I have had my aussie of 23 months since December 2010 and he is crated at night in the kitchen with my other dog. Up to a week ago he would go into his crate with a night-time biscuit. A week ago after about 5 mins he started barking. I have ignored him but he is still doing it every night anyone with any suggestions.

A few things come to mind, is he hearing something in the garden or nearby that you can't hear? I had this with my African dog she would suddenly start about 11pm each night, we later discovered it was a local cat crossing through the garden and it would come right down to the back door, before going over the fence into next doors garden.

Could it be where his crate is and is it covered? Maybe you could give him something to play with more than a bedtime biscuit, like a stuffed kong? Other things you might try are the sort of things you would do with a puppy, or dog scared of fireworks, like leaving the radio on very low.

I am sure other trainers will be along with even more ideas.

Thanks for your help I will try the kong. The trouble is it dosen't matter what time we go to bed he still dose it. When he is crated in the day, shopping etc he dosen't bark at all and he is happy to go in the crate. Will try anything as my neighbour even though not that close but it much echo has complained 

Let me know how things go....

Kong worked until he finished it then started barking again. Put radio on that didn't help.

there is a similar thread on Active posts under ajpaul ...with a 9mth old clumber , and some suggestions being made by posters .

could you let him sleep in your bedroom?im ashamed to say all mine do(no partner to argue,heheh!) still get woken up,mind,occasionally.

Is there a reason why at 23 months your dog is still caged? I do contain youngsters to keep them safe but by 6 months at the latest they are loose and share the conservatory at night (3 of them) 3 dog beds and a rug and some vet bed on the floor or the tiles they choose where they sleep. The pup is now 16 months and is loose at night (I fact this one has been loose since about 4 months.) They occasionally bark during the night but very soon settle again and I assume something in the garden has disturbed them. If it is a sustained session then OH does go down to check it out. Then they settle again.

Is he maybe destructive?
If you need to cage for some reason then it may help to have the cage in your room at night so if he starts to bark you can settle him again. Try changing the sleeping room as it is possible something has disturbed him in the garden. If the area he sleeps in is safe try leaving the cage door open.
Aileen

I think the dog is a rehomed dog as the op says he is 23 months and she has had him since December last year.

hi, i am also ashamed to say my 7month pup shares my bedroom, used to be my bed but i did put my foot down about that after a while. She now has her own dog bed on the floor and i have to say i have never had a problem with her during the night, either when she was on my bed or now she is on her own bed, the only time i got woke up in the night or early morning is when she has a water infection some months ago, she has always slept through the whole night and not disturbed once and will let me sleep till whatever time i like :) If i get up before 9.00 she will give me a dirrty look and curl up on the sofa for aother hour or so :) But i guess other dogs are not as lazzy as this :) and i do understand reasons why people do not want the dog in the bedroom at night, but i guess you could try it if you wanted to :)

My mother used to have her Golden in her bedroom at night too, because the sound of his breathingwas reassuring to her after my father died. There's nothing wrong with having your dog sleep in your bedroom if you want to. :-) I don't because when I've tried (on holiday) they've been too noisy and fidgety and I get no sleep.

Anyone who has ever tried sleeping with three steam trains at the foot of your bed rocking it with thier panting will inderstand why Bernese owners let thier dogs sleep in the coolest place in the house !!
Aileen

I'm ashamed to admit I can't get to sleep without a dog tucked up under the duvet, get's awfy hot though, especially when Daisy insists on squashing herself right against me with her head wedged under my boobs lol.

">especially when Daisy insists on squashing herself right against me with her head wedged under my boobs lol.

And I moan about OH!!

Try sleeping with a Cavalier. Not only is she ON my pillow but the snoring .................!

Peppe,

What about your other dog, what sex and what age and breed type, are both dogs neutered? Are the dogs crated together or separately? Is the crate door shut at night? How does the other dog react to the aussie's barking?

Think very hard, has anything changed in your house in the last week?

