Barking at night

Hi everyone!

Badger has settle din well and we are working on his training (or lack of!) every day, and go to training classes every monday.

There is just one point where we are fighting a losing battle and it is gettign worse instead of better! His whimpering at night has now gone to full on barking, throughout the night. Obviously I cannot ignore this as I have neighbours both sides...so means I am getting up 4/5/6 times a night and poor me is tired (needless to say when it comes to night time activities, they become my dogs, lol) and the girls are looking pretty knackered too!

Any ideas!

oh and while we're dishing ideas around, he has become a bit toy possessive, growling at sally if she so much as looks in the direction fo the toy he is playing with and last night when she jumped off the sofa, he snarled and let out a huge growl so she jumped straight back on again. I know people say they will sort it out amongst themselves but she looked a little put out...they are on their own today till about 11.30 when mum goes in and i am nervy now that they may be fighting over toys as we speak. Deep down I know sally can hold her own, and in many respects they do get on, sally and him specially but even yoyo i caught lying with her head on his back, deep down i know they will probably sort it out amongst themselves, just a bit nervy as they are on their own.

Can I stress that the majority of the time Badger is a lovely and welcome addition to the family...just need some advice on these two points that's all? xxx

Sorry, Danni, can't help! But someone will be here soon who can, I'm sure.

Any chance you could keep them in seperate rooms or in crates whilst you are out? Im a believer of dogs sorting it out themselves but if you are worried i would seperate them when unsupervised.

With the toys i know it sounds unfair but i would pick up any toys lying around and only have a limited amount of them out on your terms...say 3 out at once and you play with sally first with them then yoyo then badger and then after a little while take them away again. I think where they are on the floor all the time he assumes they are his, so you need to show him they are not all his they are to share......not that i think you would but i dont mean by forcing them away from him as this will make him worse not better.

I would also teach him leave. having a toy or treats in your hand and saying leave each time he comes close to them, closing your hand over the toy/treat at the same time...when he does leave he gets rewarded with A DIFFERENT toy or treat.... Maybe also having two toys of the same value i.e. two identical balls. Throw one and get him to bring it back, as soon as he drops it i would throw the other ball.
Hope this helps xx

With the barking at night could you perhaps start with him in his bed/crate next to your bed and slowly moving it away and downstairs, if he does bark correct him with 'aha' or 'no' then make him lay down...he may just be unsure of new surroundings so he barks instead of sleeps ( anytime you catch him laying in his bed quietly i would reward him)

I know this seems hard but it worked for me with Rusty... When he started his howling/barking I went to him threw a cup of water in his face, shouted "quiet" and walked away.
He started a barking bit later on and I did the same again .

He hasn't barked at night since (2 years) . Now when I see him in the morning I always make a great fuss of him and everyone gets a good sleep!.

We had problems with Murphy barking at night for a long time. If you are friendly with your neighbours, I would buy them a bottle of wine each to pacify them and pop round to see each one of them and explain that you have a new dog who has a little SA at night and that you would like to just try ignoring the barking for a few nights and hopefully he'll learn that barking doesn't get you to come to him. Hopefully they will understand and let you leave him barking for the time it takes you to train him.

Otherwise, and this is what we ended up having to do with Murphy, I know it breaks your rules, but I would start him off in a bed by your bed, once he's settled there for a few nights on the trot, move the bed nearer to the bedroom door. Once he's happy there, move the bed so it's just outside the bedroom door, and so on until he's where you want him to be.

We did this, but in the end never ended up moving Murph out of the bedroom

He now sleeps in a crate across the room from us.

Michael would never ever ever ever ever ever allow a dog in the bedroom, I broke all his rules and convinced myself we would break this one too....but it's been a year next month (already!!!) and we haven't broken him

The good news is I spoke to my trainer on Monday night and he gave me some methods to try and so far, the last two nights, Badger has not barked, he starts crying at 6.30am on the dot

he's like a furry alarm clock.

So there's progress. We are also making (slow) progress with on and off lead training.

So the only real problem we are facing is his toy possessiveness and his over zealous playing...when he puts sally's entire nose in his mouht she hates it and just looks miserable, while Yoyo looks miserable most of the time. I mean, is it normal for your original dogs to mope about for a bit? The last thing I want is sally and yoyo upset, sometimes I think maybe he's just too bouncy for them, I don't know, maybe they will never get on?? But I do know he is takign alot of our time at the moment and I do not want sally and yoyo feelign left out

Right look back to your first post hun, posted 4 days ago and look to your post today and look at the progress youv'e made already re the separation anxiety. Baby steps thats all it is

If you go to the main page of the ST you will find a bit that Selina did on Sep A.

Reguarding the toys, if it was me and it was cos Bam had a few issues like this, especially foody toys

, as soon as the ructions start, I would take all toys away. And give them all time out. Re introduce them say an hour later. You are in control of the toys, not Badger

It worked for us, all have kongs together now and no tazzes and all work the pyramid together

You'll get there hun, have faith in yourself

Thanks Fuddles, I think I sometimes feel a little daunted because I have never had a young dog before, well apart from sundae but I was 11 so mum did the training!

Sally needed a little recall work when we firt had her but Yoyo and Jasper were pretty much well trained from the word go (altho Jasper suffered SA too, he howled at night for a couple of weeks) I think Badger has had a fair few homes and foster homes in the last few months so he is going tot ake longer to settle, but like I say, first time doing basic training so is a learning curve for me too!

On Monday my trainer pulled me aside and told me he had bags of potential and would be a super dog, which gave me renewed enthusiasm...it is tiring a bit because I cannot train him with the girls so we are going out with him, then the girls and him, then him, then the girls and him, and focusing so much on him on walks, specially now the pysio says we cannot play fetch with sally anymore, I just think I am worrying about them and him and everything

But last ngith on the park a lady was watching us do recall training and said afterwards "he's really getting there isn't he!" and walking home my neighbour said, r.e. the pulling, oooh he's doing much better! (which is nice because my fingers have swollen to the point i cannot get my wedding ring off!!!!) so I know we are making progress, like I say, daunting because the youngest dog we've had before now has been 6

I take all the toys away when problems occur, then I feel guilty because they really do make Yoyo happy...she builds a little nest of them on the sofa, then Badger comes along and steals them and punctures them!! I've given Badger kongs and tug of war toys as the girls don't like them and he does, but he still wants theirs too

typical kid!!!

we'll get there though, and I know I have ST to turn to...sure I will make good use of this section

With the toys, will Sally play with him at all. When he was with us, he and Murphy had a great time playing with tuggy toys together. There's a lady at our training group who makes brilliant soft tuggy toys that tend to be longer than your regular rope raggers. Our one was brilliant for Badger and Murphy because they could have a good old tug with one on each end, but not interfere with each other and get stroppy.

Let me know if you want one to try and I'll get one for you next week. They cost pennies and it goes towards the guide dog puppy that we sponsor as a group.

It's almost like sally wants to play but doesn't know how......yoyo has never been a "player" and you sometimes see sally tense up and point her body towards Badger, and then flop back down again

Maybe a long tug would be ideal? Sally has tried to pluck a ball from his mouth but at leats with a tug she can get a firm grip....I will probably be panicking tho maybe that's half the trouble