Why does he whine and bark whilst out?

Hi,

I have a 6yrs old cocker spaniel, sam. He is good as gold apart from when we are out. I cannot leave him outside a shope as he will bark non stop. Even when we are out walking if my husband walks ahead he will whine and bark and when were out in town he will whine especially if one of us goes into the shop! Any advice on how to stop this?

thanks Mo

It sounds like he gets stressed at you separating. He obviously likes his `puppies` all together where he can see them.
How about training him to focus on whoever has the lead by teaching the `Watch Me` command. Reward when he looks at the lead=holder and build up the time he`s focussed on them.

Max does the barking whining thing when he's tied outside a shop. I usually try not to take him with me if I need to go to the shop but sometimes it's unavoidable so this is what I've been doing (building it up slowly).

What I try to do is just step away from him, if he doesn't bark, give him a treat, then take two steps, treat... and keep going.. I can now go in the shop, get something and quickly pay and he won't bark. I can't take my time though because he goes off into a barking frenzy but at least now I can actually go out of his sight for about a minute without the barking starting. I'm hoping to build this up a bit longer.

I don't know if it's the right thing to do but it seems to be working.

Sorry but this is so dangerous!
1. I`ve stopped kids throwing stones at / running bikes into / abusing dogs tied up. (That`s just this year)
2. In this area - which is quite a nice one - nearly 200 dogs have been stolen this year.
3. You are laying yourself open to someone saying your dog has frightened / bitten them. Without a witness to prove otherwise your dog could be put dowm.
In the past, before everyone got litigious it was normal to leave dogs outside shops. Not any more, alas.

well sometimes it's either that or take him in the shop with me which is not allowed in most places. I won't put him anywhere that I can't see him and it's always been for something like getting a bottle of water so I look in the shop for when the till is clear and go straight in and out. Literally it's an in and out thing and sometime it's unaviodable. I won't be putting my dog at risk unnecessarily of course!

But my point was, I think the same thing can be done with two people. One person holding the dog and the one that's going in the shop can build up the distance and time away from the dog gradually.

I'm actually even doing this in the house because Max scratches on doors if they are closed, I just want him to realise that it doesn't mean he's being abandoned - and it's working for me

Sorry I didn`t mean to imply you were putting your dog at risk, but other people might have read your post and thought it was a good idea to train a dog to wait outside shops. Apologies if I offended.