On the surface it is likely that some noise he has suddenly noticed has disturbed him and he is letting you know/fending of an intruder. Have you tried going down and just calmly do a quick tour of the kitchen and then go back up- radiating a confident all is well demeanour.

my lurcher was like that when she used to sleep on the bed with me. She would lie right up against me with her head on the pillow and she constantly dreams, and barks in her dreams and starts kicking her legs, and my gosh cant those very long legs she has cause some discomfort to me haha :) and aswell with the 2 cats on my bed also (really dont no how but cats seem to take up soooo much room, must be that they insist on lying right in middle of the bed and in totally diff place to the other cat, so its like a jigsaw to lie around themhaha) and my son occasionally if he sneaks in, it was just tooooo much, so now the dog has her own bed :) But would be so unhappy and quite frankly discusted if i was to leave her in another room :)

Hmm, let's see ...... 2  year old dog, had him for a year now, slept nicely (with another dog) until just a short time ago, now barks after you have been away from him for 5 minutes ....... he wants you to come back. 

DO you go back?  This might feed the fire of "If I bark and owner comes back, then I'll ALWAYS bark so owner will ALWAYS come back."

Would be best to ascertain the cause --- is the dog he's with poking him? do you suddenly have someone driving/walking down your alley to go to work at night? has a skunk decided to take a habitual shortcut past your window recently? are the mice coming out at night to play? --- and eliminate the cause.

Failing setting up a whole-house survellience system indoors and out, it needs to be communicated to him that barking at this time of night is NOT a good thing to do and it will NOT get him a pleasant reward.

To placate the complaining neighbors, it might be Squirt Bottle Time.  When he barks, go back, but with a squirt bottle of water in hand and let him have several squirting streams of it full in the face with a forceful "NO!  BAD DOG!  QUIET!"  A bit of vinegar can be added to the water without doing damage to either the dog or the floor if he is adamant.

I'm a firm believer in always rewarding good behaviour ........ his reward for "quiet" is not to be squirted.

Vinegar in water ? I wonder how you would feel having vinegar squirted in your face ? OP please ignore this advice as squirting acid in a dogs eyes is an absolute no no .

LunaGrace

If the dog has had a fright and is barking to communicate he is worried about something and the owner response is to punish him, I think the dog could end up in a state/bag of nerves. He is a young dog and it might be his first Christmas in his second home, so perhaps there are some new noises/something else he has not heard/experienced before.

As you suggest, it could also be something the other dog is doing. I think we need more information from the other person.

>When he barks, go back, but with a squirt bottle of water in hand and let him have several squirting streams of it full in the face with a forceful "NO!  BAD DOG!  QUIET!"  A bit of vinegar can be added to the water without doing damage to either the dog or the floor if he is adamant.

What an excellent way to destroy a dog's trust. And how confusing for him: he vocalises, owner also vocalises and he gets dilute acid in his face.

>I'm a firm believer in always rewarding good behaviour ........ his reward for "quiet" is not to be squirted.

Dogs don't rationalise that 'absence of discomfort' equates to 'acknowledgement of correct behaviour'.

streams of it full in the face with a forceful "NO!  BAD DOG!  QUIET!"

Surely this is the best way to make a dog dread you going near him. The whole idea is to gain his trust and make him glad to see you. I am completely against this kind of treatment. The dog is barking for a reason and squirting him like this is not going to explain his behaviour.
I'm afraid I have never used a crate ( although I have nothing against them used correctly) and my dogs have the freedom to wander the house and usually end up in my bedroom ( the little one usually in my bed ) and in the past I had 4 GSDs wandering around with never a problem, so have you considered opening the door of the crate to give him a little freedom or would this cause problems with your other dog.

Not able to read all the reply thanks but get the jist. He gets on very well with my other dog but as both full males its best to be safe than sorry. The other reason he is a thief and and will pull anything of any tops. He is happy to go in during the day when I am shopping going in and waiting for his biscuit. He was quiet Sun and Mon so I thought great back to normal then started again last night. I do not believe in doing anything that would make him hate going into a crate as sometimes he has to at a show when I have two with me on my own. At the moment I am ignoring him and eventually he going quite. If there was anything around the other one would let me know as he reacts to noise and barks.

Peppe,

Take your point that the other dog reacts to noises etc.., unless, of course, he has devolved responsibility for that to aussie. Only you can judge that. If you can be sure that no external event is triggering this then it may be down to some kind of dynamic between the two dogs as young aussie is now coming into his own, having been a teenager. He might just be trying new things out. Are both dogs shut in a crate? If the other is free to wander then young aussie might suddenly resent it.

