My puppy who once slept through the night has decided to change the rules. He now barks and whines for reasons yet to be determined. Sometimes, it’s a half hour after I have put him in his crate for the night. (9:45pm), other times it can be 2 hours later, 4 hours, or not at all. We tried the crying it out which makes for a very sleepless night for my husband and I. On the couple of times I let him out to potty, he did go. I am at a loss and in some need of uninterrupted sleep. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Hi @LabMomx2 This is a difficult one because I'm not sure what is/was the stimulus for the barking. I a assuming he has no uti. Let him meet his toilet needs. Put him back to bed and then ignore him if he should bark. I realise it is annoying. But if you respond to him in any form then the barking will be reinforced. You can buy ear protectors at your local hardware store. Or play some quiet music on your CD player. It may take 2 or 3 nights of no payoff for the dog to learn that barking has no reward from you. If you have close neighbours then a bottle of wine and an explanation of what you are doing will be useful. If it continues think about getting a camera to record whether there is any distraction outside your house that may be leading him to bark.
You need to exercise your dog during the day so that he sleeps through the night. He has excess energy and it’s showing up at bedtime. It can manifest as playtime, nervousness, howling, you name it. Our 10 month old lab started pawing at us at bedtime and bringing his toys to the bed and pacing around the room. This started right on his 10 month birthday. I started making sure he got a hike in that ended around sunset along with his daily dog park trip. We mix up the activity but the first day it worked. He was back to snoozing through the whole night. Sometimes we do daycare and a hike or two dog park trips but we always make sure he’s not just snoozing all day - at this stage they need a bit more stimulation and exercise. Help your dog get out his excess energy. ou
I’m having similar problems with my 8mo. I’m thinking she needs more stimulation now she’s reaching adulthood and she doesn’t get the intense training and mental stimulation she was getting a couple of months ago. It’s also raining very heavily here this week and maybe that is disturbing her at bedtime? Good to hear I’m not the only one anyway!
Shaping is mentally stimulating and will help to tire your dog. Why not teach go to mat using shaping? If you've already taught that one, then retrieve taught by shaping will keep both of you mentally stimulated. Both tasks can be initially taught inside and there are suitable for rainy days.
Where is the crate? Put it in your bedroom for a few nights and see if he is more settled in there. If he is, then you know it is a separation-related issue and need to work on progressively moving the crate away from you.
