Quote:
Originally Posted by hazelcb  Thanks so much for your detailed reply, canana! To answer your questions:
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4. We haven't tried covering up his little house. I wonder if putting a towel or blanket over his little house might help. Maybe we'll have to give that a try.
5. We haven't tried to put his little house up on a chair, either. He can see me--I'm on Butch's side of the bed--easily. (He's a mama's dog.) He starts barking even before we put the lights out.
Butch basically runs our household. (We have 8 rescue cats, he's one of two rescue dogs, and we have 2 foster cats from an animal rescue.) No matter what room we're in, if one of us walks out of the room, Butch barks, too. We are not permitted to leave the room without his say-so.  He is really quite a personality!
Any help would be appreciated.
Hazel the Puzzled |
Then in this case, I'd say he may bark more if you put him in another room at night. I know mine will go crazy if they can't see me while sleeping at night - both are crate trained and need to have a good sightline of me when they're asleep.
Covering the crate worked for Scottie but not for Casie. You can try covering different parts of the crate (part or all sides).
In your situation, I'd try some conditioning, if he's only barking during night time due to some kind of fear. As soon as he goes in the crate at night, before the light is turned off,
and if he's quiet, I'd give him a treat (or a nice yummy chew for longer distraction). I'd only offer this super yummy treat/chew during this time of the day (i.e. he can't have this any other time). He'll learn that this yummy treat/chew is only available at this time and will look forward to bedtime when the lights are turned off and hopefully associate it with 'good things' and stop barking. **if he starts barking - take away the chew. Treats/chew only if he's quiet.
Or...maybe give him a nightlight? Maybe he became afraid of the dark
Or...the reason could just be that he's trying to put
you in your place and that it's not out of fear or anything, but rather it's the intelligent side of Butch trying to train his human
In this case, you'll have to tough it out and ignore the barking. For Scottie this ignoring stage took 1-2 very tiring months. For Casie, she stopped barking after less than 1 week!