watchdog messages clutter up serial console

I have connected a console session using a serial console cable[1], on a custom Debian Jessie console image. Watchdog has been enabled using echo 1 > /dev/watchdog

but this produces a series of console messages that makes the console difficult to use:

watchdog watchdog0: watchdog did not stop!

Image attached for clarity. I can still login at the console login prompt if I dont get confused by all the messages.

Question: is this a known issue, and how do I prevent those messages from appearing?

[1] http://www.dummies.com/computers/beaglebone/how-to-connect-the-beaglebone-black-via-serial-over-usb/

Screen Shot 2017-05-08 at 2.35.53  PM.png

As an additional datapoint, I also see identical messages appearing in the output of dmesg

–Luther

Try raising your console log level. I usually have my set to -

echo 3 4 1 7 > /proc/sys/kernel/printk