# barking in the night



## Canuck (Nov 4, 2009)

I have some Barking Issues and I am just not sure how to fix it.
Canuck gets his food and water picked up by 7pm and gets let out side many times before bed time around 9 or 10pm. However every day around 1am -6am he wakes up and needs to go out. Sometimes he doesn’t even want to go out, he just wants to get up and play. I try to keep him from taking naps so that he will sleep at night but it’s never ending. Now it’s getting bad if I try to lock him back up he just barks. So I bring him to bed with me. 
I really don’t want him to sleep with me every night because he gets into things in my room. He is only 8 months old. 
I am just not sure what to do… Can anyone help... 

thanks


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## Rita Nelson (Jul 13, 2009)

That happened to us with Tucker when he was around 6 mos. old. He wouldn't go to sleep in his crate next to our bed. He'd whine and bark for almost an hour. My DH would bring him upstairs to sleep in his crate after he'd been asleep downstairs the same as always, but Tucker just decided he didn't want to sleep upstairs in his crate next to our bed. So we started leaving him downstairs at night and no problem. He'd sleep through the night and wake us around 7 a.m. whining. It's so strange because during the day, he's right at my feet no matter where I go. Go figure!


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## TheVintageVamp (Oct 14, 2009)

Does he get up & bark if you let him sleep with you? If not, perhaps he has figured out he can get his way by barking and he ends up in your bed. If this is the case I would try and just tough it out with him barking a couple of nights and not respond. That is if you are adamant on not letting him sleep with you.


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## gelbergirl (Jun 9, 2007)

how old is he?
I used to try to wear Henry out in the evening by playing back and forth games.
Try to wear him out in the evenings . . .


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## Havtahava (Aug 20, 2006)

I'd recommend you wear him out in the evenings, then take him out for one last potty run and put him in a crate at eye level next to your bed for the night. If he whimpers at night, tell him to shush. If he continues, I put my fingers in the crate and otherwise ignore him. If he persists, take him out to go potty (on a leash may be best), but absolutely NO lovey talk, no cuddling, no play. Give him a few minutes of trying to get your attention (but divert your eye contact from him) and then take him back to the crate. This may take 3 nights for him to get it, but if you are consistent, it will end pretty fast and you'll have a puppy willing to sleep through the night next to you.


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## gelbergirl (Jun 9, 2007)

oh, and after wearing him out, I used to have a "bedtime ritual" where I would have him look for a specific toy (that I taught him the name, and he would carry to the bed and then it was bedtime.

So my advice:
1. wear him out
2. have him learn the name of a toy
3. have him carry it to bed for nighty-night


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## Luciledodd (Sep 5, 2009)

Well, I would do the same thing I did with my babies (not done now I know) I made sure they were dry, no pins sticking, and not hungry. then I turned the light back off and walked out of the room. They cried sure, but after about three nights of this, no more waking up in the middle of the night. Course Rosie gets to sleep in the bed with us unlike the babies. Back then it was unheard of to spoil a child or to have a dog sleep in the bed--now we do both. Go figure.


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## Amy R. (Jul 1, 2007)

He should be able to sleep through the night without a trip outside to potty at his age.
So, it's a behavioral issue. I am very old school. I would completely ignore the barking and after 3 nights it will stop. Taking him to bed is really unwise; you're rewarding this behavior. It's exactly the same with children who won't sleep. . .


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## onemoreokie (Jul 21, 2009)

Amy R. said:


> He should be able to sleep through the night without a trip outside to potty at his age.
> So, it's a behavioral issue. I am very old school. I would completely ignore the barking and after 3 nights it will stop. Taking him to bed is really unwise; you're rewarding this behavior. It's exactly the same with children who won't sleep. . .


Our 7 month old puppy wakes us up every night without fail between 2 and 3am. We take her outside and she poops and pee's within a minute and comes back in and jumps back into her bed and sleeps till we get up.

Do you think the same thing applies that it is behavior issue? We don't enjoy getting up but it's hard to ignore when she relieves herself so quickly.

