This is driving us mad.  Our bedroom backs onto our garden (we access if by french doors) and the garden backs onto a small overgrown alley, beloved of cats and foxes.

The dogs appear to have some kind of fox/cat radar, which now verges on paranoid, and are constantly leaping up at the windows, howling, scrabbling to get out in the garden.  I don't have the doors open all the time as my flat is freezing anyway.  They now do it at night, at about 4am, in the middle of the day.  Its relentless.  Its disturbing our sleep and my boyfriend is on shifts and finding it really hard to deal with.

How do I a) train them that this is unacceptable and b) get rid of all the critters trying to get in our garden!

can you put the dogs in another room at nighttime?
are the curtains drawn?
can the french doors be blocked off from the dogs?

Sleep them in another room.

We haven't got that much space to put their beds.  And - this is going to sound mad - but even if they are in the front room, right away from the back of the house - they can hear stuff in our garden and race up the corridor.  (our flat is not massive so no room is miles away from the garden, if I'm fair. 

I do close the curtains and the windows, although they are drafty old doors.  I have tried to put a big floor fan in front of the door, which worked a little bit (better in summer when i could actually turn it on!) but they now leap at it and push it over.

As well as the constant noise, I'm worried about them hitting the windows at such force / speed.

I shall have to think of something.  Maybe i can tape a big cushion to the doors!

It seems like a training solution will be necessarily.  I'm sure there are posters who will be able to advise but I suspect it is going to involve a few sleepness nights and a fair bit of effort so you probably need to gird your loins for that.  Good luck :-)

I'd bed them down elsewhere TBH - as much for their own safety as your need for a good night's sleep :)

Unless your flat is open plan, why don't you close the door from your front room to prevent them darting up the corridor (I'm guessing hallway?) at will to reach the back of the house?  If it doesn't have a fixed door can you use a wide extending baby gate to contain them or larger puppy panels if necessary?  Failing that can you secure them in the kitchen or, if needs must, buy them individual large crates for beds?  Without knowing the size and layout of your flat it's difficult to guage how best you can overcome these problems and although they are IMO a training issue (lack of) for immediate results you need to obstruct their ability to go where they want and do what they want within the home.

TBH, please don't take offence, it sounds as though these two are ruling the roost in your home and somewhere along the line they've managed to push you so far that you don't seem to have adequate control of either of them.

I think you need to set some ground rules for behaviours and stick to these religiously.  Perhaps look at the Nothing In  Life is Free method (google NILIF - there will be many links) and apply these basics through day to day living.  Ensure your OH follows the same plan as lack of consistency is often the reason for failure when trying to resolve issues rather than inability to do so :)

Once established that they have set rules which must be obeyed, I'm sure you will find they are each much calmer than present - at the moment they are possibly more like a couple of teenagers bored and looking for kicks, pushing their luck with no boundaries or parental control!  If you take control and give their minds a work out you should find that life for everyone in the household is calmer and considerably more enjoyable ;)

HTH, Teri

They are finding the behaviour self rewarding.

the answer is simply not to let them have access to that area.  so close the door to the rooms that back onto the garden or for nighttime crate the dogs.

You're so right, at the moment there are two definite bosses in my house - and neither of them is human. 

We only moved to this flat beginning of the year - in our old flat we were on the top floor and we had to get dressed and get their leads on to go to the garden, one of the reasons we chose this flat is because it has a lovely garden leading off the back doors, thought it would be so nice for the dogs - but its backfiring!  The foxes round our way don't seem very scared either and regularly tap dance their way past the back door.

But you are right, its got much worse recently and I think myself and 'im indoors are babying them too much.

I need to take charge!

OK I started last night.

I took both the dogs out separately last night.  Interestingly (remember its Lubo who has some kind of fear aggression and who gets too hyper) Poppy was the worst behaved.  I made them sit and wait whilst I got their leads on.  Lubo did this.  Poppy would not sit at first, barking at me defiantly and when she did sit and I put her lead on she immediately started hurling herself at the door. 

The walk itself with both of them was OK, I did the 'if you pull we stop' manouevre and they both caught on quite quickly, although again it was Poppy who seemed to think that this didn't really apply to her.  i am going to do this every night. 

Anyway, onto last night and them jumping at the door.  i remembered what you said and decided that they will not be using the back door to go out - we will from now on use the kitchen door.  We were all in bed, I was nearly asleep (it was 12.30am) and as per usual it was Lubo who hears something and leaps at the door, standing with his paws on the sill to have a look out of the window.  Poppy then jumps onto our bed (standing all over me) and does this incredibly annoying whinge.  If I'm honest, I usually give up soon after this because she doesn't stop doing this noise.  I was determined though that I'm going to do things differently.  I say to both of them 'Off' (waiting for them to get off the bed and the door) and then tell them 'bed'.  This doesn't stop them so then I put them outside the room for five mins.  They quiten down (although Lubo knocks a few times) and when they've stopped I let them back in, show them to their bed.  Interestingly, the story stops here for Lubo.  He caught on that he would be outside if he did this and he stopped (he's quite clingy, i imaginee this would be one of his worst fears).  He sleeps all night from this point on. 

Poppy however is a different story.  Five minutes after being back in the room she starts crying and howling again.  I put her outside and this time she continues, yowling into the night.  This was now about 1.30am.   (i have to say I have an upstairs neighbour who won't be impressed with me this morning).  i wait it out until she stops, let her back in, she bypasses her bed, straight to the back door,  crying again.  We continue this cycle on and off for the next couple of hours.  By this time my boyfriend is home and when she starts again, he takes her to the front room and shuts the door. 

Ten minutes later she is doing one constant bark, really loudly and aggressively, its waking everyone up.  i go to the front room and she is balancing on her tippy toes on the very back of the sofa in order to try and get a look outside and have a bark at any movement on the front street.

At 5.45am, having had half hours sleep and nearly weeping with exhaustion, I give in and let them out of the kitchen door.  They are back within a minute, having 'checked' the garden and slept til i left this morning for work at 7.30.

I feel like death and I was thinking some very uncharitable thoughts last night.  I can see too that I have to reassess this, Lubo may be fearful and the one I panic about, but Poppy has a whole different set of problems, one of them being that she clearly doesn't think she need take any notice of us at all.  I think I have overlooked this in the past because she is friendly and sociable with both other dogs and people so I have seen her as less of a threat.  However, i think her behaviour towards us is also affecting Lubo

forgive any typing mistakes, i'm barely awake.

I would really appreciate any advice and sorry fot  the long post.
x

Can't you bed the dogs down for the night somewhere other than your bedroom?  It may still cause some sleepness nights initially until they become accustomed to a new regime but I'm thinking if you could put them in cosy beds or den like crates in a room which has a blind or curtains preventing them seeing out then you have a better chance of overcoming this problem and fairly quickly too.  Leave a very low radio on to disguise minor sounds from outdoors but not so loud as to be obviously trying to mask something (or you'll all remain sleepless anyway LOL).

If you really can't (or don't want to!) put them in another room then can you not provide a suitably sized, comfy, den like covered crate in your bedroom for them to sleep in to restrict their naughty nocturnal antics?

Sometimes we can look too deeply for solutions when something really quite basic can make a huge difference :)