If you've currently got a whining dog, and you're reading information on the Internet about how to deal with it, you might have come across sources that tell you to simply ignore it. In the following article, I'll demonstrate that ignoring your dog when it's whining is only of secondary importance.
Ignoring dog behaviour is in fact contingent upon a previous action. This action is observation. What you should do before you decide whether to act on a dog whining is observe the dog. Responsible ownership of a dog always explicitly recognises the time it takes to understand the nature of him/her, and taking action by ignoring them may simply let underlying problems fester.
Whining is a form of communication by the dog. Since they don't speak a human language, there's not many forms of communication available to them. And those that are may well be misconstrued by human owners with little patience as immature annoyances. The underlying reasons for whining differ on a case-by-case scenario though, and therefore it's hard to make sweeping generalisations of how to react to a whining dog.
There may be many causes, or no cause at all. Dogs might simply whine for the attention it brings them, or they might be whining as a result of illness or pain. Whichever way it is, at the end of the day you are able to make a better-valued judgment by observing and then acting as opposed to blindly taking advice off the Internet about your dog. If it is the case that you might think your dog's whines are the result of an illness of some sort, they will be easily rectified and remedied by taking your dog to the vet.
But if it turns out that the dog's whines are indeed unjustified, that they are attention seeking techniques, then the best course of action is to ignore them.
See how the decision process works? Ignoring your dog doesn't come first, observing does. You can then make conclusions based your observations and act upon them for more worthwhile and effective results.
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