Barking at night

Avi

Hi guys I have an 9 month GSD male called Jimmy that just wants to bark at night,

There are other people living in the house so I always get forced into going down taking him out which happens 4 or 5 times in a night,

From doing some general reading iv realised this is the totally wrong thing to do as Jim just gets the idea that barking means i get someone to come down and spend some time with me,

So what is the solution to solving the barking problem? ignore it would be an easy answer but its not that simple, theres 5 people in the house and his barking starts with a few yaps but then moves onto excessive barking

it started as a sign that he needed to go out for his business but now i dont know, he wont go til the 3rd or 4th time (a good 2 or 3 hours)
but in most cases the barking will stop after (not all)

All suggestions welcome
Thanks

Avi

also
I kown that he doesnt need to go the first few times because he wont sniff around, just try find twigs to play with or sit down next to me untill i go back in (all on a lead, if i let him out off lead hes off like a rocket to find a ball or just run around)

elisabeth

Hi there!

I have a 10 month old male (picture to the left)!

I would cover the crate with a blanket, this will make him feel more secure. Also, I know someone is going to loose sleep the first few nights, but ignore the barking.

Take him out to pee before bed and then in the crate he goes.

You can also do fun games during the day with the crate!

Feed him in the crate, toss cookies in the crate, play with him in the crate and praise like crazy!

Here are a few good clip of some helpful crate games:

YouTube - Crate Games Part 1: Zelda 13 wks


*Would LOVE to see photo's of your puppy!

Avi

Oh no i forgot to mention hes out of the crate, has been loose in the kitchen for a while, never had a problem with him going inside, i normaly took him out for 5 mins at 3am and he would no1 and 2, back in to sleep
Dads forcing me to put him outside now he has a nice big warm dog house, baught an underground dog fence incase he digs under the fence, but will be a while till hes out properly will phase it in.

untill then, back to the barking problem

fawkese1

why don't you crate him in your room with you at night? that way he isn't all alone? bummer that he has to go outside, now his barking is sure to bother your neighbors....do you think you could talk your dad into that?

Karebear

I was so glad to see this post because I am having the same problem with my 5 month old puppy. Just started 2 nights ago, all of a sudden he doesn't want to be in his puppy-pen anymore, which he would sleep for 8 hours straight, now he is barking to get out. And really loudly to the point that I'm nervous about the neighbours complaining soon (we live in a semi-attached house). Thanks for posting this Avi, I'm also learning from the responses

watts300

Do you walk your dog for a good 45-60 minutes before bedtime?

espencer

Agree