what is wrong with lexi???????????
 

i get no sleep, i come home from work and make sure i walk her and play with
her till she gets tired and her tongue is hanging out of her mouth.. and i do it again the next hour.. ok so i go to sleep, around 1am 2am 3am 4am5am
6am///// bark bark bark bark bark bark bark,,, at nothing sometimes...
i cant take it anymore...last night i was at wits end i jumped out of bed after
screaming quiet!!!!! went in front of her face , of course she bent all the way down and yelled again,, no barking.... ooooh i was so mad:mad: :mad:
this has to stop. what can be wrong??? i know she is bored, but what am i to do......i feel so so bad for her.... maybe i shouldnt have her... am i giving her a good life????? my mom does come in the morning and noon to check up on her,,but mostly shes home alone for 9 or 10 hrs... she doesnt even want
her bully sticks when im home.... at night she sits on the side of me and scratches my head or arm as i lay on the couch... she just wants attention or food... dont know....help me figure this one out... its scareing me...
tonight me and my b/f are gonna bundle up and take a nice long walk, all three of us... maybe that would work...get her real tired..

I think the walk will help. I take mine on a long walk every night and when they go to bed at night they sleep all night. I am sorry you are going through this. I hope someone has some more suggestions for you and things get better soon

its not like shes a baby either.. shes gonna be 2 in march.. its just
killing me... this has been going on for awhile and i havent been able to stop it... any other advise please...looking for lots of suggestions...i will take a long walk tonight

She seems to be needing some serious walking there. Gosh I hope that the walk works. From what I saw one time on the dog whisperer we need to give them discipline, exercise and then the affection. There was lady with a barky dog on there and he had her assert her pack leader status and then get the dog walking and doing her thing so it could stop it. It seemed to work. Not sure if this is clear and if it will help.

Maybe she's asking for a sister? :aimeeyork :rolleyes:

Yes I think she needs a friend to hang out with on her long days home alone?

According to him any behaviour issue is because they have too much pent up energy so going by that the exercise should do wonders for you.

Have you thought of adding another to your gang?

I feel bad for you Gina. I can't imagine not sleeping at night. I would be nuts
without my sleep.
Buddy is home alone all day and I like you play in the evening with him after he eats. He will curl up with me for awhile and then wants to play again.
I throw the ball from the recliner;) time after time to poop him out.
I take him for a walk, no matter how cold, around 9:30 or so for about
15mins. He sleeps next to me all night and only growls under his breath in the dark if he hears something. I hope the walk works for Lexie. It may take time but I would definetly walk her at night and throw the ball or toy
from the couch so you don't have to get up, just poop her out.:D
Her pattern needs to be changed. How about the coins in the can method for stopping the barking. Shake the can in the dark and scare the _____ out of her! Might work.
Good luck,

Carol

If she's been doing it for a while now, it may have become a habit, that you will have to train her to break it. This will take some effort on your part and probably some additional sleepless nights.

Or it may be a matter of her thinking she is the "top" dog and HAS to be the protector of the "den". But, because she is so small, she is finding the task very enormous which has caused her anxiety and that is why she is constantly barking. In this case you will need to reassert yourself as the "in charge dog" so that she can rest better. (there have been many threads on this forum about how to go about re-establishing your authority)

When Millie was younger (she will be 2 in April) and housebroken, I thought she could sleep outside her crate. But she barked incessantly, so we put her back in the crate until she had matured some more. She probably has been out of the crate now, for only a couple of months. She sleeps in our room either on the bed or on her bed, which is next to our bed. She has only barked once since we let her out of the crate again. She never barked in the crate, because I think she felt "secure" in it. It was covered. But now that she is older the house noises don't bother her anymore.

If you don't do so now, how about closing the door to your bedroom with her in it with you. This will make her environment smaller and maybe less scarier for her. Does she have free access to your bed, like with steps? If not, get her that access.

My husband and I work and are gone from the house about 9 hours 5 days a week. We do take Millie on walks when we get home, we do play with her and give her lots of attention when we are home. We also, use the week-ends as "Millie days" and usually find things to do that involve her. Whether it be go to parks, take her shopping with us, or go to friends houses. She usually is with us all day long on these days. On the week nights that we work, we never go out to eat or delay our return to our home.

Hope that helps.

She may be going thru a phase ?? I feel for you and hope you find some answers - I'm no help cause mine sleep when I sleep and are really good about that - but Chanel used to do that as a puppy - it was her 2 am PARTY Time

I'm sorry, your going through this Gina. I'm sure the walk will give you good results. Were going through this right now, cause of the pup. So I feel you on the "sleep" part. TGIF

Hope everything works out.:)

maybe its the terrible two's..... she does sleepwith me,,in and out of the
covers all night long.. . i live very close to other houses, she hears, gates slam, people outside, dogs bark, etc... even a mouse farting 10 miles away.
she is crazy, but im getting fed up with her...

Maddie use to sleep in a crate at night....always always did great.. Then one day she started barking all night...

Now she sleeps in bed with us all night. lol Its so cute. She knows when the tv goes off and the lights, she will run to my side of the bed and wait for me to pick her up and get in. She does great now. We work too during the day, so actually it works out nice cause she gets good quality snuggle time with us...lol

She is so spoiled. She also wont eat til I get home. Hubby and my two daughters will come home and she still wont eat. The second I come home and she greets me and goes crazy then she will go and eat. These little girls just have a mind of there own...lol

Good Luck!!!!!!

oops sorry, i just seen where you said she sleeps with you...Man.. I have no idea now. Try sleeping with a fan on for noise and facing it in the opposite direction. Maybe that constant noise will quite her???