Is the other dog much older and of the same breed? You know, just because he does not react does not mean the young aussie is not hearing things for the first time. As dogs develop out of the teenage period, they can start to 'notice' things they did not before. These could be noises that your other dog has learned about and therefore does not react to. Perhaps the young aussie just needs time to adapt.

It could also be that young aussie is testing boundaries with you and I think you are right to calmly forbear for now or he might be going through an insecure phase. I am not a big fan of locking crates at night, but understand your concerns about two inact males. Has the aussie got plenty of room to turn and lie fully stretched in both directions?

As you see, no hard and fast conclusions, as it is so difficult to judge at a distance. I'm guessing it is just a phase he will grow out of and you are right to ignore and keep calm- although a casual appearance if he goes on, without even looking at him, might just give reassurance. Strangely enough, dogs are often not that reassured by the presence of each other, often the owner is the prime source of feelings of security.

Anyhow, I think most of us agree, including you, that punishment is the wrong way to go.

>Try sleeping with a Cavalier. Not only is she ON my pillow but the snoring .................!

Haha very true, though at least my 2 girls don't snore much. Henry though could snore for England, even when he was downstairs you could hear him from the bedroom! I wish I still had the noise though..... :-(

Hmmmm, neighbor complaining and something must be done to quiet the barking dog.  Seems he's spent a year "gaining the dog's trust" and the dog is now so trusting that he engages in inappropriate behaviour that could lose the owner their home. 

There is a time and a place for punishment of bad behaviour, and I'm assuming this person has tried all the "nice" ways to get the dog to be quiet.

Aussies are a very intelligent but forceful and agressive breed.  They are cattle herders, they have to be forceful and agressive to move large animals.  Time line of this dog tells me that his first owners had him until he was about 8 months to a year, at which point he was given up ..... because they couldn't deal with his behaviour?  Sounds about right because that's when puppies are no longer "cute" and begin to become energetic teenagers and push their boundaries. 

I know from past experience that it takes most animals about a year to adjust to new homes and settle in.  The dog has been with him a year.  Sounds like the dog has settled in nicely, looked around to see who was in charge, felt that he ought to take on that position, and is now teaching his owner to COME when he calls.  And has the owner trained quite well at this point.

How many nights do you nicely tell a dog "no no bad dog" before you take it to the next level?

quite aside from the cruelty of squirting vinegar water in a dogs face it wouldn't even be effective without split second timing.
Dogs don't think 'oh, I just barked now she's coming back, oh dear she's cross I shouldn't have barked' IF (and I don;t suggest this is right!) you happened to catch the dog as his mouth is open to bark AND he is thinking about what he is doing you MAY manage to create the negative association with barking. You are far more likely to confuse and distress him because he associates it with something else like you walking into the room, walking into the room at night, hearing footsteps, you carrying a bottle, his cage or any number of things or situations that are not the behaviours you are trying to correct.

Hmm, for some reason I thought this was a forum, not a court of judgement.  If an offered opinion on training does not suit, don't use it.  If you haven't tried it, though, don't disparage.  Let's not get carried away with judgements against another person if you do not agree with their training method(s).

"Cruel" is subjective (not objective).  And how would you suggest one housebreak a puppy?  With soothing tones of voice and waiting for weeks or months until it occurred to the dog that particular behaviour was not acceptable?  Or is that confusing and distressing the dog by firmly telling him "NO!" and shovelling him out the door?

I never advocated straight vinegar or even a large amount of vinegar in the water.  If vinegar is offensive to you, try lemon juice in the water instead.  I find it difficult to believe that there isn't a tea drinker out there who doesn't take lemon in it ..... and who hasn't inadvertently squirted themselves in the face with it.  Were you permanently blinded from then on?  Not a happy experience, I agree; but then one is attempting to stop an unacceptable behavior by making life unhappy until the behaviour ceases.

Yes, it does take split-second timing --- most things in dog training do ..... to be effective.  It does absolutely no good to wait until the dog has already returned to you on a RECALL, and waited around a few minutes, to start fumbling in your pocket for a tidbit.

Try squirting MYSELF in the face with vinegar and see how I like it?  In fact, I have done just that.  I NEVER try a training tool or technique on an animal that I haven't first tried on myself to see how harsh or mild it may be ..... from vinegar squirts to prong collar to bat to electronic collar to choke collar and others .... and have been surprised that some were not as harsh as, or harsher than, expected.

