How to stop the barking!!!! lol

[Fergie Baby]

Hello everyone, Well let me start off by saying that my girl has slept alone in her cage every night since I have had her...and she was always quiet as a mouse. I would say in the last three months she has slowly started barking randomly at any little noises etc. and when she barks, she barks like CRAZY soooo loud and aggresive. When its during the day and she does that I am usually right by her and I can get her quiet easily. But at night she will start her barking and of course wakes us up and the only way to quiet her down is by walking to the othe side of the house to settle her down. She doesnt do this every night...but I am worried she may start getting into a habit with it. I want to know what I can do to maybe stop this?( i dont want to lose sleep) lol and why she is starting this now?. (BTW) she used to not bark at all. It Just came out of now where. She is 3 years old. LOL ok I am done rambling.

[Ash n Leelu]

Hello,
Let me start by saying that i am not an expert... lol. But i might suggest bringing her crate into your room. (if that is possible) I may be wrong, but it would be easier to correct her. Good luck!

[poshy]

I'm definitely not an expert but I know that getting up to comfort her will only make it worse. Just like when you have a puppy. She will quickly begin to expect you to get up. The only thing I know is you have to immediately use some type of correction technique. We've trained ours to stop when we yell no barking or use a noise like EHH! Unfortunately this will not work for the squirrels she sees out the windows. But maybe if we were more consistent during these moments it would.
GOOD LUCK!

[Cinq1964]

I can imagine how discouraging this can be. Do you cover her crate with a sheet. I use to cover Nolee's crate completely at nite time. This seemed to help. He knew it was time to nite nite and would be ok til morning. Good luck! Hope it gets better for you!

[Bhikku]

Here's an idea. Get a baby monitor and put the "baby" end in your room on your bedside table. Put the "mommy" end next to the dog's crate.

Whenever she wakes up in the middle of the night, sternly correct the dog through the baby monitor. "No Bark!" Then when she quiets, praise her through the monitor and go back to sleep.

Hopefully this will teach her that barking at night is not appropriate without you having to get up in the middle of the night, and eventually the "monitor intervention" will not be necessary.

[Fergie Baby]

Thanks for the responses...If she keeps it up I think the baby moniter thing is a good idea! I dont want to bring her crate in the room cause i want to keep her used to being alone at night....Like I said even when she was a new puppy I would leave her alone at night and not a peep! she was such a good little girl! dont know what is going on with her now! lol....

[YorkieMother]

I guess I have to ask what is she hearing to set her off at night ????

Could she be hearing something you are not? That would be a place to start. Find the trigger as it only some nights what differnt on the ones she does not to the ones she does?

Why can she not sleep in the same room??
Dogs are soical creatures they like to be near thier family.
It is ok to not let her that of course is your choice but it she be more comfortable in the room why not.

Maybe something in her health has changed or her brain wiring as she ages that she does not like being alone any more? She done now growing at three in the mental department. That is the age for most dogs they mature out mentally.

I posted in another thread a link to getting into a night time ritual maybe setting her up so everything about going to be is the same might help.

JL

[YorkieMother]

Here is the link to the article I thought of ClickerSolutions Training Articles -- Creating a Nighttime Ritual

JL

[Fergie Baby]

Thanks again for the responses. I dont want to bring her in the room because its not how i want her to be raised...she gets alot of love and attention. But night time is our private time I guess you could say. lol. And I dont think its that she minds being alone...cause its not a whine for attention...its like she just heard something so she barks all of a sudden aggresively...I assume its from outside cause we live in a very busy spot and when I hear a car door slam ...thats sometimes when she starts going crazy. I guess its just she has never really barked before and now she does, so I was confused. I am also thinking of putting a radio in her room at night so maybe she could get distracted? I will see!

[YorkieMother]

Originally Posted by Fergie Baby

Thanks again for the responses. I dont want to bring her in the room because its not how i want her to be raised...she gets alot of love and attention. But night time is our private time I guess you could say. lol. And I dont think its that she minds being alone...cause its not a whine for attention...its like she just heard something so she barks all of a sudden aggresively...I assume its from outside cause we live in a very busy spot and when I hear a car door slam ...thats sometimes when she starts going crazy. I guess its just she has never really barked before and now she does, so I was confused. I am also thinking of putting a radio in her room at night so maybe she could get distracted? I will see!

Ok what about putting on low level calm music to help cover the sounds she hears or a fan? See I did not even finish reading your post and thought music just make sure it calm and not thumping or it may back fire.
Fan may work better it white noise... just thinking here out loud.

See more info gets you diffrent ideas. That may help or not.

JL

[gabbylynn88]

I have to say, I have only had my yorkie for 2 weeks and he doesn't bark as much as he use to. We have trained him to the word "Quiet". When he starts to whine or bark we sternly yell "Quiet!" or "Quiet Noah!" and he stops. Just be consistent with the word you use and stick to one word.

[YorkieMother]

Originally Posted by gabbylynn88

I have to say, I have only had my yorkie for 2 weeks and he doesn't bark as much as he use to. We have trained him to the word "Quiet". When he starts to whine or bark we sternly yell "Quiet!" or "Quiet Noah!" and he stops. Just be consistent with the word you use and stick to one word.

You are very lucky that that worked for you.
Usually when you yell at a dog for barking they think you are joining them in the barking and bark louder.
Also not teaaching them that quiet is the lack of sound first usually does not work.
It nice most to have an exeptionally smart dog in your life, congratulations.

JL

[gabbylynn88]

Originally Posted by YorkieMother

You are very lucky that that worked for you.
Usually when you yell at a dog for barking they think you are joining them in the barking and bark louder.
Also not teaaching them that quiet is the lack of sound first usually does not work.
It nice most to have an exeptionally smart dog in your life, congratulations.

JL

Thank you, he is very smart. He already has grasp that whenever I have a treat, vitamin or bowl of food in my hand he is to sit. He is only 12 weeks old too. I am very proud of my baby boy. The only thing we have problems with is potty training but that is to be expected.

[YorkieLover9]

How old is your puppy? I'm asking because Canyon is 7 months old and he has never been a barker and just in the last 2 weeks, he has started this growling and the barking at sounds that he hears, he has even started barking and growling at his own reflect (which he never did prior). He doesn't do this at night time, only during waking hours but in talking with his breeder, we've determined that he's growing up and he's now began to "guard". When he's barking, I usually go see what he's barking at or pretend to know what he's barking at and I will acknowledge him such as Thank you Canyon for telling me about the school kids walking by (or whatever the situation is), mommy hears them too, thank you for telling me Canyon. then I hold a finger to my lips and do the shhhh sound and say quiet and this usually works for him as he knows that I've heard what he's wanting to "warn" me about and he quiets down.

[gabbylynn88]

Originally Posted by YorkieLover9

How old is your puppy? I'm asking because Canyon is 7 months old and he has never been a barker and just in the last 2 weeks, he has started this growling and the barking at sounds that he hears, he has even started barking and growling at his own reflect (which he never did prior). He doesn't do this at night time, only during waking hours but in talking with his breeder, we've determined that he's growing up and he's now began to "guard". When he's barking, I usually go see what he's barking at or pretend to know what he's barking at and I will acknowledge him such as Thank you Canyon for telling me about the school kids walking by (or whatever the situation is), mommy hears them too, thank you for telling me Canyon. then I hold a finger to my lips and do the shhhh sound and say quiet and this usually works for him as he knows that I've heard what he's wanting to "warn" me about and he quiets down.

Noah is 12 weeks old.