My puppy Von is 6 1/2 months old now. We brought her home at 12 weeks and crate trained her from day 1. She did great sleeping in her crate and slept through the night from the very beginning. A couple of weeks ago, she started barking at night. This has been going on every single night and it’s driving me crazy. She is fed 3 hrs before bed time and I always let her out right before I put her in her crate. Her crate is in our family room on the first level of our house. Our bedroom is upstairs. The only way I can her her to stop barking/whining is to lay downstairs on the couch. Any advice on how to get her to sleep with through the night again?
Man that's interesting...(not for you guys!! of course...) My girl who had sleep inside then outside no barking at night at all , i think at least during the night, except for the first night when she was just a baby....started around 6 mths doing it some nights! I asked my vet about it asking would it be an age thing...although he didn't say it was...he just mentioned about how there are changes mentally as well as sexual or emotional? sorry not sure on details...I did ask on here about this but anymore views for me would be good too.
Does she sleep first then wake up? Or is it continual barking? I had similar with Shadow around 5 months; he started to bark in the early morning. If I got up and "put him to bed" again, he would settle down and sleep through til morning. So that's what I did, a bit like the overnight toilet training, pre-empting the barking by getting him out and putting him back to bed, and delaying it by 15 minutes each night. It worked. Another suggestion would be to have the crate in your bedroom and then slowly move it out again. Does she need the crate at night now? It varies a lot from dog to dog, but I decrated mine at night at about 6 months.
Could she be barking in response to something that is happening outside your house? A tomcat, or a neighbour leaving early for work etc? She may just be guarding you from potential intruders.
I was going to suggest this myself --- Cassie sometimes barks in the night, I have a large window in my kitchen where she sleeps which is quite low and I think she can see reflections etc, it doesn't have a curtain but I intend to put one up soon. I did go down the other night, I open the window to show her all is well, but that time there was a very loud '' hoot'' - she looked at me as if to say '' I told you'' ! It seems the owls have started their annual pairing carry on (Jan/Feb) and that's what disturbs her.
Is it happening at the same time every night? Dogs can hear things that we can't so he may be reacting to something he can hear - roadworks, bin men, neighbour etc. Might be worth a try with the crate in your room as suggested above by Fiona.
Merlin did this as well at around six months... I had to go to him, and tell him it was ok, and then he'd go back to sleep. I really have no idea what would start him off - sometimes it seemed to be a noise outside, or the wind, or I think sometimes he would wake up from a dream and bark... On occasions he will still give the odd bark at night, but we no longer have to go to him. We were staying at my mothers for a few nights, and he barked quite a lot there. I guess it was noises that he wasn't familiar with, that unsettled him. Does your pup seem unhappy in the crate? Does she want to get out, do you think, or is it just the fact that she has woken up and has got into the habit of barking, to get your attention? I'm wondering, as others have said, whether a change in routine might break the habit. Could she sleep on the floor in your room, for instance?
Florence was 7 months when she started barking every night for 10-20 minutes when she was put in her crate and waking and barking every morning between 5 and 6 am. We thought she’d been unsettled after a stay in kennels and she’d settle down! One night I decided to try her out of her crate and she went to sleep straight away and woke up when we got up! Turned out she just hated being crated after the “freedom” of the kennels! Might be worth leaving her out of the crate, if that’s possible, to see if that makes a difference.
Wow, thank you for all of the responses! She usually does go to sleep just fine, then wakes up in the middle of the night from 1-3. I have very sensitive ears, so I am the only one in my family that hears her. I go downstairs, let her outside, check to make sure there isn’t anything outside making noise, then put her back in her crate where she will continue to bark off and on until my husband lets her out and feeds her at 5. I NEED sleep! My husband is against putting her crate in our bedroom, but I am open to trying to let her sleep in our room. Our last lab, Lacey slept in our room every night. Little Von is mischievous though, so I’m worried about her chewing things up in our room. I guess we won’t know how she’ll act unless we give it a shot. Thank you all so much!
Dogs are pack animals. They like to sleep with their pack. You could get him a real nice bed, and tether him to it with a harness, then he wouldn’t wander off in the middle of the night, but he would also have some freedom.
My puppy would chew straight through a tether if I tried to do that You could just keep your bedroom door closed to prevent wandering! I notice you say she’s fed at 5am. Is this immediately after she gets out of bed? I know others have had problems with shouty pups when they are fed straight away on getting up. Some have resolved it by simply waiting half an hour, or until after the morning walk before feeding so that the pup isn’t thinking that getting out of the crate means breakfast. I guess it depends on your routine but that’s super early for breakfast. I’d try to delay it until 7am or so.
