9 month old dog barking all night and sleeping all day.

[RiverOtter]

I agree with Brindlebtch x100 but one thing she didn't mention.
Change your definition of "walk the dog". Having her out on leash while she romps around for 10 minutes or strolling to the end of the block and back will not cut it. Take her out, let her potty and then WALK the dog.
Powerwalk, feel the burn!
She needs to be trotting. Move like you're late for an appointment and do that for at least 10 minutes. Same ten minutes you'd be wandering around with her, letting her sniff everything, waiting for her to go .. forget all that. Take that 10 minutes and WALK.
When she has to stop and go, give it a command, like "Go Potty", tell her she's a good girl and then keep WALKing. IT will be good for both of you.

 

[lorieMN]

Quote:
wow !!! there is no "one right way" to train anything..you may have to try several different approaches before finding the one that works..and this dog sounds pretty smart,,she keeps everyone awake all night and eventually gets what she wants..I would feed her in the AM and maybe around 4-5,thats it..and like others said get her moving,,

 

[Brindlebtch]

Quote:
Yup. Thank you, I didn't define "walk" did I? Good point made.

 

[reveriereptile]

Thanks for all the replies. I'll try to answer questions and give more information.

Information about the crate: The room her crate is in is around 72 degrees the same as the rest of the house. It is a large wire crate with the plastic tray bottom. I have tried using a towel/blanket in her crate but she would eat the fabric. I did try using stuff like apple bitter on them but she ended up liking the stuff. I don't know how cause my husband tried the bitter spray cause he was curious and couldn't get rid of the taste for a few hours. She also had tried eating her stuffed toys that she played with all summer without any problems. She would rip them open and eat the stuffing, I'd remove the rest of the stuffing, and then she would eat the fabric. She does have a nylabone I do put in her crate with her since it is the only toy that has lasted. She chewed pieces off her Kong toy. We don't have any neighbors near the house luckily since we have farm land around us. The room the crate is in is down the hallway from our room and it echoes really bad when she barks. The door to her room even has that thick egg shell foam bedding on both sides of the door. Usually when she barks she will bark once and then wait 3-5 mins before barking again. Sometimes I can tell from her bark if she needs to go potty real bad cause she barks more closely together and a lot louder but last week she pooped in her crate in the morning and then barked after to be let out.

Feeding time: I feed her twice daily and she is getting plenty of food. I've tried increasing her food by a half cup and she would gain weight and be breathing heavy so I cut it back down. I tried for a little over a week at feeding/watering her at 7pm and crating her at 10pm right after going out for potty time. She would wake up at about 2am and want to go outside to poop. After the 2am she would keep waking up and I would try to ignore her or if I did get up she would go directly outside and back in the crate. She kept wanting fed and when I would feed her around 7am she would be quiet for a while. If I fed her at 10pm and crated her at 12am she wouldn't want food till 7am.

Exercise: She has her play times with her toys and us or chasing the other dogs around in the house that hate her and keep biting her. If it isn't freezing cold out we take her for a 40min walk. During the summer we usually walk 2-4 miles a day unless busy or rain. My FIL also sometimes will take her outside for a while when he is checking on his cows in the evening and will let her run loose in a field if there aren't any cars going up and down the roads. She usually will chase the other dogs which try to get away from her. My SIL told us we can take her over to her place and put her in the garage with her two dogs especially since one of them has ADHD to help drain both of them of energy. We took her over last night for a little over an hour and she ate food there around 7-8pm and when we came back she slept for 2 hours and then started the barking again. I didn't feed her anymore after we left since she ate there. I also do laps up and down the stairs with her if it is nasty outside.


After reading everyone's replies and that my husband doesn't work for the next 2 days I'm going to try some stuff. I'll do the last feeding and watering at 7pm, exercise/playtime after, and crate at 10pm (toy in crate). Once she is crated I'll ignore her barking even if it means I'll be awake all night but I don't have to worry about my husband trying to sleep before work. I'll do one middle of the night potty outing just incase (only after she hasn't barked for 15 minutes) and then no more till 7am. After 7am she will get a playtime/walk and her feeding/watering. She can have a short nap afterwards if she is tired and wore out from the walk but it will be in her crate and not in our room and same goes for any napping. Later in the day I will either go for another walk, playtime, or work with her on some commands. She knows how to sit but takes a long time to get her to sit if she sees another dog or person. Do her feeding at 7pm and then take her over to my SILs to play with her dogs for an hour closer to her sleeping time. After back we will do her potty break and then crate at 10pm. Does that sound like it might work if I don't do any giving in? Also should I feed her before or after her exercise especially in the morning? I was wondering if anyone thought having a radio playing softly in her room might settle her down at night? I didn't know if maybe that would drown out any noises from our room or us going to the bathroom. Maybe if I have to I'll turn a radio on in our room since I can sleep through the radio and it might drown her barking out.

 

[Baymule]

If all this fails, try a bark collar. Our DD has a mini-weiner that barked when she left him in the apartment to go to work. It disturbed the neighbors, in the spirit of not being a nuisance, she got him a bark collar. He learned real quick to shut up.

 

[redhen]

I think the dog needs to come live here with me... cause i'm up all night and sleep during the day too. We be perfect for each other..
You can drop him off anytime.

 

[MyKidLuvsGreenEgz]

Quote:
The dog is just spoiled and the situation is easily remedied. The dog is bright enough and manipulative enough to have trained her owners admirably. A little affort on their part and they will have a great companion for years.

Good gosh, I agree. The dog is spoiled. Last food around 6 p.m. and last drink shortly after. Outside after eating. Two hours before bed, constant active play. Outside right before you go to bed. Dog to crate. Shut door to room. Muffle by towel under the door if you have to. And ignore. Out first thing in the morning but NEVER let the dog out while he/she is barking because that again reinforces the behavior ... bark = people will come let me out!

Unless s/he's got a physical problem, s/he should be able to hold peeing and pooping until morning.

May take a while, but if you can't get it under control now, you will probably have neighbors really really p.o.'d at you.

The dog is manipulating you. Good human!

(Sorry, couldn't resist!)

 

[Tala]

Quote:
I have to agree. First exhaust all the other options. The dog should NOT be sleeping all day! You might be able to fix the problem minus the collar, but when push comes to shove you've GOT to sleep.
When Hawk was new around here he would bark to beg to be let back in the house. Part of the reason we got him was to keep the first dog company so they could be outside together but not alone while I was gone to work. Hubbs sleeps during the day so we also had the interrupted sleep problem. We got him a "Bark Limiter" I think it's TriTronics brand. It has 5 settings. Start low, and after a day move it up a notch until you get to the level that works --- took him about 2 days to figure it out. We really haven't even used it in months now, he knows the rules. It was either the collar or get rid of the dog, and he really is a good dog so I'm glad we got it.

 

[Skyesrocket]

Where are your other two dogs during the night? Dogs like to sleep with the rest of the pack. Are their crates in the same room?

 

[Chicken Rustler]

Well I Didn't read all of the posts just tried to skim over. There is one thing that I didn't notice. Does this dog have any light at night or is it very dark where the dog sleeps? If it is very dark try a small night light like you would put in a childs room. Yes believe it or not some animals are afraid of the dark just like some people are.