[Ddelz]

Ok so here's the scoop: I have the one dog and two cats. He's a large breed dog and is pretty friendly around the cats, he enjoys playing with them and is really gentle 99% of the time with them. However whenever he's laying down (on his own free will, it's not like we told him to stay laying down) he'll just stare at the cats and whine constantly.

If a cat comes near us, he'll whine even louder (jealousy?). If a cat does something they're not supposed to, he'll whine even louder. If a cat doesn't want to play with him at that moment and walks away from him, he'll whine louder. He's grown up with these cats so it's not like they're new to him, he's done this ever since he was about 1 year old, he's now 2.

So even when he's just laying here, even half asleep, he'll stare at the cats wherever they are and just whine with every breath. Like he literally cannot breath without whining when a cat is in sight. It makes zero sense to me.

Things I've tried: (all while trying to teach him the command "Quiet")
- Ignoring him completely
- Spanking
- Yelling
- Time outs in crate (that sometimes stops him from whining if I put him in there with a blanket over his crate, but as soon as he's back out the behavior continues regardless of how many times we give him a time out)
- Squirting with water bottle
- Pinching his loose shoulder skin like some dogs will do when they gently bite another dog's shoulder if they don't approve of what they're doing
- Taking away toys
- Giving him a TON of exercise (people suggested that he just had too much energy and built up tension, so we tried increasing his exercise, nope. Then we tried playing him out so hard every day that he could barely even move or walk due to his muscles being sore, it still continued)
- Remote bark/noise collar, he only learns to be quiet when it's on him and it can't be left on him for long because it causes chaffing and irritation.

I have put days upon days into each of these methods and none have worked.

I've uploaded this audio clip of his whining just to show you what I deal with nearly 24/7 and considering I first posted about this almost a year ago here, you can see why I'm now at the end of my rope. (heck, I thought I already was a year ago! It's only gotten worse!)

Dropbox Link: (Audio is loud!)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/f2xrshh3uphassy/DogWhining.mp3?dl=0

Alternate:
http://www.filedropper.com/dogwhining

At this point I don't know what else to do besides surgically removing his vocal chords, and that's not really an option to me. He's a good dog on all other aspects, and normally learns tricks and commands quickly. But no matter what it just seems like he cannot learn to be "quiet".

I highly appreciate any help you can offer. Thanks for reading.

 

[Ddelz]

My dog has been crate trained but he's not in there all day, just at night that's where he sleeps. He also sees it as his safe zone. In his mind, we always put him in there to sleep at night for his own protection. That's how he sees it.

If a stranger comes over that he doesn't know well he'll instantly run to his crate and whine or bark from there. Or if there's a loud noise outside that scares him, he'll run to the crate and whine. He feels safe there.

If it is a weird jealousy type of thing with the cats, I can't really allow the huge nearly 100lb dog to sit on the back of the couch like the cats, or sit in window ledges like the cats. That's really all I can think of that they do that he doesn't (besides eating cat food lol). And the cats are 7 and 5 years old and have been allowed on the back of the couch and windows all of their lives so can't suddenly take that away from them to make the dog feel less jealous. :/

And I know spanking and yelling doesn't work, I only tried it as a last resort. It doesn't work just like anything else on my list of attempted methods.

 

[Ddelz]

I have taken the dog to visit family members before for a couple days in a row (the cats are independent enough to be left home for a few days with no problems) and while there he doesn't whine too much at all in comparison but he instead seems to bark a lot more when hearing noises outside which is likely because it's a different setting.

He does still whine though, it just goes from about 80% of the time to maybe 30% of the time.