To bad they don't make doggy ear plugs. They have such darn good hearing. Reesie drives us nutts during thunder storms. She's up and down all night.

we do have noise in my bedroom. i have an air purifier that sounds like
an airconditoner, its on everynight for me so it blocks out noise so i could
sleep... ive used it for years and years.. cant sleep without it.. we are both
nuts.... she still jumps out of the covers and run into the livingroom and
barks for nothing...

Okay.... I'm probably going to get someone on YT calling the abuse police on me, but here is what I do for Sweety when she decides SHE is gonna run her yap.

Sweety doesn't bark at night. In fact, she curls up under the covers and won't even hear the doorbell!

But... when the children are playing and coming in and out of the house, she feels compelled to let everyone know that they are coming in or out. Even though she KNOWS it's them and they are allright to come in or go out.


She has a very high pitched bark that is waaaaaaay to annoying to listen to all day as the children play. I bought a bark collar (with my vets recommendation). She ONLY wears it when she gets totally nuts with her barking. I NEVER leave it on longer than an hour. She hates it with a purple P passion.
When we first started using it, she tried to bark and got a very small shock. She stopped immediately. She tried barking a few more times and each time got the shock. After wearing it a few times, all I had to say was "Do you want that shock collar on you?" She would HUSH...no lie. No more barking.

The very few times I've had to use it after that, she doesn't even try to bark with it. I've had it for the three years I've had her just about. I KNOW the batteries are dead in it now, but it still does the trick when she thinks it's time to get voicey.

I know many of you will probably think I'm just AWFUL to use that. I worried about it at first, until I tried it on MYSELF. Yes, I shocked myself with it.
It wasn't a painful thing, just made you want to stop immediately. My children even wanted to know what it was going to do to her and tried it on themselves. It has long since died but just it's presence will curb her barking now.

For us, it was a lifesaver. She doesn't like us fussing at her and we no longer have a fight over her barking.

Good luck. I hope it works out for you. Remember that she does want to be a good girl..she really does. We just have to find a way to show her how. :)

Hehe
 

That CRACKED me up! Im at work and just burst out laughing!! Thank god people here think im nuts already! :D

uuummm.. my suggestion... EAR PLUGS!!!

Im kidding!

I have 1 boy who sleeps when I sleep, straight through the night, no barking, nothing. I have another boy who does what lexi does, under the covers, over the covers, by my head, back under the covers, back out, ON my head, on the pillow! Last night it was never ending movement from him, I didn't sleep at all last night. he is not a barker though... neither ofmy dogs are. I live in a townhouse, so since they were YOUNG I kept with the "NO BARKING" line and they are really good about it now. Wish I could help you with the barking I don't know how to train them from doing that at an older age, just as puppies Im sorry :(

I do hear you with the whole restless dog syndrome though! Some nights Im awake every hour on the hour!

when she barks i tell her im gonna get the swatter, she stops, but when
you in a dead sleep and she barks, you cant even talk, you have no
energy... should i try a no bark collar, or a muzzle??? one or the other, im
going to try something is she doesnt stop this....

:lol tears :lol tears

I'm sorry.....I know I shouldn't laugh, but that was too funny! You poor thing. No sleep is a bummer. Hope you can get her worn out tonight.

You know, I used to think I was against the bark collar. Now, I feel that if it is absolutely necessary, then it's okay. I've been lucky enough to be able to yell (from wherever I am in the house) SHUT UP, and that usually does it. But I think if I had to listen to that from night after night, or all day while my kids are making their own OTHER racket, it would drive me crazy enough to go buy one.

I know many YT'ers are against them, but hey.....to each his own.

im against them too, but man oh man, i need some rest....if this weekend
goes bad again, im going to think about getting one .... they are pretty
expensive though, i would hate to waste more money and not use it....

A few extra dollars for a whole lotta peace is worth it in my book.

Like someone previously said, I think you need to definately establish your dominance over her, Gina. Lexi thinks she is the pack leader and as the pack leader she feels like she has to protect you. When she hears something, she barks bc this is her defense mechanism. And I agree that she is so small that she gets overwhelmed with the job of trying to protect you and she is anxious and nervous which probably makes her bark more. Go to the dog whisperer's website and also search here on YT. There are many methods you can use to establish your dominance.

I honestly feel like a muzzle or a shock collar will only mask the problem temporarily and only frustrate poor Lexi more. You need to get to the root of the problem, which is dominance.

Excellent post. :thumbup: I agree 100%.

My yorkie used to do that also, but my german shepherd put her into place. And now they're best bud. There're time for affections and there're time you need to discipline them!!

i feel your pain. sometimes, with kirby, i feel i need to rehome him b/c his barking gets to me soooo bad. i just love him. i am home all day and he needs me all of the time, he really needs a boy about 5-6 yrs old to play with him. muffie and coco are fine. they can entertain themselves. they don't bark or constantly nag me. we have tried everything for kirby's whining and barking but nothing seems to help. i think it is just his personality. he is a man and he is needy

rebecca, you know me and jen you know me very well, i dont think i would
get the collar .. you know what, she probably does think shes protecting me, cause she barks and looks at me..... she thinks she the alpha, but shes not

That's the problem sweetie ... Lexi thinks SHE is in charge. You have to be the Alpha in your pack.

I was watching the Dog Whisperer the other day and Ceaser was saying how dogs who think they are the Alpha dogs are always worried and stressed and bark alot bc it takes alot of work to be the leader and protector of a pack. It might be worth it for you to get the Dog Whisperer's DVD or book. I know he has some great techniques on how to establish dominance in your household. Maybe this could be something you and your hubby do this weekend together with Lexi.