Hi, We have a 4 month old Fox Red Lab' bitch called Amber. She is caged and quite happy about being in it. During the day, unless we go out, the door is left open and she goes in when she wants. At night the door is closed and a cover draped over the cage. This is at 11pm'ish. She sleeps and is quiet until about 5.30a.m. when she starts crying. At first I thought she just needed to go to the toilet, however this wasn't the case, she was in no hurry to go out and the cage is dry. So was it that she is hungry? Labrador? Daft question? Yes, always hungry but I don't believe that this is why she cries. We also have a 3 year old Dalmatian bitch called Ruby. She no longer needs a cage and sleeps on her bean bag or the sofa. I thought that maybe she was getting up and going the Ambers cage so I preempted the crying and got up early to see Ruby Fast asleep. I sat quietly to see Ambers reaction and there wasn't a sound until 7 pm. The next morning I waited until Amber started crying, 5.30 again, and got up to go down. As soon as my foot hit the top stairs all went quiet, I sat again in the living room near to the cage and all was quiet again until 7.15pm. At this time I moved first and opened the cage door. Again, no rush to go to the toilet. The next tack I went on was to let her cry in the hope that she learned that it doesn't do any good. After 45 minutes she was still at it, I started to go down and all went quiet. I couldn't leave her crying any longer as I believe the whole street was awake and although training a dog, we must respect our neighbours. Amber has clearly learned the difference between the noise of me moving around upstairs and the noise when I start to go down and she seems quite happy to be quiet and go back to sleep in the knowledge that I'm in the room. Amber is our 6th dog and this is the first time I've come across this behavior. Can anyone suggest a solution or is this just puppy behavior? I wondered if she still needs reassurance that we're still there and all is well. Any ideas are greatly received. Thanks for reading, Keith.
Hi @Keith Jackson You are correct to ignore the barking. You could always talk to your neighbours and explain that you are training your dog that barking is pointless. You might need to buy some boxes of chocolates for their understanding and forbearance. If that doesn't work or appeal to you, then here are two additional suggestions. 1. Buy some of the pheromone and an adaptil dispenser and place near her cage. I think you can buy one with a timer. Set to dispense before she wakes up. Admittedly, not all dogs are calmed by such scent, but it does work on some dogs. Worth a try. 2. Get up early a number of mornings before she starts barking.. Play say some Mozart. In the training set up imagined here, you will need the music to come on at a specific time. Maybe you can take the remote upstairs. At around 6.00 am start the Mozart without you actually going downstairs. As part of the transition you might need to go the first step of your staircase. But the intention is to fade that step (sorry about the pun) too. The thought here is to build a positive association between the music and your presence in the room. Some trainers call it pairing. Over time fade your presence and the music itself might serve as a substitute for you being in the room. I don't know how your other dog will react to the music.
Thank you for the reply and advice Michael. I'll give that a go. I'll update the forum when I've got some news.
Hi @Keith Jackson To clarify the last suggestion, you may need to do some training sessions with you just sitting in the room while you listen to the music before you transition to more sessions with you on the staircase, then upstairs. I hope you all like Mozart or Beethoven's 6th symphony (perhaps avoid the section with the storm).
It is really normal for puppies to cry like this when they want your attention, and as Michael has said you are definitely doing the right thing by not rewarding her with your presence. Hopefully she'll grow out of it soon when she realises you won't appear in response to her noises, but if you have any trouble there is also some great advice in this article on dealing with Labrador puppies crying. Let us know how she gets along!
This is pretty common and there are a few things you can try. A puppy's ability to feel secure when away from you, comes from having associated that place or that time or that situation with security in your presence - first. Don't forget that a baby animal in the wild, would die if abandoned by care givers. I highly recommend that puppies start off crated (or even in a cardboard box) by the owner's bed. This helps the pup get used to being crated at night but not also have that crate associated with being left alone or abandoned. If the pup wakes in the night, the owner need just turn over in bed, or cough or sniff or make some noise so the pup knows they are not alone. Soon you don't need to do that - the pup is safe in the knowledge that you are there, even when you don't make noise. At this point, you can move the crate at night to wherever you want it to end up (which is hopefully where you have been practising it being, during the day, until this point). Second, you might find that giving her a SnuggleSafe pad or something warm (yet safe) to cuddle up to, helps. You can also get big soft toys with insert places for these - SnuffleSafe Comforts Cushions.... Third, dogs are creatures of habit. Determining what is causing the habit, is secondary to interrupting and stopping it. Whilst you can do all the philosophising in the world about why she is doing this; what she wants; what the purpose of it is etc etc, and whilst that is all very interesting.... it is all going to achieve nothing unless you can prevent it from continuing. And, on the other hand, stopping it from continuing without understanding what is behind it, is very possible too(!). To this end, I would recommend you get up BEFORE she typically starts to cry. Set your alarm clock. If she usually starts at 5.30am, then set it for 5am. Get up, wake her up, take her out to toilet even if she doesn't really need it (just in case), pop her back in the crate and if you want to, sit in the room with her till she falls asleep again, then go back to bed. Do this for at least a week to 10 days if you have an engrained habit. Then, set the clock for 5.15am. Do the same for another 5 days. 5.30am, do the same... And so on, pushing the time on the alarm back 15 mins or even 30mins at a time - until you can get to normal waking up time!! Breaking the habit of crying at 5.30am is more important than figuring out why. If you can break the habit consistently and for long enough, it will stop.
