when an older veteran Field Trialer I was training for the Chesapeake National Field Trial chimed in that I shouldn't discipline for whining and that there are plenty of Field Champion dogs that whine on the line. I explained that I was not going to have another whining CBR on the line let alone in the duck blind. He even went on to point out a FC/AFC female lab at a trial in Vermont that whined when on line. Not my cup of tea. I did however lay off the discipline for a short period of time and that made the dog go on autopilot...breaking in trials off the line. I swore I would NEVER allow that to happen with any future dog ever again. My black lab male can sit for hours quitly. If he needs out of the boat to do his business, it's with a slight tap of his paw on my waders and that's it.
 
You need to learn to blow a flute call. They call em dog beaters for a reason.

In all seriousness though, my little female lab is a pretty vocal dog. She is a whiner at times while duck hunting. I do not need a shock collar on her to duck or pheasant hunt, but I have used it for her whining? I will tell her no and if it continues I will use the no command and nick her with the collar. It usually fixes the problem after the first nick.
 
I will tell her no and if it continues I will use the no command and nick her with the collar. It usually fixes the problem after the first nick.[/QUOTE]


This too is how I handled any whining during training or hunting. I also used a "No noise" command..
 
When my lab was little, as in 10 weeks, she came to work with me the first week we had her.
I put her in the kennel behind my desk. Whenever she started to whine I said "HUSH" very sternly. took about 5 times of that and she quit whining.
She is not a very vocal dog but when she does bark at home, as single HUSH puts an end to it.
 
Thank you all for your responses. It is something that just started over the past season or two, becoming progressively worse. He does wear his shock collar, but I try and limit the amount of "electrical reinforcement" I use..... I suppose that a nick here and there would certainly straighten him out though. I will be hunting everyday this week starting tomorrow so will hopefully be able to practice some discipline. I just never want to hunt as a guest with someone and have my dog to blame for birds flaring off.
 
Get a handle on it now or it will get progressively worse. EDIT* You beat me to it...

I believe that vocalization is genetic and some dogs are predisposed to it, but all can learn to be quiet. It's your job to teach, then consistently reinforce the correct behavior, and correct the wrong behavior. I have no idea how you trained your dog, but whatever you did to reinforce trained behavior, do it with a "NO", "HUSH", "QUIET" etc... command. Worst case you can deny him/her the retrieve.
 
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I frequently hunted with a friend over the 10 year life of his dog. (25 or more times per season) The dog was an excellent retriever with a few annoying habits. One was whining in the blind. My friend spent all morning yelling at the dog but actually doing nothing constructive to curb the behavior. I actually found his yelling more annoying than the whining!

I often hunted that dog alone and his behavior was always much better when hunting with me because I was 100% consistent with my expectations and the dog knew it. He may not have been my dog but I am confident in saying that he never hunted better than when he hunted with me alone. He also trusted me completely and would do anything I asked. (He lived for the hunt and associated our relationship with that.)

I think sometimes the fact that the dog is a member of the family changes the dynamic around discipline and expectations.

I doubt I will ever hunt a dog with more drive and intensity and I think of him often.

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That sounds like one heck of a dog Paul! I will say that I hunt with a very tight nit group of guys, so my dog spends a lot of out of the field time with all of them playing around etc etc. (spoiling him)

I am all good and fine with that because he is treated as a family member more than a tool for hunting.

That being said, when I hunt him solo, I certainly feel like he is much more obedient than in a group setting.

Either way, I am just as guilty as an owner for not spending as much time working with him in the off season and having high expectations for actual hunts. I will be taking him in the morning with a friend of mine to their impoundment so hopefully he will have the opportunity to make plenty of retrieves and tune up some of those bad habits hes developed!
 
You need to find out why he is whining. Is he whining because your calling is hurting his ears like the whining some dogs do when the hear a fire whistle. Or is he excited.
One thing I taught my dog that had the same issue was to howl on command then quite on command. Rather that no command.
 
I owned a whiner that had wonderful boat and blind manners, but was so wired to hunt that he couldn't help himself. I honestly don't think he even realized he was doing it. He was extremely obedient, and certainly knew what "NO" meant. He would really start singing when I was blowing the goose call. He could tell by the cadence of the call and probably my body language when the geese were finishing, and get quite loud.

I finally tired of telling him "NO" (even tried whacking him with a light plastic wiffle ball bat) and resorted to a bark collar. It had to be positioned just right to pick up the vibration from his vocal cords, but it worked quite well.

Matt
 
My dog did this occasionally when he was younger, what helped out for me was bringing along one of his bigger bumpers (a Dokken mallard seemed to work pretty well) and making him hold it if he was whining. I figured it killed two birds with one stone-it helped him practice his hold, and he couldn't whine with a bumper in his mouth. I would pair it with the QUIET command and he seemed to catch on pretty quickly.
 
As mentioned already, it will escalate if unchecked. One of the finest retrievers I ever hunted with was a whiner that evolved into a barker over the years. I could not get his owner to address the problem, so we just had to leave the dog at home.

Do not let a single whine go. Nick him every time. It can become a very irritating habit.
 
My dog started as a whiner and has become a barker! Every time I get on a call she starts barking. I know I'm not that good on a call but this is the first dog I've irritated into to barking. Like the others are saying you have to nip it in the bud. I love my pouch and she's great with my grand kids but she'll never be a great hunting dog and I'm okay with that so it's not really an issue with me. I just don't take her unless we hunt alone.
 
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