# Late Night Barking



## Denethor (Apr 2, 2013)

Seiya is now 6 months old and has recently started to wake up at random during the night (he is crated). There is no real pattern, sometimes its 4am, other times 6.30am (we usually wake up around 7am).

The first night, even tho we always take him out for one final pee/poo right before we go to bed, i figured it was an unexpected bowel movement so i took him out without any praise or attention, and right back in his crate. He settled down but started barking/whining again about an hour later, which i ignored. .

I've read several topics in the forum, but there is no real consensus on the course of action. Is it best to ignore him completely (which is what we're doing now), call out some comforting words, ... ? I'm a bit at a loss, my instincts tell me to ignore him, but this is the 5th night in a row where he wakes us up. He barked for almost an hour this morning before we let our alarm clock go off to wake up. We're hoping he will associate the alarm clock with waking up.

Here are some things we've done to try to get things back to normal :


[li]We moved his morning feed from 7am to 8am, so he doesn't link waking up with getting food
[/li]
[li]We ignore him completely when he does this, and wait for our alarm clock before we get up[/li]
[li]We've added an additional brisk 30 minute walk around 10pm (we go to bed around 11.30pm)[/li]
[li]I've added some additional t-shirts and pillow covers with our smell in his crate (this helped when he was very young)[/li]
[li]We no longer allow him in the bedroom, he used to run into our bedroom if one of us was still trying to catch a few minutes of sleep. He would then lay beside the bed in a pile of dirty laundry and go to sleep himself, we figured he might be barking because he wants to sleep in the bedroom[/li]
So far no luck, and i'm sure my neighbors will start to complain if this goes on for too long. He's been sleeping through the night in his crate since he was about 11 weeks without issues, until recently ??? We did go trough a period (8-11 weeks) where we set our alarm at 2 intervals during the night to wake him up for a quick outside potty, so he understood he would wake up on our terms. We figured we were long past this by now as it had gone so well.

Any advise is much appreciated!


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## datacan (May 15, 2011)

My thinking is, move the crate into your bedroom :-X 

If it is there, move it closer to you :-*

Later, invest in a King sized bed (you guys will sleep more comfortably because one dog will take about 20% of available mattress real estate


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## datacan (May 15, 2011)

This is what I mean.... Only when trained and has earned it, does the dog enjoy higher reward. 

20%- 25% of king mattress (as defined by his own blanket) but nothing more, LOL or its back to the kennel.


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## Rudy (Oct 12, 2012)

CORRECT PILLOWS AS WELL 

I USE 8 OF THOSE ;D


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## Denethor (Apr 2, 2013)

datacan said:


> My thinking is, move the crate into your bedroom :-X
> 
> If it is there, move it closer to you :-*
> 
> Later, invest in a King sized bed (you guys will sleep more comfortably because one dog will take about 20% of available mattress real estate



Datacan: we already transitioned him out of the bedroom when he was 8-10 weeks, without any issues. But we did move about 6 weeks ago into a new place, where we put his crate into the spare bedroom. Perhaps a re-transition isn't bad advise!

Bed isn't an option, i already have someone who keeps tossing and turning all night


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## jld640 (Sep 29, 2010)

I don't know if it will work with a 6 month old, but when I put Savannah to bed, I always say 'Night-night'. On those rare occasions when she wakes during the night, if I hear her leave her bed, I tell her 'night-night' and she always returns to bed. Although she will sometimes let out a hearty sigh or groan when she complies. ;D


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