Wining

Question
My two and a half year old male German Sheperd, Hannibal, has a serious wining problem. I think he is like this because I baby him. I can't help this, as he is just so handsome.  If you think this is the case, do you have any advice on how I can stop him from wining so much? He totaly doesn't live up to his name! Thank you. Kristina  

Answer
Hi Kristina,  Some Shepherds are what we call worry warts, and whine about everything.  He is probably one of those.  You might try spraying him with a spray bottle full of water everytime he whines.  Just spray his face and tell him no at the same time.  This way you can get him from a distance and you are not going up to him to correct him.  Going to him to correct him could make him do it more, because even though he is getting negative attention, he is still getting attention and will keep doing it.  A nice heavy duty spray bottle can spray up to 6' away.  I would have several of them around so that you can catch him quickly when he starts to do it.  Soon he will associate his whining to getting sprayed.  Hope this helps,

Dawn