Hello, I know this has been addressed in a few threads but we have what seems to be an added complication with our 13-week-old puppy barking in the morning. He sleeps in a crate in the kitchen which is below our bedroom. The bedroom floor creaks terribly so even if we can get up before he wakes (which is any time after 6am) he hears the creaking floor and starts barking. One of us gets downstairs pretty much immediatly although I know that is sort of rewarding him. However, in all other areas of his life he knows barking doesn't get him anywhere. In fact he stops barking as soon as hears one of us on the landing ready to come down and doesn't make another sound until he's out of his crate. It's not because he wants a wee or poo either because he'll happily play in the kitchen for a few minutes before going outside to toilet. My question is what's the best way to deal with it? I know trying to get up before him is often a solution but if he barks anyway on hearing us, do we stop moving around to see if he stops before we go down, or carry on getting downstairs because technically we got up before him so his barking hadn't got us up. Thanks for any advice.
Hi Andie, thanks for commenting. I'm delighted to say there's been a bit of improvement with Wilson. Yesterday he barked and whined off and on, every few minutes, from just before 6am until 7am when we got up. The heating comes on at 7 and makes a bit of a racket initially so we're using that as a sort of marker for when we get up. We ignored his barking completely (SO hard sometimes) and then came down as normal even though he barked when we got up. This morning there wasn't a peep until 6.34am and then it was just two barks. A few more low whines but nothing until 6.58 when he barked a few more times. When we got up he barked a little but whined more so he was actually quiet when we stepped on to the landing. I don't know whether it was ignoring him yesterday that has improved things (I guess tomorrow and the next few days will tell) but we also did a lot more mental challenges with him yesterday as I've read it's good to exercise them mentally as well as physically. We've started putting half of each meal (dry food) into a small empty water bottle and he spends absolutely ages working out how to get it to come out, tail wagging furiously so he seems to enjoy it. I'm going to find other ways to stimulate him mentally and hope that helps him too. Not sure if that's any help to you Good luck. (It's great fun watching him working on the plastic bottle. It makes a lot of noise but it's hilarious. Last night I put an old sock around it for a change, leaving the neck of the bottle clear. It is also slightly squashed so the food doesn't come pouring out.)
Hi and welcome to the forum. I would personally go down to him as he only started barking after he heard you. Not everyone would say the same, but that's my opinion. I would wait outside the room for him to be quiet before going in and letting him out so he knows that quiet will bring you in. Mental stimulation games are brilliant and really do tire them out, especially because they can only have very short walks at this age. I use several different games : 1. Cupcake baking tray, put a few treats in some of the sections then cover the tray with lots of different balls then let them try and find the treats. 2. Do a short 2 min training session - sit, stand, lie down, paw, high 5, through my legs (when they are older you can teach figure of 8 by using your legs), heel walking, sit behind me, letting you check their ears, nails, teeth etc. 3. Hide treats throughout the house then let them go find them - start with them in sight at first, then after a few weeks you can hide them a bit more. 4. Kongs are also amazing as they have to use their brains to get the food out. Hope some of these help a bit,
Keir is fine and quiet in the mornings when my brother gets up, has breakfast and leaves the house - an hour before I get up. But he often barks now when he hears me get up. I’ve worked out that the trigger is me flushing the toilet lol. They know for sure when things don’t involve them and when they do!
Thanks Naya for the advice and particularly for the mental stimulation games. I'll be getting a cupcake tray! Training is going slowly but surely and we're doing very short sessions at the moment which seems to be fun for him. And thanks Boogie, flushing the toilet made me smile. Ours is definitely the creaking floor although it doesn't bother him if one of us goes to the loo in the night. He must be fast asleep then!
Holly was an early riser as a puppy, but as she got older she became a bit less insistent in the mornings. We adopted a similar strategy to Naya, but instead of a short training session we'd take her into the garden then wait while she settled back into her bed. Our though was that we shouldn't reward the disturbance with attention, play etc as she might see it as a reward.
Thanks Hollysdad! Good to know. We're trying to push Wilson to staying quiet in his crate until 7am so will continue to ignore any barking until we get up. It's good to hear that Holly got better as she got older - we've heard that too so it's reassuring to know there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