Having passed my 60th year, I would bet that I have many more years' experience in training dogs than most of you have been on this earth.  I have trained multiple breeds in multiple disciplines and titled many of them, with many class placements as well.  Additionally, I have successful rescued and re-homed dogs.  So, you can pass judgement that I am a CRUEL person or dog trainer by the few posts that I have made here, however I can guarantee you that one does not earn first placements (multiple) in obedience competitions (multiple) by dragging a cowering dog around the ring or consider a rescue as successful when it cannot adapt its behaviour to its new home environment.

I have a wealth of experience in many areas of dog, horse, and cat training and behaviour to draw on and that I had thought to share.  I don't claim to have all the answers, but I do have a great many answers.  And I am also known for being able to 'think outside of the box' because I do enjoy teaching non-traditional obedience breeds of dogs with good results.  Unless one finds an endeavor rewarding and satisfying, one abandons that pursuit to go on to something else that one can be satisfied, rewarded, and successful with.  Teaching, training, communicating with animals is something that I love to do ....... and do not plan to abandon.

One of the things I always tell people is to take training advice with a grain of salt.  Take what works for you and discard the rest.  However, just because it doesn't work for you, doesn't mean it won't work for someone else. 

Hmm, for some reason I thought this was a forum, not a court of judgement.  If an offered opinion on training does not suit, don't use it.  If you haven't tried it, though, don't disparage.  Let's not get carried away with judgements against another person if you do not agree with their training method(s).

"Cruel" is subjective (not objective).  And how would you suggest one housebreak a puppy?  With soothing tones of voice and waiting for weeks or months until it occurred to the dog that particular behaviour was not acceptable?  Or is that confusing and distressing the dog by firmly telling him "NO!" and shovelling him out the door?

I never advocated straight vinegar or even a large amount of vinegar in the water.  If vinegar is offensive to you, try lemon juice in the water instead.  I find it difficult to believe that there isn't a tea drinker out there who doesn't take lemon in it ..... and who hasn't inadvertently squirted themselves in the face with it.  Were you permanently blinded from then on?  Not a happy experience, I agree; but then one is attempting to stop an unacceptable behavior by making life unhappy until the behaviour ceases.

Yes, it does take split-second timing --- most things in dog training do ..... to be effective.  It does absolutely no good to wait until the dog has already returned to you on a RECALL, and waited around a few minutes, to start fumbling in your pocket for a tidbit.

Try squirting MYSELF in the face with vinegar and see how I like it?  In fact, I have done just that.  I NEVER try a training tool or technique on an animal that I haven't first tried on myself to see how harsh or mild it may be ..... from vinegar squirts to prong collar to bat to electronic collar to choke collar and others .... and have been surprised that some were not as harsh as, or harsher than, expected.

Having passed my 60th year, I would bet that I have many more years' experience in training dogs than most of you have been on this earth.  I have trained multiple breeds in multiple disciplines and titled many of them, with many class placements as well.  Additionally, I have successful rescued and re-homed dogs.  So, you can pass judgement that I am a CRUEL person or dog trainer by the few posts that I have made here, however I can guarantee you that one does not earn first placements (multiple) in obedience competitions (multiple) by dragging a cowering dog around the ring or consider a rescue as successful when it cannot adapt its behaviour to its new home environment.

I have a wealth of experience in many areas of dog, horse, and cat training and behaviour to draw on and that I had thought to share.  I don't claim to have all the answers, but I do have a great many answers.  And I am also known for being able to 'think outside of the box' because I do enjoy teaching non-traditional obedience breeds of dogs with good results.  Unless one finds an endeavor rewarding and satisfying, one abandons that pursuit to go on to something else that one can be satisfied, rewarded, and successful with.  Teaching, training, communicating with animals is something that I love to do ....... and do not plan to abandon.

One of the things I always tell people is to take training advice with a grain of salt.  Take what works for you and discard the rest.  However, just because it doesn't work for you, doesn't mean it won't work for someone else. 

> And how would you suggest one housebreak a puppy? With soothing tones of voice and waiting for weeks or months until it occurred to the dog that particular behaviour was not acceptable?  Or is that confusing and distressing the dog by firmly telling him "NO!" and shovelling him out the door?