Thanks for any input.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

onemoreokie said:


> Our 7 month old puppy wakes us up every night without fail between 2 and 3am. We take her outside and she poops and pee's within a minute and comes back in and jumps back into her bed and sleeps till we get up.
> 
> Do you think the same thing applies that it is behavior issue? We don't enjoy getting up but it's hard to ignore when she relieves herself so quickly.
> 
> Thanks for any input.


Maybe if you changed her feeding schedule, the time she needs to potty would change too.

Kodi has a litter box in his pen overnight "just in case", but VERY rarely uses it. He does need to go out to poop in the morning, but even if we sleep in until 8:00 or so, he'll wait. His second poop is either on his long walk, weather permitting, or without that exercise, late afternoon/early evening. His last time out in the evening is usually between 8 and 9 PM, but it's just to pee.


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## onemoreokie (Jul 21, 2009)

We have played around with the feeding schedule but didn't have any success. We do take up the water about 3 hours before bed. We are thinking about taking her crate out of the bedroom and just letting her bark and seeing what happens one night. I just hate the thought of waking up to a puppy with urine paws or worse. Yuck!


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## gelbergirl (Jun 9, 2007)

what are her feeding times? How many times a day?
maybe add peas to her morning meal, so all the poops come out during the afternoon??


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## onemoreokie (Jul 21, 2009)

We feed her twice a day (1/3 c of solid gold puppy). I set out one at 5 am when I get up and another around noon. She never devours it all at once but she is usually done eating by 3 or so. 

I've never heard of the pea suggestion. Does that really clean them out?


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## Canuck (Nov 4, 2009)

Last night I tried to let him bark but it wouldn’t stop. He had to go outside so I let him out. Then he wouldn’t go back in his room. He is just so happy to see me and that’s fine but not at 4am. His cage is not in my room in the laundry room. When we 1st got him he wouldn’t sleep all night so we started to put a towel over most of the cage so it was dark in his cage. That helped till now! He knows if he barks he can come in my room. Its just how do you sleep with your dog barking? 

We did try peas and green beans because sometimes he has a hard time going however he hates them.


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## morridon (Oct 2, 2009)

I am having a similar problem with my dog. She use to sleep until 9:00 or 10:00 in her crate downstairs unless we got up earlier. My husband has been out of work so when I leave in the morning around 8:00, he takes her in bed with him. Now she is crying to come out of the crate at 6:30 every day. He tried not bringing her in bed anymore but he still gets up with her. Now she will lay on his lap and sleep downstairs. Should we ignore her as someone suggested? We don't want her to sleep with her all night, but it is horrible getting up at 6:30 everyday even on the weekend!


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## TheVintageVamp (Oct 14, 2009)

Once the same response happens every night, the dog has learned the cause/effect relationship and will continue to do this. It really is just like a child.

If you don't want it to continue, you must break the pattern and sometimes that entails a night or two of lost sleep while the dog barks, but once the pattern is broken, they will figure it out and sleep on the schedule you set. Often the initial incident is something like an upset tummy that had them needing to go out, but if you do anything other than take them out on leash to do business, they are being rewarded and will seek the reward again.

I have had many crate trained dogs and have never had one mess in the crate unless ill as long as they are given meals at regular times and water taken up a few hours prior to bed time.


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## morridon (Oct 2, 2009)

If I go down at say 9:00 and she is still crying will that work? Or do I need to wait until she has totally stopped barking and crying to go downstairs? Do you think she may wear herself out like a baby?


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## TheVintageVamp (Oct 14, 2009)

If I am certain they have all their needs met, ie: been out to potty, bedding is clean & dry, etc...I do not respond at all to whimpering, crying or barking. I leave the door to the room they are in shut and let them wear them self down. I've never had one do it consistently all night, but they may stop when the fall asleep then start up again in an hour or so.

I have always just waited the dog out and it generally works. That said, I have never tried to make them go longer than 7-8 hours as I figure after that length of time they need out to go potty, drink, etc.

In other words, don't put the pup to bed at 8 pm if you don't want to get back up by 4 to 5 am. If your normal routine is to go to bed at 11 and get up at 7, put puppy to bed right before you go to bed at 11.


