Helpless whinger and now I'm hopeless and annoyed :(

[Dominika]

I have a rescue lurcher who is roughly just over a year now. My housemate has a jack russel girl who is about the same age. My dog sleeps downstairs but hers sleeps in her bedroom.
Going to bed isn't a problem for him 98 percent of time, sometime we just have to remind him that we're going to bed and he should probably go as well and that's no earlier than 10 o'clock, mostly around 11. He gets fed twice a day - kibble in the morning and meat and vegetables or something cooked in the evenings.
He gets out 3 times a day, first walk in the morning around half 7 when my boyfriend goes to work and usually the second walk is between 9 - 11. Apart from that he has a proper run at least once a day. Sometimes if I take him out before I go to work my housemate takes him and her dog out again for a bit of play ball as well. He doesn't have an exact timetable except for eating because there are always people at home at different times of day.
My housemates JRT is called Maya - she is a rescue as well and is quite an independent dog although has started to bark to demand attention. She has never had even a minor separation anxiety despite being mistreated in the past, she is attached to my housemate but doesn't mind being left alone at all.
My lurcher Fly however, although I don't think he suffers separation anxiety despite having torn bits wallpaper off a few walls (I think it was boredom, he has licked the walls a few times in front of me lately as well) seems to not like when he's not given attention sometimes. He winges A LOT and for many things. Firstly he whinges most mornings. It used to be just after my boyfriend left to work but now it is only later usually when my housemate takes the little one out for pee/poo - quarter to 9 to be precise. It takes him quite a long time to stop if at all. I try to wait until he's quiet and then come downstairs because i really hate reinforcing it by coming down just because it's too annoying to listen to him whinging.
He also whinges sometimes if he drops his toy off the couch and doesn't want to pick it up.
Now for example he is whinging after stopping play with Maya - standing next to the table and whinging. But if I was to give him attention he would probably be quiet if I played with him and it's not as if he wanted to play fetch. He'll drop the ball for me a few times but then gets lost in walking around with the ball, forgetting to play with me and starts whinging again. A lot of times he seems to whinge for no apparent reason - when lying down on the couch with us or if he's in his bed and I have tried to give him attention to see whether he picks up a toy or tries to initiate play but nothing of that sort happens.
He doesn't always whinge when he's left alone. I can be cooking and my boyfriend watching tellly and he'll be in his bed and he would not have just been out or just been fed.
There are so many moments that he whinges and I don't think it is necessary to take him out 5 times a day just to make sure he's tired 24 hours a day. We got him chuckit ultra balls which he loves more than food and will chew on them if he has access and it's extremely dificult to get them off him to throw when we're out excercising. I try my best to ignore whinging and reward when he's quiet and patient and try to tell the same to my housemate and my boyfriend (although he often goes 'what?' to him the second he lets out a whinge when next to us on the couch). My housemate is of course angry and annoyed because she expects me to say 'be quet' to him thinking that that's what I'm supposed to do and that that's what will work because quiet means quiet to her. She is however a bit more understanding now as I'm trying to explain to her that dogs don't speak our language and that i'm trying to work out how to make this better but can't.
I'll take him out for a run soon to get nicely soaked in mud and to be quiet until about 4 o'clock when he wakes up after a nap and the whinging probably starts again - big or small.
PLEASE PLEASE I hope there is a wise one somewhere because this doesn't make sense to me

[Nettle]

Lurchers. Had 'em for many many years. They talk. It might sound like whingeing to you, but that is how they communicate. He wants something, he asks for it. He doesn't appreciate that you might have other ideas, not want to come downstairs until late, not want to interact with him. Ask yourself what is bothering him - he isn't doing this to annoy you: he is talking to you.

So give him stuff he can do on his own while he's waiting for you to be ready. Things like stuffed kongs, something safe to chew. The fact he's licking and chewing the walls indicate he is stressed, and as a Rescue, that's not to be surprised at. Read up on our 'exercise the mind' pinned thread. Depending on his breeding, he may or may not take to clicker-training, but he'll enjoy the togetherness. When your B/F leaves for work, he can leave the dog with stuff to do until you get up. Leave a radio on low and make sure the dog isn't cold - put a coat on him if you are saving your heating.

Before all, I'd get him to a GOOD vet for a complete overhaul health check, in case he is in pain somewhere. He wants bloods tested for organ function, skeleton/joints check (VERY common for lurchers to have undiagnosed pain here) eyes, ears, urine test and prostate check. make it clear he needs a full check: don't be fobbed off with a thermometer up his bum and a prescription for broad-spectrum antibiotics

[Horace's Mum]

I was going to post earlier but I wanted to see what Nettle said!! I'm afraid I was going to say I think it might just be a lurcher thing, I have a lurcher too and he just never shuts up! He has all sorts of whines and grumbles, including being the master of the almost supersonic whine. Most of the time it doesn't bother me (I used to think it was a comfort habit he got into in rescue, or that he wasn't aware because he is deaf) but I agree when you are trying to get the last few minutes in a warm bed it does get annoying!

