Min Pin excitable whining!

[breyeguy]

Our 1 year old min pin is a great pet - hardly barks, is quite calm, and is all around a great pet.

The most frustrating thing in the world is when we go to take her out of the house - she gets incredibly excited and whines LOUD and is out of control mentally.

I hesitate to open the door when she's like this because i don't want to reinforce that state of mind ie) rewarding this behaviour with a positive outcome - so that everytime the door opens, she's in that state.

Does anyone have any advice on how to keep her in a calm state of mind when we'd like to take her out of the house?

thanks,

brian

[luckypenny]

We've taught our dogs to sit and stay by the door otherwise it just doesn't get opened. It was the simplest way for us to teach them to be calm. Only one of them went nutty when he knew we were taking him out. If he was unable to sit still for a minute or so, I'd just find something else to do in the house ie. wash dishes, sit down in front of the tv or computer, fold some laundry, etc. He quickly learned to associate that barking and jumping resulted in me doing anything but take him out. Have you done any basic training with your pup?

[breyeguy]

Yeah, we've done basic training... For example: she used to be the same with her food. Now she just sits there completely patiently with the food on the floor in front of her nose and waits for the word. We've resorted to sitting on the couch for 10 or 15 minutes till she is laying down calm, but as soon as we are up again towards the door, it starts up again. I guess we need more patience.