#dog - #[HELP] Dog whines every evening and we have no idea why

[HELP] Dog whines every evening and we have no idea why

Ranger is a 60# male 3-4yo neutered dog, black lab mix from a rescue/shelter. We adopted him when he was 1. He has separation anxiety, has slowly become more and more aggressive with other dogs and has a myriad of other issues (can't walk by the stairs. or air purifier, etc.), he's a bit of a neurotic mess, to be honest, but I work from home and he loves to play with his adopted sister (pretty much the exact same stats on her except she has no issues, is very mellow) so really he has a pretty good life, and I would quantify the neorotic-ness as manageable and not exceedingly detrimental to his (or our) happiness. It does give him lesser opportunities to be a dog though, which is concerning.

The only thing I can think is he needs more exercise. He is a very active dog whereas I don't think his sister would care if she never got walked again (she loves socializing, just not exercising much). In the summer, my husband takes him on long mountain bike rides and he absolutely loves it. He does this as a huge off leash dog park though, and even though the back side where the bike trains are is less populated with dogs, his dog-aggression is making this less and less of an option. Regardless, he doesn't get to go on these adventures much in the winter, and not at all right now.

His day: I chuck a ball as hard as I can with him for 10-15 min every weekday morning in between kid school shuttle duty. He gets a short walk around the neighborhood from a kid after school is out. When the weather is nice, kid may hop on the bike and do that instead of a walk (Ranger is off leash for this), as it gets him more exercise and he's a great bike dog. I do worry about him straying away from kid-on-bike and getting into another dog's business, but generally, just like with Dad, he sticks right by the bike as long as it's moving. During the day, I try to give both dogs treats at least once during the day and I always make them work for them. I usually finish with making them "stay", tossing a big handful of tiny treats into our carpeted living room, and then they get to hunt them all down.

So in the evenings, after chores/homework/dinner and when the family is settled in to relax and watch some TV, he lays on the floor and whines at us, and it gradually becomes more urgent. He gives us the URGENT LOOK and will become like a petulant toddler in the noises he makes. We let him out, we check that they were fed (kids are unreliable sometimes), we make sure they have water, we look him over (he's more accident prone than his sister, gouges / torn paw pads have popped up under inspection), everything is checked off the list of what he could possibly want and we are clueless.

He likes being petted and scratched, but the second you stop, he paws at you, and if you don't continue, he will relocate himself somewhere else. He likes having his own space. He is not into snuggling with you if you're not actively paying attention to him. So when he whines in the evening, sometimes I will pull him onto my lap and force-cuddle him (not an easy task with a 60# dog, so it can be comical.) I have no idea if he actually likes what I'm doing. Sometimes I can get him to lay his head on me while I scratch him and I whisper the sweet nothings one says to dogs while I scratch behind the ears, and i can feel him relaxing. But inevitably he will look adamantly away from me, which I read as just eye contact being hard for him. But he stays for a while (enjoying or tolerating, I'm never sure) until I am not petting him enough, and finally he will slide down and slink off, to either settle down for a nap, or go back to URGENT LOOK and whining. This tactic does have a fairly good success rate for getting him to settle down, but I think it's just him giving up rather than getting what it was he was whining about.

When nothing works, we finally have to tell him, "GO LAY DOWN" in a firm voice and after a few minutes of this, he gets the point and settles down and stops whining. It makes me feel bad though every time, like we aren't meeting his needs.

I wish I could read this dog's mind! I love him so much, and it kills me that he wants something and we can't figure out what it is to give him. Any suggestions on what to do are appreciated.

Submitted March 09, 2018 at 09:26AM by rainishamy
via reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/DOG/comments/837xaf/help_dog_whines_every_evening_and_we_have_no_idea/?utm_source=ifttt