Hello all, I was just after a little advice about my 5 month old pup...He has been a very vocal boy since the day we brought him home, he always likes to give his opinions on things and we have accepted that he is just a very noisey little bugger in general. He has got a little less excitable (and therefore a little quieter) as he is growing and I can manage to quieten the squealing yelps he makes as he chases the hoover around or other unnecessary noise he makes by giving him a 'shush' and it seems to work. He is so alert it is unreal, I can think he is sound asleep but at the slightest noise or even movement he is up and at your feet to see what/where you are going. For the last few nights this has caused a bit of a problem, he sleeps in his crate in the living room with our older dog on the sofa next to him, and he has always been absolutely fine. The last few nights however, he has started barking at the slightest noise. The first time he did it, he had heard the milkman and he went beserk barking, he woke the whole house and we all tried to ignore it but he continued for AGES and showed no sign of stopping so eventually I went down, by the time he had seen me he was frantic. I calmed him down and put him back. One hour later, the same thing (I have no idea what set him off this time) but I was laid in bed listening to him thinking "he will stop soon...he will stop soon" but he didn't...he was barking for about 15 solid minutes without showing any sign of stopping (thats a long time at 5am in the morining) so again, I went down to shush him...the minute I let him out, he stops and is as happy as larry.

The same thing happened the next night when I was going to the bathroom in the night, me walking down the stairs started him off again...I dont really know what to do about it, our house is attached on one side to a very elderly lady so I feel awful just letting him bark and bark, but I guess if I keep coming down to quieten him he is going to start summoning me for a night time visit whenever he wants. I really thought we were getting better with the whole barking thing, but he has also now started to bark at other dogs when approaching them, yet then is as submissive as can be when he actually gets up to them...I dont know if this is a stupid connection to make but he started this barking in the night thing and barking at other dogs only after his first flyball class, we were just introducing him to the team and doing some recalls but it was very loud as the dogs were barking like crazy the whole time we were there, (mainly very excited collies) he didnt seem frightened or anything but I wonder if listening to all the dogs barking constantly has made him more alert and eager to bark at noises like this?? Do dogs copy things like this?

thanks for any help...

Shannon

Hi shannon
not an expert at all on this one but was just thinking that you might need to be carefull letting your pup out - We have had this problem in the past with one of our beardies and instead of letting her out we would basically just tell her to pack it in!! and then she would go quite for a bit then maybe start again then we would do it again --- she soon learnt that we would not let her out and started to settle it took a few nites but we got there.  Just wouldn't recommend letting him out as he will start thinking that he can get his own way if he just barks at nite - would imagine that its like a little kid trying to get it's own way with fake crying!!
Have you thought of leaving a radio playing over nite so that he is not being startled by back ground noises in the quiet of the nite as he can hear music and nice relaxing voices to settle him??
Other than this not much help with knowing if it's related to the flyball etc
Hope that this helps :)
Suzi

the radio is a great idea...ooh and I knew deep down that I shouldnt be letting him out, but he gets himself in such a state, he looked like a caged wild animal...I just dont know if he CAN calm himself down once he gets that worked up. I think the only solution is to not go down at all when he barks (not even to just shush him) and just let him stop on his own no matter how long it takes, I guess if it isnt effective at getting him out of 'prison' then he will stop. But then I keep thinking does he need to go out? But he never has needed a wee these last few nights he has been doing this (he always has a wee last thing at about half midnight) He JUST wants to break outta there once he has started barking. Im not sure about the flyball connection now Ive thought about it...we don't have another class for 2 weeks so I suppose I can see if he calms down in the break (OR if he starts up again in 2 weeks time) I guess it just seemed strange that it started the night after his first class...

anyway, thanks for your reply, I was thinking I wasnt gonna get one!