What To Do When Dog Starts Barking During Night

[Sam the man]

Our new adopted dog Charlie (2 yr old mixed terrier) started barking about an hour ago. I took him out into the dog's outside pen and he kept going and sniffing at one of the corners. Then I saw why he was barking because a Labrador was there. Of course this gets the other dogs around barking as well. OK what can I do to stop him barking and disturbing our other dog and OH and me. Charlie isn't content with just one or two barks. Well at least he's a good little watch dog. ;) The dogs sleep in the garage which is right next to our bedroom and Charlie is just right close to us. OH doesn't like his sleep disturbed because he has to get up at 5.30 in the morning. I get up then too. As a temporary measure I've bought Charlie into the office, closed the door and put the fan on. However I don't want to stay in here until 5.30 a.m.

[sas]

It's pretty natural for a dog to park at a strange dog it can see from its' own property.

1) You could bring the dog in the house, you can always crate the dog.

2) Try a bark collar if adversive training sits ok with you.

3) Put up a visual blocker so your dog can't see external stimuli.

4) Do some training with your dog i.e. seeing another dog or person is good and gets rewarded.

[Sam the man]

It's pretty natural for a dog to park at a strange dog it can see from its' own property.

1) You could bring the dog in the house, you can always crate the dog.

Charlie is already in the house so he can't see anything outside.

3) Put up a visual blocker so your dog can't see external stimuli.

I probably shouldn't have taken him outside but always think maybe he wants to go to the toilet.

After I did the first post by which time the stray dog had gone up the road I took Charlie out for a toilet walk and put him back to bed. He settled down okay.

[Aidan3]

My preferred approach is to click and treat a small amount of barking (say 5-6 barks), then while the dog is eating (if he isn't too wound up to eat), click and treat the quiet behaviour.

You can gradually extend the period of quiet after the initial barking.

What you will find with things like this is that it's hard to set it up for training, so you do it with door knocks and other things that cause barking first.

[IngeK]

I would get him inside again. If you let him walk just before you go to bed and let him out first thing in the morning he should be alright and not have to go to the toilet. Ours go outside before we go to bed and go straight out at 5.30 again. No problem at all.

I actually think about this “issue” a lot when I walk the dogs at 5.30 – 6.00 AM in the morning. There are so many outside dogs that start barking! Don’t think that would make the neighbours happy at that time of the day.