# Whining



## justund223 (Aug 28, 2006)

Hey guys, I have an almost 2 yr ol CLF, she has been super so far, but the one thing that annoys me is whining in the blind. If she is made to stay until signaled after birds have been shot she whines very loudly and if we have a big group of birds working she will whine a bit. Is there anyway to stop this?


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## bigbrit (Mar 30, 2009)

I copied and pasted this from my dad's forum. It is a good plan:

The Quiet Drill

This was shared with me from a Mike Lardy seminar and I adapted it while trying to "cure" a habitual whiner. This is a shaping drill that gives you a tool to gradually modify behavior over time. I stopped all other field work for months while working on this.

Start with a single thrower in the field. Sit dog at your side. Have thrower shoot and throw a bird and dog will likely whine. If he does say QUIET and have thrower pick up the bird. Repeat several times and pick up bird each time. After several throws where he whines and gets denied next have thrower not shoot and just toss a bumper. Likely dog will not whine and I'll give a soft GOOD DOG and send for bumper. Next go back to gunshot and bird and denials for whining and then do the unattractive bumper and let him get it.

Hopefully after a session or two of this he'll be quiet for the shot and dead bird. Next its time to amp it up a bit. Add props like a shotgun and get some denials and after a few go back to the bumper or bird without shotgun so he can be successful and get a retyrieve. Add duck calls. Add another dog. Add shot flyers.......each time after 3 or 4 failures where he's denied the retrieve drop back a notch or two in excitement so he can be successful and get rewarded with a retrieve.

Next do the above in a new location. And another that is more field like and possibly with a group of people.

The last place to go will be hunting or to a test or trial. For the rest of this dogs career you have to be prepared to deny the retrieve for noise no matter where you are. It doesn't matter if its a hunt of a lifetime or a trial you drove 10 hours to run, you can't reward his noise with a bird once the new standard is established. To do so will essentially un do all the work you have done for months.

Raider was a talented young dog that just couldn't control himself. I picked him up in 2 finished tests and a master test and decided that one way or another we would fix this problem. This decision was made in April and after 6 months of this process he ran his first and only FT.He didn't make a peep. When he picked up the last bird of the trial in the 4th series and got a JAM I then realized that these were the first birds he had ever retrieved in competition because I had picked him up in every other event without him getting a bird. Shortly after that he died in a freak accident while he was still 2 years old but he taught me a lot about dealing with involuntary habits in high dogs. Since then I've used this process to deal with noise, creeping , and even spinning.

Like I said there's no quick fix but it can be controlled.

Bill

Bill,
That sounds like a valid method to suppress whining. The one thing I would add one thing. After the behavior of being quiet was established, I would be to put the reinforcement (payment with retrieve) on a variable schedule. I would do that by picking up an unpredictable number of the retrieves evern when the dog is quiet. A variable schedule of reinforcement will vastly increase the persistance of the behavior.
Robert Milner
www.duckhillkennels.com

Source:
http://www.duckhillkennels.com/forums/s ... ht=whining


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## USAlx50 (Nov 30, 2004)

Sounds like good advice to me.

Maui wont like that much Justin :lol: Probably be a lot of work but I bet it would help.


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## justund223 (Aug 28, 2006)

Yea, thanks for the help. I think it will make both of our time out hunting more enjoyable.


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## Snowgooser (Mar 28, 2008)

My 4 year old lab does the same thing. But he also pants so hard that he has passed out. I muzzled him to stop the whining, so now he sneezes. I went through all the drills to stop him and during the drills he is solid. He passed his senior hunt tests without a hitch. Its the working birds and anticipation that just kills him. I want to try a MILD tranquilizer just to take the edge off him next season. The guy who trained him thinks he may have gotten too much too soon as a 1 year old. Either way he is a smoking retriever and my buddy.


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