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## onemoreokie (Jul 21, 2009)

TheVintageVamp said:


> If I am certain they have all their needs met, ie: been out to potty, bedding is clean & dry, etc...I do not respond at all to whimpering, crying or barking. I leave the door to the room they are in shut and let them wear them self down. I've never had one do it consistently all night, but they may stop when the fall asleep then start up again in an hour or so.
> 
> I have always just waited the dog out and it generally works. That said, I have never tried to make them go longer than 7-8 hours as I figure after that length of time they need out to go potty, drink, etc.
> 
> In other words, don't put the pup to bed at 8 pm if you don't want to get back up by 4 to 5 am. If your normal routine is to go to bed at 11 and get up at 7, put puppy to bed right before you go to bed at 11.


Your advice and recognition that waking up to potty was a habit was spot on. We put Chloe in the crate at 9 pm in the living room next to her ex-pen (instead of in the bedroom) and went to to bed. The first night I got up at 3 am and let her out with no accidents. Last night we went till 4:30 am with no accidents. Tonight I'm going to wait till 5 am when I normally wake. She was in no big hurry to go potty this morning so I doubt we'll have a problem.

My wife thanks you profusely as she was the one getting up most nights!

Cheers!


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## morridon (Oct 2, 2009)

I absolutely know that my girl can hold her urine. When she was about 6months old she would stay in the crate for about 10 hours every night without crying. Now that she is over a year old I know that she does not have to get up at 6:30 every morning when she goes into her crate at midnight. This morning she started barking at 6:00 and I just yelled down to her to go back to sleep that it was not time to get up yet. She barked for about 5 minutes and went back to sleep. Thank you all so much for the advice.


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## galaxie (Dec 1, 2009)

TheVintageVamp said:


> If I am certain they have all their needs met, ie: been out to potty, bedding is clean & dry, etc...I do not respond at all to whimpering, crying or barking. I leave the door to the room they are in shut and let them wear them self down. I've never had one do it consistently all night, but they may stop when the fall asleep then start up again in an hour or so.
> 
> I have always just waited the dog out and it generally works. That said, I have never tried to make them go longer than 7-8 hours as I figure after that length of time they need out to go potty, drink, etc.
> 
> In other words, don't put the pup to bed at 8 pm if you don't want to get back up by 4 to 5 am. If your normal routine is to go to bed at 11 and get up at 7, put puppy to bed right before you go to bed at 11.


Agreed. I've been super jet lagged since we got back from Vancouver on Monday, and have been sleeping in a lot. Last night, Roscoe pooped around 10 pm, we went to bed around 11, and he stayed happily in his crate this morning until 11 am!! I was SHOCKED. He's only 14 weeks, he always wakes me up around 7:30-8:00 to go potty, but not this morning. I couldn't believe it. Maybe he is just as jet-lagged as me! haha

Why don't you try putting Canuck's crate in your bedroom? It seems to me that he is just wanting to be around you, maybe if he is in the same room as you he won't feel so alone. I mean, if you think about it, how often do young kids want to hop into their parents' bed when they're scared in the middle of the night? Maybe Cancuk just doesn't like sleeping by himself.


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## morridon (Oct 2, 2009)

I think it is a great idea to put the crate in your room. Now that Holly is older it would be harder to do that. Once she was in our room she would really be upset if she were in her crate since we never did that before. My friend has a crate downstairs and one in her room for night time. It has worked out well for her since she started it when her dog was a young pup. The dog actually stays there while she is getting ready for work, shower, etc. It is hard keeping them downstairs when they hear you walking around upstairs.


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## Canuck (Nov 4, 2009)

I am happy to say that last night he didn’t wake me up. 
The 1st night I just let him bark and bark. Then I woke up to find he went the bathroom in his cage. So last night I tried it again and he barked at 1st so I let him out again thinking maybe he didn’t go all the way. Then he didn’t bark for the rest of the night.


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## TheVintageVamp (Oct 14, 2009)

Onemoreokie,

I'm so glad things are looking up! Sounds like y'all are on the right track now.  Just keep working on stretching the time a bit further each night. You'll get there before you know it.

Sally~


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