Actually yes, when house training puppies you should reward the good behaviour (going to the loo outside), give lots and lots of opportunity for the right behaviour to appear and simply ignore the mistakes. It works for me and my dogs without having to shout NO at them!

As for the other 'training' methods you mention such as prong and e collar I think you'll find that such cruel outdated methods are not supported on this forum.

>One of the things I always tell people is to take training advice with a grain of salt.

Especially outmoded beliefs.  I honestly thought that dominance training went out with the ark.  There is no place for punitive training in a modern society.  And I certainly don't agree that Aussies are an aggressive breed.  But I guess you could make them that way by punishing them regularly enough.

>If an offered opinion on training does not suit, don't use it.  If you haven't tried it, though, don't disparage.

I'm afraid the "If you haven't tried it, don't disparage" theory is nonsense in this case. Are you suggesting that nobody should  condemn the waterboarding technique of punishing dogs for minor misdemeanours unless they've done it? Of course you're not - that would be ridiculous because nobody in their right mind and with an ounce of compassion would do such a terrible thing. Likewise squirting dilute acid (whether acetic {vinegar} or citric {lemon juice} - it makes no difference to the sting) in an animal's face. Obviously that's unnecessarily unpleasant - plain water would do the instant job (if your timing was spot on when the dog was actually 'committing the crime', not having stopped when you approached) without the lingering pain. Basically any training method which is likely to cause the dog anxiety on its owner's approach is counter-productive.

>one is attempting to stop an unacceptable behavior by making life unhappy until the behaviour ceases.

If the dog has stopped the unwanted behaviour (in this case vocalising) even a second before the squirt then you're punishing the wrong behaviour; it's being squirted for something other than vocalising.

As for the other aversive training tools you mention - surely nobody in this day and age advocates such outdated practices?

> And how would you suggest one housebreak a puppy? With soothing tones of voice and waiting for weeks or months until it occurred to the dog that particular behaviour was not acceptable?  Or is that confusing and distressing the dog by firmly telling him "NO!" and shovelling him out the door?

Having a new puppy here after over 9 years since the last one, I can assure you that praising tones have worked wonderfully with her and she is far more advanced in her toilet training than the rest of  her litter (And this is an intelligent breed).

And what does your age have to do with anything?   I know 60+ year olds who I have no time for and people younger than myself (21 *cough*) with very sensible heads on their shoulders.

>And how would you suggest one housebreak a puppy?  With soothing tones of voice and waiting for weeks or months until it occurred to the dog that particular behaviour was not acceptable?  Or is that confusing and distressing the dog by firmly telling him "NO!" and shovelling him out the door?

If the puppy has messed indoors then the owner wasn't watching it carefully enough and taking it outside often enough - that's not the puppy's fault. You can only say a firm "No" and taking him outside to finish, then praise effusively, if you've actually caught him in the act. Otherwise it's too late.

And it doesn't take weeks or months; even fairly lax puppy watching, and no aversives, can have a reliably clean dry puppy very quickly; certainly by 10 weeks old.

>So, you can pass judgement that I am a CRUEL person or dog trainer by the few posts that I have made here,

No, I don't think either of those things; just that you have advocated using cruel methods. I have no opinion of you as a person because I haven't met you.

LunaGrace

Let's forget the word cruel and use the word punishment. Application of an aversive is a punishment and, you are right, for it to be effective, split second timing is required. I would suggest that very few people are gifted with split second timing, particularly when trying to apply it in a domestic setting where patience might be short and one's mind on other things. That is one of the main reasons most trainers these days do not advocate punishment- get it wrong and you've got more problems than you started with. I don't think anyway denies that punishment can work it is simply why choose that road for stuff like puppy training when reward methods work as well, if not better and are not high risk?

The key to house training a pup is simple consistency in making sure pup is taken out after every meal and every play time, when he gets ups from rest and so on. It is a matter of waiting for the right behaviour and rewarding. Any accidents to be ignored, but scrupulously cleaned to remove all scent traces. As JG says, the word 'no' can be used to stop pup mid wee, if caught and then take him outside to finish and praise.

If things go wrong in house training it is invariably the owners fault- they've been lax about getting the pup out consistently, they've not cleaned up properly so pup smells his own widdle and is prompted to go again. Punishing the pup for one's own shortcomings seems unfair and OTT.

