Night barking

irotas

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#1
I'm hoping someone here will have advice on how to address Manni's night barking. It's making me crazy!

Basically Manni is usually very relaxed and spends most of the day lazing around the house. He occasionally barks during the day, but it's almost always because he hears a motorcycle (for some reason he HATES motorcycles) or another dog barking.

However, ever since we've got him, he usually lets out at least one loud bark in the middle of the night. Sometimes he literally is laying asleep and suddenly wakes up barking. Sometimes it seems like he's barking at sounds he hears from outside, but sometimes we don't hear anything at all.

It's obnoxious because he often wakes us up. I don't think his barking has anything to do with getting attention, so if he doesn't stop I usually get up and redirect his attention to get him to be quiet.

Last night he did like at least 5 times, and I have no idea what he was barking at, but he cost me at least an hour of sleep. He got all upset and started walking around growling with his tail in the air.

I really don't know how to address this. I'm worried that my landlord (who lives upstairs) is going to hear him.

Any suggestions?
 

Baxter'smybaby

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#3
Have you worked on teaching him "quiet" as a command? It's what I use with my dogs--works for me.
 

Herschel

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#4
Maybe there's a raccoon or something outside that is bothering him--it could be anything. Herschel used to look out the window and he would bark (right in our faces) at any hour of the night if he heard something.

We started crating him at night (with a blanket over the sides of the crate) and he slept soundly through the night. After about 5 months of that we stopped using the crate at night (Nala only slept in the crate at night for the first week we had her) and we haven't heard any barking at all.
 
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#5
We keep Baby and Jessie in our room with the door shut, and they sleep through the night. If som ehow Jessie gets out, she will bark all night. And never shut up.
 

irotas

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#6
Thanks everyone for the suggestions.

Unfortunately, we don't have a crate, and I have no idea if he's crate-trained. He's ~5 years old, but we only got him a year ago.

One thing that does seem to help is if we close the windows in the bedroom and run the A/C at night. The A/C creates so much white noise that it's difficult for him to hear anything from outside. However, running the A/C costs money, so we often debate on cool evenings whether to run it or leave the windows open.

As for the 'quiet' command, I don't know if that is really applicable in this particular case. He's not a "serial barker"; that is, he doesn't go 'bark bark bark bark bark ...'. He usually just lets out one loud bark and then quiets down. If he does bark again, it's usually several minutes later.

Thanks again!
 

beth2

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#7
I would try a crate....he may feel more secure at night in one...does he bark when you are away and he is alone at home?
my dog can be a barker,but when she is in her crate...she never barks. She loves her crate and even goes to bed at night in it by herself.
might be worth a try. Just make sure you make the crate a really great place and comfy and he may love it.
Im interested to know what others will say. Good luck!
 

otch1

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#8
Hi Irotas. Your dog is hyper- sensitive to sounds and this can often cause stress barking, alerting at very insignificant noises, the dog not truly achieving a deep sleep and being easily woken. Not a surprise you have a dog that lounges around during day, he's probably a bit tired. Lol. You made an important statement by saying the white noise of the air conditioner seems to help, when he's in your room. This is what you need to do when he's required to sleep without it. Desensitize him to all noises. He'll know the difference between someone rattling the front door handle, when he should bark, and the sound of a dog barking in the neighborhood. You can start by playing classical music 15 minutes before bed at a slightly higher volume that you normally would. Turn it down to a reasonable level for him to go to sleep by, when you're turning the lights off. Hand him a small kong with a tb. of peanut butter in it and lights out. This works if he's sleeping in the living room. By the time he's eased a bit of his anxiety via chewing and food reward, he's more relaxed and the music should condition him to sleeping with sound, also drowning out all of the little creaks and bumps in the night he's so sensitive to.
 

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