I do a combination of things depending on why I think he is whining. I get up and go for the walk he wants (when we haven't been yet and he thinks it is high time!), or let him outside for a run around, or do 5 mins clicker training with him, or just call him over and give him a stroke. If he is whining because he has got over excited or anxious then I call him onto the sofa and cover him with his blanket to signal it is time to switch off - either that or tell him to lie on his bed.

But there are still times when I think he just talks to himself! You just have to learn to love them for it, a bit like a dearly beloved who snores

[emmabeth]

Hes not a deerhound bred lurcher is he?

My Deerhound ***** has mostly grown out of pointless whinging - HOWEVER i think some of her whinging (and i thought this at the time but we could never really put our finger on exactly what was causing it) was growing pains and/or tummy/abdominal discomfort.

Some of it though was and still is, talking to us. She stands in the doorway and she says 'ee ee eeeee' at us. And then we have to look around and see what it is thats bothering her.

It acn mean 'i need a wee' or it can mean 'i would like to sit on teh sofa but there is another dog/random item in my way, please remedy this forthwith, chop chop', or it can mean ' i want a walk now', or it can mean 'im hungry now', or it can mean 'this dog blanket on the floor is not arranged to my satisfaction, please fold and straighten it, so that i can dig it up and lie on the hard floor with my head on it'...

One of the things it took me an age to cotton on to with her is that she likes to have options. We used to have a baby gate at the bottom of the stairs and in the days before she would just jump it and laugh at us, she would cry and cry and cry because it was shut. So then we would open it, whereupon she would lie down and go to sleep. SO we would close it again... and shed wake upa nd cry again.

Her poitn was, she likes to know, and she feels safer knowing, she 'could' go up the stairs if she wanted to - its not that she DOES want to... its that she may, at some indeterminate point in the future..

(Shes never done this about the baby gate into our kitchen though, ever!)

So before you decide that he is whinging for no reason, explore all the possibilities. Sighthounds do tend to feel the cold so providing a coat or PJ's is a good idea if its cold at night (and it is cold now, even my affie x saluki is in a heap of blankets and shes normally a 'hot' sort of dog, even discounting her ridiculously fluffy 'underwear' type coat (she has long fluff on her belly, legs, chest, ears, like thermal knickers)).

[Dominika]

I have discussed his breeding in a different topic some time ago. The conclusion was greyhound-whippet-border collie-saluki. Not a deerhound though.
I know that of course he's not trying to annoy me but I thought it has gotten out of hand. I was just afraid that by catering to his every need I would make a spoilt annoyance out of him. Most of the time I know what he wants. If he's hungry or wants to play or pick up his toy because he's too lazy or go out to pee etc but sometimes it kind of looks like 'oh my god I'm sooo booooooored, let's doo somethiiiiiing' and he does put a lot of breath into it. I've read about lurchers talking I just didn't know it could be this intense. He's very vocal when he plays as well
I'll be happy to chat to him as long as you promise me it's not going to get worse and he's not going to make his servant out of me
But I'll also definitely get him checked once I find that good helpful vet.
He is amazing outside although his fear of older men is getting worse and extending onto some younger men and joggers.....and with the rubber balls. He'll squeez it in his mouth and won't drop it unless I have another one or if i manage to put my hand on the ball he'll let go instantly. Whereas when we play tug he drops the toy immediately when I say and takes it immediately when I say. He is a strange little fellow, it's been 5 months that we've had him so I still don't know him completely.

Fly and his pal

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[emmabeth]

Its a tricky thing, learning which whinges to respond to and which are somewhat taking the wee-wee a bit!

I would train him a 'go to your bed' or 'settle down and wait' sort of cue/behaviour which you can use from time to time, including when hes whinging on at you and you are as certain as you can be that hes had everything he could possibly need.

Then use that when you need to, and make it a fairly even mix of telling him to hang on/wait/not now Son when y ou really cant drop what you are doing, and responding a bit faster when you can.

If you get up to play with him or something and then he doesnt fancy that, then I would ignore further whinges and either put him on his bed and ask him to settle and/or use time outs if hes nagging for no apparent reason.

Its a very 'judge it as you see it' sort of thing though and I cant tell you which whinges are ok to respond to and which arent - if you approach it in a common sense sort of way and are very even handed about it it shouldnt make him any worse. IF you were to get really extreme (in either direction, ie, very harshly ignoring him completely, or going totally doolally pandering every time he sighs) then that could indeed make him worse.

[Horace's Mum]

'oh my god I'm sooo booooooored, let's doo somethiiiiiing' and he does put a lot of breath into it.

Oh I know that one VERY well!! They are brilliant at hitting just the right pitch of patheticness to make us feel guilty I think!!

BTW, he doesn't look too dissimilar to my boy, other than being a little more greyhoundy - I think mine is border collie/whippet/something terriery.

[Raichyrae]

My late Trixie (rescue greyhound) was a champion talker, she liked to do a 'werrahwerrahwerrahwerrahwerrah' thing, going down in tone from high pitched to low. I actually liked it and just used to answer conversationally as if she'd just commented on the weather or something. Sight hounds are very talkative, it remains to be seen if Whippety puppity does the same! Beautiful dogs by the way