We have a cockapoo puppy who is nearly 10 months. She sleeps in the utility room in a crate with the door open (used to be crated until a couple of months ago) and has always woken early and barked a lot for our attention. We used to go to her as she seemed desperate for the toilet. A few weeks ago she heard our neighbours go into the garage right by her room after bedtime and started barking. We went to check on her and let her out etc. Since then she's been doing it 3/4 times a week, barking about 15-30 mins after bed. Plus in the mornings anytime from 530 (we want to get up at 630/7!). It's getting worse so we've decided to ignore her as I don't know how else to resolve it. We can't have in our room. I don't think she needs the toilet anymore and has just learnt that it gets our attention. Last night she was put to bed at 10, started barking at 1015 and barked loudly and pretty much constantly for 45 mins until she eventually went quiet. Started barking at 6 this morning and ignored till we get up at 630. Will this work? Or this there something else we ought to be doing? Any help would be brilliant, thanks.
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Barking at night/early morning
- Thread starter Emmaf99
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It does look as though she is barking for attention. At 10 months she should not need, unless she is poorly, to toilet in the night.
Can you completely black out the room that she is in? This often helps as dogs are programmed to wake at dawn and it takes them a while to learn to stay settled.
You could try leaving a radio on low, too. This will help drown out any neighbour noise and also the noise the birds make at dawn.
When you do get up, try to wait until she is quiet before entering the room that she is in. You may only get a second of quiet at first but you can build on that as time goes on. Eventually she will learn that a quiet dog gets attention but a noisy one gets ignored and has to wait.
You can carry this training on to your daily life. Cockerpoos and Labradoodles are known to be rather noisy. Try to ignore her when she barks. Wait for her to be quiet and then give attention. Work up to at leas five seconds of quiet before attention is given.
Try putting some Post It Notes, or similar reminders, around the house that remind you to pay attention to her if she is quiet. It is very easy to train a dog to get attention by barking/being naughty. If we keep an eye out for "settled" behaviour and reward it with attention it will gradually become more of a habit.
Can you completely black out the room that she is in? This often helps as dogs are programmed to wake at dawn and it takes them a while to learn to stay settled.
You could try leaving a radio on low, too. This will help drown out any neighbour noise and also the noise the birds make at dawn.
When you do get up, try to wait until she is quiet before entering the room that she is in. You may only get a second of quiet at first but you can build on that as time goes on. Eventually she will learn that a quiet dog gets attention but a noisy one gets ignored and has to wait.
You can carry this training on to your daily life. Cockerpoos and Labradoodles are known to be rather noisy. Try to ignore her when she barks. Wait for her to be quiet and then give attention. Work up to at leas five seconds of quiet before attention is given.
Try putting some Post It Notes, or similar reminders, around the house that remind you to pay attention to her if she is quiet. It is very easy to train a dog to get attention by barking/being naughty. If we keep an eye out for "settled" behaviour and reward it with attention it will gradually become more of a habit.
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^^What she says!
As a 'noisy breed' person I can also recommend teaching her to bark on command and stop on command, in case you have no choice but to interact with her, so that you can give her the stop signal rather than any greeting.
If you know that the she knows the command for stopping barking you could also be seriously sneaky and during the day when she's not in the utility you could set up a webcam or similar so that when she barks you can tell her to stop without being there. Distance commands can work wonderfully when used in just the right way, and it could also allow you to see what she's doing or what is happening to spark her barking.
Generally it's good practise to only pay your dog attention when they are being good, just like only ever getting attention when all 4 feet are on the floor is a really good way of stopping them jumping up.
As a 'noisy breed' person I can also recommend teaching her to bark on command and stop on command, in case you have no choice but to interact with her, so that you can give her the stop signal rather than any greeting.
If you know that the she knows the command for stopping barking you could also be seriously sneaky and during the day when she's not in the utility you could set up a webcam or similar so that when she barks you can tell her to stop without being there. Distance commands can work wonderfully when used in just the right way, and it could also allow you to see what she's doing or what is happening to spark her barking.
Generally it's good practise to only pay your dog attention when they are being good, just like only ever getting attention when all 4 feet are on the floor is a really good way of stopping them jumping up.
Thank you. We had a dreadful night last night so I really hope we can improve this situation. We will try the radio tonight and see if that helps. The room she's in is not blacked out but she has a crate cover on so her crate is pretty dark (except the door is open).
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Is it really impossible to have her in your room? If she were there (even in her bed but not in a crate if space is the issue) you could more easily ask for a 'settle down' from her. At 10 months she should be clean overnight I assume? Once she is sleeping or quiet overnight you can gradually (a foot or a yard at a time) start moving her to where you want her to sleep.
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The room really does need to be blacked out. She can leave her crate and see daylight. This wakes up her "leave the nest at dawn" instinct and she will then be restless until she gets company.
A brief period in your room might help too?
I boarded a dog for a couple who had the same problem as you. They were newly weds and one of them had to sleep downstairs with the dog to keep it from disturbing the neighbours every night.
She was crate trained already so I put her crate in our farthest down stairs room that only had one small window. We blacked out the window with proper blackout material and left a radio on. She never made a peep. Admittedly I was probably not the person she was desperate to see but it still broke the cycle. She learned only quiet dogs get attention as I only released her when she was quiet.
A brief period in your room might help too?
I boarded a dog for a couple who had the same problem as you. They were newly weds and one of them had to sleep downstairs with the dog to keep it from disturbing the neighbours every night.
She was crate trained already so I put her crate in our farthest down stairs room that only had one small window. We blacked out the window with proper blackout material and left a radio on. She never made a peep. Admittedly I was probably not the person she was desperate to see but it still broke the cycle. She learned only quiet dogs get attention as I only released her when she was quiet.
