Behaviour
He howls after every ambulance or whines from morning to night. The causes differ, but the plan starts the same way: find out what he's trying to tell you.
Worth knowing. Whining when getting up, when touched or at night, and night howling that appears in an old dog, can be pain, hearing loss or cognitive decline. Before any training plan, see your own vet, with a short video of the episode.
An ambulance goes down the main road and your dog lifts his nose and howls after it, long and low, until the siren fades. Or the neighbours tell you they hear him howling ten minutes after you leave, and it goes on for an hour. Or you have a dog who whines at the door, at the table, in the car, when you sit on the sofa, when you get up. A thin, endless sound that by seven in the evening has worn your patience to nothing. Howling and whining have different causes. They share a page because people search for them together, and because the plan starts from the same question in both cases: what is he trying to tell you?
Both are him talking, about different things. Let's take them one at a time.
The howl comes from the wolf. In wolves it keeps the pack connected over long distances: "I'm here, where are you?" In dogs the message has survived, in a few versions.
Sirens, music, other dogs. A siren has frequencies and a rise and fall that sound like a howl. The dog answers it as he would another dog, then the dog in the next block joins in, then a third. People assume it hurts his ears. If it did, he'd hide; instead he points his nose at the sound. When the siren stops, so does he. Some dogs howl at certain instruments, a harmonica or children singing, for the same reason.
Loneliness. Left alone, a dog howls to call his group back. When the howling starts in the first few minutes after you leave, goes on for a long time and comes with whining, pacing, drooling or damage at the door, you're looking at panic about being left. That's a different problem from noise. Set your phone recording when you go out and watch the first 20 minutes.
Breed. Huskies, malamutes, beagles, scenthounds and bassets howl more because they were bred to: hounds give tongue on a trail so the hunter knows where they are. A beagle baying in the garden when he smells a rabbit has a job and nowhere to do it.
Joy. Some dogs give a short howl when you come home, when visitors arrive, when you take the lead off the hook. It's part of the greeting and over in seconds.
Age. An old dog who starts howling at night, staring into space, wandering empty rooms, may be disoriented: poorer hearing, poorer sight, cognitive decline. The first step there is the vet, so you'll find it again in the health section.
And yes, there's an old superstition that a howling dog foretells a death. He howls at a siren, out of loneliness or at a dog far away. He knows nothing about the future.
It's the sound a puppy uses to call his mother. It stays, for life, the sound a dog uses to ask for something or to tell you he doesn't feel right.
Asking. He wants out, wants food, wants to get out of the car, wants you to play. He looks at you or at the thing he wants, whines and waits. If you've answered a few times, he has learnt that this is how you get things. It's the most common kind and the easiest to fix. It's also the easiest to keep going without meaning to, because every time he gets what he asked for, he learns it's worth trying again.
Excitement and frustration. He whines in the car on the way to the park, when he sees another dog he can't reach, when you're waiting at the lights with the ball in your hand. The sound is high-pitched, his body can't keep still, sometimes he spins. There's too much going on inside him and nowhere for it to go.
Appeasement. He whines and makes himself small when you tell him off, when a bigger dog approaches, when you raise your voice at someone else at home. The sound is short, with ears flat and a flick of the tongue over the lips. He's telling you he wants no trouble.
Fear. Whining at noises, in new places, at the vet's, when left alone. His body pulls back, tail low, eyes looking for a way out.
Pain. Whining when he gets up, when he lies down, when you touch a particular spot, on the stairs, at night in his sleep. Or constant whining with no target in a dog who never used to. There's nothing to train here. Go to the vet.
A puppy's first nights. He cries because it's the first time he's been alone, without his littermates, somewhere strange. That's normal. How you respond in the first week decides whether it lasts three nights or three months.
Shouting. To a dog, a person raising their voice while he howls is a person howling along with him. With whining, shouting is still attention, and the dog who wanted attention has just got it.
Giving in on the tenth whine. You ignored him nine times and on the tenth you opened the door. What he learnt is that he has to keep it up for ten minutes. An answer that comes only now and then makes him persist harder than anything else, and that habit is the hardest to undo.
Anti-bark collars. They stop the sound through discomfort and leave untouched the reason he makes it. For a dog howling out of loneliness, they add pain on top of panic. We don't use them and we don't recommend them.
Leaving the puppy to cry all night "so he learns". Some puppies tire and go quiet. Many learn that nobody comes. That's resignation, and it comes back later as anxiety. In the first week a puppy needs to sleep near you, with the crate or bed by your bed and your hand on the mesh when he whines.
Ignoring whining "on principle" without asking why. Ignoring works for demands. For pain, for needing to go out and for fear it's a mistake: the dog is telling you something true, and you're looking the other way.
Battling the siren howl. It can be done, but it takes weeks to get rid of ten seconds of howling a day. If you live near a hospital, move his bed to a room at the back. If he howls briefly and stops by himself, leave him be.
For every episode, note the time, what happened just before, what his body was doing (how he stood, where he looked), what you did and how long it lasted. After three days a pattern shows. The dog who whines every morning at 6:40 wants to go out. The one who whines when you get up from the sofa wants you to come back. The one who whines when he gets up himself may have a joint problem.
Half of demand whining disappears once the need is met before it turns into a demand.
The need is met and he still whines to get something out of you:
The first three or four days are noisier, because he tries harder at what used to work. That is exactly how you know the plan has started to bite.
In the car to the park, at the door before a walk, at the sight of another dog. Here you don't ignore. You work:
If the footage shows howling from the first minutes, with pacing and damage at the door, the steps above won't be enough. It's worked on with very short absences built up gradually, no departure ritual, camera running. It takes months. Get help from a behaviour specialist in the first few weeks and talk to your own vet; for some dogs, treatment from the vet is what makes the plan workable. We have a separate page on separation anxiety.
For the first 7 to 10 nights the crate or bed sits next to your bed, as close to you as you can get it. When he whines, put your hand on the mesh, without talking. If he wakes after 3 or 4 hours' sleep, take him out in silence, then straight back to bed, no play. After two weeks move the bed half a metre a night towards where it will stay.
| Day | What you do |
|---|---|
| 1–3 | Keep the diary. Film the first hour after you leave home. |
| 2 | First sniffing walk, 30 minutes, in the morning. Meals come from toys. |
| 3 | Sort the diary episodes: demand, excitement, fear, possible pain, loneliness. |
| 4–7 | For demand whining, only quiet brings good things, for everyone at home. Practise the lead and the car for excited whining. |
| 7 | Reread the diary. If you ticked "possible pain" even once, book the vet; if you ticked "loneliness", the specialist. |
Tell your own vet exactly what you noted: the time, the movement after which he whines, how long it lasts. Film an episode, because on the consulting table dogs go quiet.
An assessment session with us starts from the diary and the footage. With this problem, what we find most often is a dog whining for three different reasons in the same day, and a person answering all three the same way.
What dog owners search for most often on the internet about this problem, with the short answer.
Because a siren sounds like a howl in pitch and rise and fall, and the dog answers it as he would another dog, the way wolves call to each other over distance. It doesn't hurt his ears: if it did, he'd hide rather than point his nose at the sound. He stops when the siren stops. Ten seconds a day isn't worth weeks of training; move his bed to a quieter room.
Constant whining usually has one of three causes: he's asking for something and has learnt that whining works, he's over-excited with nowhere for the energy to go, or something hurts. For three days note the time, what happened just before and what his body was doing. If he whines when getting up, when touched or at night, see your own vet before any training.
No, it's an old superstition. Dogs howl at a siren, at a distant dog, because they've been left alone or, in old age, because they're disoriented. If an old dog has started howling at night, staring into space, that's a reason to see your own vet about hearing, sight or cognitive decline.
Whining stops bringing anything, no look and no "no", and in the first second of quiet you praise him and he gets what he wanted, if it's reasonable. Stretch the quiet by a second every few days. Everyone at home does the same, because giving in once on the tenth whine teaches him to keep going for ten minutes. The first days are noisier, and that's the sign the plan is working.
Not all night. For the first 7 to 10 nights keep his bed or crate next to yours, and when he whines put your hand on the mesh without talking. If he whines after a few hours' sleep, take him out in silence and straight back to bed. A puppy left to cry alone learns that nobody comes, and that comes back later as anxiety.
A behaviour that appears suddenly or changes for no apparent reason can have a medical cause. For full details, consult your dog's own veterinarian.
They often come together: the same causes, plans that complement each other.
He howls from the first minute and only goes quiet when you walk back in. That is panic, and panic is worked in seconds at first, not in hours of 'getting used to it'.
At the window, at the doorbell, at the neighbours, when he's left alone. A dog always barks for a reason, and the plan starts with finding it.
Chewing, barking, racing round the house at ten at night and still not tired. A dog like that tires through his head, and you see the change within days.
He paces at night, stands with his nose in a corner, waits at the wrong side of the door, wees indoors. Some of it is age. Some of it can be treated.
An assessment session tells you where you stand and which plan makes sense for your dog. The behaviour programme then works step by step, reward-based only.