Hi all.  I have a Cairn Terrier who sleeps in my bedroom on a night.  I know some posters might not approve of this but it works for us.  Anyway, when he was a pup he slept in a crate in the bedroom and was fine.  Then, when he got to about 6 months old he started getting restless on a night as though he wanted out of there.  We decided to allow him to sleep outside the crate on a night and after a few nights he finally settled down.  Anyway, he's now just over a year old and has, for the last month or so, been growling and barking at every little sound he hears outside (even some that I can't hear) which is really affecting our sleep.  I have a fan in my bedroom which I have to leave on all night to drown out any noises.  This works but it's obviously starting to get cold on a night so I don't want to have to do that for much longer.  I also want to keep him in my bedroom so putting him somewhere else isn't really an option.

I've tried to tell him 'quiet' which he then is but only for about 30 seconds then he starts up again.  Other than this he's perfect, really happy and doesn't make much noise in the day at all.  I just wondered if anyone had been through anything similar and had any advice? Thanks.

Bump

Hi,

I wouldn't tell the dog to quiet as he will just think that you're joining in - 'quiet' said abruptly will just sound like you're barking with him.  Unless you've trained the word properly to begin with.  If you want to say something to him, to show that you've heard his warning, you could say 'Thank you Fido'.

If you just ignore him, how long does it take for him to shut up?

Perhaps you should try putting him back in the crate at night again.  Some dogs feel safer in their crate and perhaps he won't feel the need to guard your house quite so much if he feels safer?  You can also try putting a blanket or something over the crate, to make it more of an enclosed safe place for him.