# Nightime barking (while crated)



## Sportfaller (Mar 15, 2010)

Scout, my 11 month old Viz has been crated every night since he came home with us. He used to whine a little each night for a few minutes, but that stopped after we put a dog bed in the crate (after he was house broke). This week he has started again, but now it is incessant barking and whining, crying and yelping. The first couple nights I thought he needed to go “out”, and he did go, but when he comes back in the chase is on. He doesn’t want to go back in his crate, he wants to go to his spot on the couch. He will go in his crate after being told a few times. The barking continues. Last night I was woken up at midnight, three, and four by his constant barking. What gives? I don’t think anything has changed to make him want out. I’m sure he is worn out in the evenings because he gets about 3 hours of hiking every day. Oh, and I give him a kong with a treat every night, always have. Works for a little while each night.

Any ideas?


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## jp (Nov 24, 2009)

We had a very similar situation, although you may not like how it ended up with us. Penny was crate trained from the beginning, and did really well sleeping at night in the crate in a different room from us and during the day when we would go out, etc. When she was more than a year, maybe 16 months, she started barking and whining a lot. I did the same thing--got up, put her out, let her drink, the entire go-to-bed routine. Extra blankets, pillows, as it was fall and like now starting to get colder. This worked for a month or two. Then around 18 months she started up again and nothing seemed to work. We think it was tied to a general onset of separation anxiety at that time, possibly connected to my wife's pregnancy. We talked to vets and a trainer. We tried some anti-anxiety medication that sort of worked, but not entirely. We moved the crate to our room and switched from a wire crate to a plastic one that is more den-like. Each of these steps helped for a day or two and I had some sleepless nights. At the same time she started having panic attacks in the crate during the day, so it wasn't just nighttime with us. We ended up getting her a nice new dog bed and letting her sleep on the floor of our room. We're still struggling with this because she wants to sleep in our bed and gets up once we're asleep, although she tries to come up earlier. 

It's not the best situation. We really didn't want her in our room as it was the old cat's territory and he is now regularly peeing on our bed clearly in revenge during the day if we accidentally leave the door open. But we're working on it. It did force us to try letting her be free in the house during the day when we go out, which surprisingly has worked great. She doesn't destroy much when we're not home. 

Hopefully you can resolve your situation fairly quickly. I don't know where you are, but if in a cold northern hemisphere climate, cold is a factor as it may have been a trigger with us. Good luck!


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## Sportfaller (Mar 15, 2010)

I'm in western South Dakota, and we just turned the heat back on this week, funny that it might be temp. related. Separation anxiety may play a part, there is little time that he is away from me since he comes to work. I'll try putting the kennel outside our bedroom door.


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