I have a 6 month old westie. Generally very good on the whole. However he wants to follow me everywhere in the house. The particular problem is in the kitchen, he wont stay out of it when someone is cooking in there. He wanders around snuffling the kitchen floor and tripping us up. I have tried putting him in another room but if the door is closed he scratches and whines and if the door is opened he just comes back. My husband is getting very angry about this. We do have a crate in the utility area overlooking the kitchen but it seems unfair to put him in this because he spends time in his crate during the weekday while I am out at work, and he whines in his crate if he can see us, which winds my husband up even further. Stay commands are not working, he can only stay for a few seconds. I cannot have a stairgate as husband wont have one up and to be fair we have a fairly compact house and its not easy to get through a gate with all the stuff the family carry through each day. I feel that there will be an accident soon or this issue will be a real bone of contention (scuse pun) if I cant sort it out soon.

My dog follows me everywhere as well.  The dog trainer advised that I crate her intermittently for just say 10 minutes at a time throughout the day to try and break the habit.  When I went out I always stuffed her kong and told her 'bed' and she was happy to go in the crate. It became a treat because she got the kong stuffed with goodies and no way did she whine then. I would only have to say 'fetch kong' and she would very excited and bring it knowing that she would end up in the crate and running to it once I said 'bed'.  Your dog might whine at times but that's their way of communicating.  I am sure the more experienced people on here will have some ideas but I have to say once you have trained your dog it sounds like you need to work on your husband. 

My husband wasn't a dog person at all and he had deep reservations but I involved him in helping to train her by saying things like can you just give her these treats and make sure she sits for you.  When the dog used to do things that we didn't want her to I used to explain how to deal with in case I wasn't there and then tell him how important it was to praise her when she got it right.  It's really important to subtly, stress subtly, involve him bit by bit because then they build a relationship. When the dog went to him for attention I used to say things like 'ah she really loves you'. Now you would think she is his dog rather than mine, they really are the best of buddies.

I have 2 westies bailey 2 1/2 and robbie who is 17 weeks. Bailey follows me everywhere waits on bath mat when in bath or even trys to get in with me. When cooking try to give him a chew stick or something thats what we do his bed is in kitchen and he lies there while we cook eating it. The other one doesn't care whos in but jumps up in kitchen as he is very greedy too afraid to stand still long or he'll eat me aswell. Hopefully you can sort your problem out soon.

Bella follows me everywhere , i mean everywhere but she's 12 and just enjoys the company. down the driveway , up to the grocery store (pleasantly waits outside) and always tries to get into the tub , ack.

All my dogs have had a tendency to follow me around - in fact, as I'm typing this there is a small pup asleep on a cushion on my lap! But provided I don't see signs of separation anxiety building up if they are out of my sight I've never been bothered by the "following around". Certainly the best way to make 'em anxious seems to be shutting them out of sight for no reason that the dog can grasp and showing your own tension. I've always held fairly laid back sort of conversations with my dogs and if I'm in the kitchen I just point out that it'd be sensible not to get under my feet! I've never had any problem leaving dogs if I have to go out and again, it all seems to come down to a general lack of domestic drama.

I know how you feel. My pup does the same thing. On one hand he always positions himself so he can see me, and on the other he sniffs around my feet while cooking looking for dropped bits. We have tiled floors, which he doesnt like to sit and 'stay' on, so what we did was to put a mat (actually the door mat) in the kitchen which he does like to lie on. Not expecting much at first we had to have a pile of treats (grated cheese worked well as he liked it and its small enough to feed many times. plus it was often being used in the kitchen...). Commanding him to go "on the mat" and throwing a piece of cheese on the mat. And then reinforcing this with stay and more cheese. He got the point that more food and better food was to be found on the mat than under my feet, and his master was happier (and i got very good at throwing grated cheese across the kitchen). As soon as he moved off the mat, i repeated with the command and treat. These days he just goes to the mat, whenever we go into the kitchen, and will even get cocky enough to grumble at me "look at me, I'm a good boy, im on the mat, now give me my treat!".

He does however need reminding often, and the other day I did my greatest fear (and why i trained this) of dropping a very sharp cooks knife on him. Fortunately it hit handle first and slid off without harm. I also worry about spilling hot food on him... but the mat works most of the time, just have to remember to command him before I need to know he is in a 'safe' spot. And yes, seconds at first, now minutes are OK as long as he can see us.

The whining would be a seperate issue again, and (in my opinion) if you give in to it, it is just being encouraged. Having said that, my puppy grumbles to get my attention and i have rewarded it because i didnt want him to learn to bark to get my attention. Ignoring him may help, but the whining will probably get worse to start with. "it worked last time, maybe a little more will work this time" so both of you will need to put up with a little noise to start with. I would hope he would give up after a while...