6 Month Old Labrador Barking

[Sticks1977]

Over the last fortnight I have noticed that Henry has started to bark especially once the sun goes down and it is approaching time for bed.

I walk Henry each day (varies from between 3-5pm) and we go on a short 10-15 minute walk around the local estate. He is fed in the morning before both myself and my wife head off to work and then again around 7pm after we have had our dinner. He is given plenty of attention but is also left alone to do his own thing - such as if he wants to sleep on his mat beside the couch we will let him do so.

His bedroom is in the laundry and his bed is placed next to the washing machine on the floor. While we are at work he happens to get his bed and takes it outside his dog door and into the backyard - something that he is getting quite good at! We will be heading down to purchase one of those metal framed beds (bet he won't be able to get THAT through the dog door!). I have also set up a baby gate in the laundry doorway so that the laundry door can remain open and Henry is able to see into the rest of the house.

Anyway to the point of my post - lately he has started barking at night especially when both myself and Gaylene (my wife) head off to bed. He will go out his dog door and appear to bark at 'something' in the backyard. We do have some cats that roam around the area but when I go to investigate what he is barking at there is nothing that I can see that is out of the ordinary, and I don't spot any cats...

Are there any steps or methods I can use to prevent him barking at night? I am unsure whether he barks during the day as I am at work but when we are at home on weekends I will not hear him bark that much and yet still on weekend nights he will continue to bark when left alone when it is time to sleep. As mentioned in the title of the thread he is six months old and is starting to really get a personality and is quickly growing into a dog and leaving the puppy stage behind.

As an example I was ready to go to bed at 9.30 pm tonight and put Henry into his room, then did some internet banking and he started to bark. At first I ignored it yet after 10 minutes went to investigate and there is nothing again that I can see that is setting him off. To prevent the barking from continuing to happen I took him out to the other area of the backyard for a toilet break, then back into the laundry and I placed the cover over the dog door so he is unable to get out during the night and therefore not bark and wake up neighbours...

In some ways I do not want to stop him barking as it is in his nature to do so, but to just limit his barking espcially during the evening. If closing access to the backyard once he goes to bed is the answer then I may have to look into doing this on most nights but I like to give him the freedom to either be in the laundry or venturing out into the backyard at any time he wants to do so. I walked past the laundry just before starting this post (1 hour after putting him to bed) and he is lying down on his bed matt but is not actually asleep as of yet.

If anyone has any recommendations especially to help with the barking at night (it seems more like a warning bark or territorial bark that he is letting something know that he is there)... I would love to hear from you. At the moment I am at a loss and unsure whether I should be closing off access to the backyard at night and confining him to the laundry when it's time for bed or to ignore the barking all together and hope that he will grow out of it.

Thanks for reading and look forward to hearing from you. I have also recorded him barking on the camcorder so I may upload a Youtube video in the next day or two (if I can figure it all out...)

Regards, Shaun (Sticks1977)

[persephone]

Unless he is not properly toilet trained- I would suggest locking him indoors every night :D YOU then know exactly where he is - he cannot learn the habit of barking at rats/cats/possums/jets/neighbours/neighbourhood dogs... he also cannot eat anything thrown over the fence/try jumping fences in the dark !

It is in a dog's nature to dig, to roll in human excrement, and pee on all sorts of objects- but these things are not acceptable in our society..and neither is any more than a warning bark ,in suburbia .So - we take steps to ensure these things happen only on the odd occasion .

Good for you in keeping him in tonight, and I hope that sleeping indoors will help :D

[Aziah]

I agree with everything persephone has said...

Our dogs sleep in the house, I know where they are, I know they aren't barking and they have a routine and sleep when the rest of the house does

ETA: at 6 months of age, your puppy should have no problems going through the night without a toilet stop.

Edited June 4, 2010 by Aziah

[mokhahouse]

It occurred to me that maybe the pup is cold in the laundry so not settling down. My two sleep in the laundry because they like to, we have the same set up with the dog door and baby gate but we always shut the dog door at night because it can be quite drafty and cold with it open. If I left it open my two would wander around during the night, not something I want. If your pup can hold on all night I would shut the dog door and put down some extra blankets and the raised bed is a good idea.We have a ducted heating vent in the laundry but even with that it is not as warm as the rest of the house. If the pup is going from the warmth of the house to the laundry and it is not warm enough in there I can understand why he would bark.

[16Paws]

In addition to the other comments, dogs can hear and see things which we can't, so he could be repsonding to a bat in the tree or a distant dog barking or a siren, etc.

[tez]

Gus is 16 weeks old and abit of a barker at night too. We have only had him 3 weeks but I am thinking that night time is the only time when he can hear strange noises as we have the radio on during the day when the dogs are home alone and then the normal household noises at other times.

Night-time/bedtime is the only time when the 'house' is quiet so Gus would be hearing all the outside noises he would'nt usually hear at other times...hense the barking! Its getting less as time goes on so he is aclimatizing!

Just wondering if your dog may also be hearing specific noises only at bedtime due to the house being quiet. If so...could you rig up a radio in the laundry to play quietly over night and perhaps mask the noises that could be stimulating him.

[WreckitWhippet]

The dog will have layed around and slept for most of the day while you are at work. Night time then becomes their time to get out and hunt, bark at anything and everything and race around the back yard.

Allow him to come and go from the house until you are ready for bed, then it's an accompanied toilet stop and locked in for the night.