Barking Puppies

[Leema]

I have never had any success ignoring puppies or dogs for barking. I find their barking escalates, they often start destructive behaviours (especially adults) when unheeded, my neighbours come over and complain about the noise, and it seems to become a habit (especially in puppies).

I would like to have this thread concentrate on puppies and getting puppies to be quiet, especially when left alone and at night.

What strategies have you found successful?

I have had some puppies who have quietened when crated next to the bed, fingers in their crate, for night time. However, not all. :laugh:

[minimax]

I never found anything that worked in getting my puppy to settle, and no one ever had any helpful suggestions for getting her to settle at night other than "let her sleep on the bed with you" so I look forward to anything anyone has to offer in this thread!

[tlc]

My first 3 were a dream at night but my youngest not so much. :laugh: He cried and screamed the house down for three nights, I tried putting him on the bed but he just wouldn't settle. So I got him a crate and put it beside the bed and there it stayed for a year, he is 4 now and still sleeps in it.

[W Sibs]

My 2 sleep on the bed with me (although, Charlie prefers sleeping on the dog bed on the floor now).. so I never had the barking or crying. As they get older, they get confident and gradually I make them sleep on the dog bed on the floor. I think as long as they are in the same room with everyone sleeping, they are cool. Although, saying that, Em prefers to sleep on the bed with us so she sneaks up on the bed when we fall asleep and I often wake up with her curled up between Mr CW and my pillow.

Also tire the puppy out before going to bed and set a bedtime routine for them, will help too.

[Dame Aussie]

Ours have always slept in our bedrooms either on beds on the floor, or in the bed with us. That's how it's always been and how it always will be, I love it :D

So never had that problem.

[NOCTRL]

^^ Same, dogs barking for hours on end and night drives me to insanity, so i would not subject my neighbours to it either.

If the dog is barking at night, you owe it to the dog and to your neighbours to bring it inside.

My boy either sleeps on the bed with me when OH is away, or on his bed at the foot of the bed.

[luvsdogs]

My dogs all have their own spots in the house to sleep at night. My Border Collie sleeps in her "room", I let her sleep in my room a year & a half ago when oh was in hospital & she slept on her bed in our room for about a year after that but has recently gone back to her "room" because she was disturbing our sleep with her noises. My Japanese Spitz pup sleeps in a puppy pen in his crate in the loungeroom & sleeps all night.

They do tend to bark at people/school kids going past that like to stop in our driveway & stare at them, this annoys me no end so I bring them inside.

[tdierikx]

My foster pups sleep in a crate in my bedroom where they can see me in bed (and hear me snore)... the longest one took to settle was about 20 mins. The current pup grizzled for exactly 4 minutes on his first night and hasn't made a fuss since.

You get used to ignoring the grizzly ones for as long as it takes to settle when you do it often enough... and you also learn how to tell when a pup is truly distressed or just trying it on to get their own way. If truly distressed, I have been known to retire to the couch and get them to fall asleep with me - then move them back to the crate and get them settled with me half inside. Once settled, I gently and quietly remove myself from the crate and crawl into my own bed. Repeat as often as necessary to make the pup understand that the crate is not a scary place to be by themselves.

A nice plastic bucket bed with warm bedding and a largish teddy bear to snuggle up to can work wonders for a pup missing having sleeping companions also...

My own permanent dogs sleep on the bed - they live here all the time, and that is one of the perks... *grin*

T.

[Stitch]

Leema can you describe exactly how you organise the problem puppies to go to bed?

[toshman]

I have never had any success ignoring puppies or dogs for barking. I find their barking escalates, they often start destructive behaviours (especially adults) when unheeded, my neighbours come over and complain about the noise, and it seems to become a habit (especially in puppies).

I would like to have this thread concentrate on puppies and getting puppies to be quiet, especially when left alone and at night.

What strategies have you found successful?

I have had some puppies who have quietened when crated next to the bed, fingers in their crate, for night time. However, not all. :laugh:

Hi Leema....interesting you should bring this up, my new pup, Monkey, now a 10-week old Border Terrier, is (I hope) going through a barking phase atm, especially when I am in the kitchen and she is hungry :laugh: she has this very demanding bark and carries on a treat until I feed her (which is usually why I am in the kitchen). I do ignore it, and guess my next move will be to walk out of the kitchen when she starts, which might give her a bit of a shock, esp. if she has to wait for her meal.

She's also a bit of a whinger when she is put in her pen outside during the day - I'm very conscious of neighbours - but again, I do try to ignore and not go to her when she's making a noise. And she does seem to be getting better about being left and quite prepared to lounge about on her own with her chew toys.

Thankfully, she has been a dream at night she slept in her small plastic crate next to my pillow for 5 or six days when I first got her - I could put my fingers in and she would settle quickly. Then she graduated to a wire crate on the floor near my bed, and I've had no problems at all. She will start to snuffle and fuss once or twice during the night, and I take her out at this point for a wee - but I don't talk to her, don't turn on the lights, and pop her straight back into her crate when she's done - most times she settles back to sleep - she even slept through the night a couple of nights ago :thumbsup:

PS: I see alot of her father in her, which pleases me no end :cheer: