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Old December 9th, 2011, 10:54 AM
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rjesak rjesak is offline
Wayward Family Cats Mommy
 
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: F'burg, VA, USA
Posts: 317
How to stop whining

Kasee is a nine year old dog we've had for quite a few years. Up until recently we had two dogs (Emily went to the Rainbow Bridge about a month ago ) and since then we've changed things for the better. Before, both dogs spent most of their time in the great room - Emily was a very highly stressed dog and didn't like to be around people much and they didn't like to be separated so that worked quite well. Both of them were fine in there and we'd spend whatever time we could in there with them. With just Kasee now, we've been bringing Kasee out of the great room with us for the vast majority of the day. She sleeps there at night and we put her in there when we can't watch her (otherwise she'll eat all of the cat's food and shred stuff). She is absolutely fine in there at night and when we're not in the house (or if she thinks we aren't). She just sleeps quietly.

When she knows we're here and she's in there, she whines constantly. This actually means she spends MORE time in there because I won't bring her out when she's whining because I don't want to encourage the behavior. As it is, she spends a couple of hours in there at the most during the day (and it would probably be less if I could convince her that if she's quiet we'll bring her out as soon as we can) and maybe six to seven hours at night.

I don't think this is anxiety because, as I said, she seems perfectly happy when she thinks we're not here anyway. I know that it's only that she wants to be with us but there are times when we can't be watching her.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I hate waiting until she quiets because she can keep it up for hours and it means she spends much more time trapped in there than any of us want (she's very cuddly and sweet and I'd prefer to have her with me most of the time). She's a complete couch potato - she just comes out to sleep with us for the most part so I don't think it's excess energy either. It's just that she's not getting what she wants.
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Storm (beeps and has a pink nose and toes), Misty (with big blue eyes and tasseled ears),
Anya (only ever called Honey - she's that sweet), Zander (who goes by Punkin' cause he's almost that bright)
Kasee (couch potato who thinks she's a dog)
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