[DaveB]

My recently rescued pup is about a year old, reasonably well-behaved (we're a bit behind on training, in part because he was out of commission and too full of energy for 6 weeks following OCD surgery), and doing well for the most part... but he has one very annoying issue that I have no idea how to correct.

If he's looking out a window, or even out on the back deck looking out through the fence, he will start anxiously whining if he sees another dog. He's very social and just wants to be friends, and honestly this is a less obnoxious problem than my shepherd, who has taken to barking repeatedly at passing dogs whenever the outside fence is between them. The problem is that I know that I can correct the shepherd's barking by simply spending time out there with him on a leash. But with the rottie, I can correct him either with a leash or verbally, and he knows to stop whining, but he'll start up again the instant he notices the dog again. He also sometimes does this when my girlfriend's cat has put herself out of his reach and he really wants to shove his face into her fur.

I'm no expert in dog psychology but to me it seems like the whining is anxiety/nervous energy and not a deliberate behavior (it's a much different whine than his deliberate "I want out of this crate" whine). Almost like it's involuntary - he sees the other dog and knows he can't go sniff him, and he knows he's not allowed to just freak out and run around or spin in circles because that's bad manners, so he just starts this little high pitched whine. The instant I shush him or yank the leash, he stops, but then the cycle starts right back up again. There's never any permanent impression that this is bad behavior the way any other corrections I give do. He has been great at learning other things - just the usual occasional testing or sneakiness - and I definitely don't get the impression that he's challenging me or trying to disobey. He's just being single minded and anxious.

Short of just closing the blinds all the time (unacceptable) or forcing him to lay down and stop looking out the window (I want him to be able to do this, as it makes him happy and calms him down), how do I get him to stop doing this?