Have you tried the above methods and found them to be inadequate or do you simply prefer to stick to what you have always done? Congratulations by the way on having immaculate timing- I envy you, you are a rare bird.

> "Cruel" is subjective (not objective).

And has a legal definaition of 'unnecessasry suffering'. To deliberatley cause an animal mental and physical distress is most likely going to be cruel, if squirting the dog in the face will be effective, it will only be so if the dog finds it aversive.

We've had similar discussions here before over aversive methods. It's strange how people can train animals as large as killer whales and as inteligent as chimps with only the use of a clicker (reward based training), yet some people can't train dogs without punishment - an animal bred to work & live with people.
That's all I will say on this thread. There is a controversial board for these sort of topics.

I am 70+ and have been with dogs all my life, most of my adult years caring for and training GSD rescues, many with issues caused by cruelty. By using alternative methods of training ( like squirting with dilute vinegar and shouting ) I would not have achieved much and would probably have been attacked and dead by now. I'm sorry but these methods sound very similar to those of a certain gentleman with the initials CM. but this is just my opinion. You get more from a dog by building up trust.

If a pup has been reared by a caring breeder it will not wish to soil its den and will want to go outside, so I never even bother to try to house train a pup, make sure the door is either open or you take it out and it will train itself, OK praise if you see it go in the right place but it is natural to them to be clean, agree having other dogs does help as a puppy will do what the adults do.

ML

Just having a quick look on the boards and I'm wondering if a fresh wave of pro E posters are aboard, or old voices with new names.

> Just having a quick look on the boards and I'm wondering if a fresh wave of pro E posters are aboard, or old voices with new names.

Oh no

ETA, only just noticed the controversial board has come to life again.

OK, so I'm not taking the 'new' posters side but what's the difference between that and say, the spray collars with citroella?  I use neither method so don't shoot the messenger but I was just wondering?  Vinegar in a bottle is a bit ridiculous though, why not just water?

My FIL uses one of the cit collars and it drives me nuts.  His 2 dogs have severe aggression issues which always start with barking so he bought 1 collar and put it on a dog week about!!!ARGH! The other dog sits barking and the poor dog wearing the collar is getting that disgusting stuff sprayed in his face all day.  I've pointed it out how useless it is but what do I know?  I've also asked him to give me a day and I woud sort out the issues but he's not consistant so any training goes to pot.

> OK, so I'm not taking the 'new' posters side but what's the difference between that and say, the spray collars with citroella?

Similar thing, however there is less chance of the dog making a negative association between the owner and the squirt, as the squirt is not coming from the owner.
Some dogs will find it mildly aversive but will learn to pay no attention, some dogs will find it very aversive. We've had stories from posters that have used these sorts of collars and thier dogs have learnt to either bark a lot quickly to empty the canister (then free to bark without being squirted!) and some others have figured out how to trun the collar around so the squirt misses them.

How aversive the dog finds the squirt will vary from dog to dog, the more aversive, the more chance of the squirt actually stopping the dog from barking and the more chance of causing a negative association with something else & thus causing other problem behaviours.
Imagin a dog (say my 14 stone guarding breed) gets a squirt in the face that startles him and he is not happy about it (the whole POINT of squirting them), at the very instant he gets a squirt he may be looking at my child (for example)- he may then make the negative association that my child is the source of his fear & discomfort, his behaviour will change accordingly and we allready know what a dog will do when faced with something it fears - FIGHT, flight, freeze, avoid or faf about, a frightening potential problem (you can substitite 'child' for anything, animal, human, object).

However, this is just a possibility, there are no hard & fast actuals when using aversives as one can not predict with accuracy what a dog will make a negative association with. With aversive, one just hopes that the dog fears/detests the aversive enough to avoid it happening again.

It's like rewards, some dogs will find verbal praise 'the best thing sice sliced bread' (a high value reward), other dogs couldn't give a stuff about verbal praise! So we work out what the individual dog finds PERSONALLY the most rewarding, next rewarding etc. so we can use varying levels of reward to reinforce the wanted behaviour. It works similar with aversive, some dogs may not worry too much about being squirted in the face, other dogs may think it's the most frightening thing they have ever come accross.

When using rewards, some situation we can use a very low-value reward and it still has the desired effect, the same with aversives - you can use something mildly umpleasant or completely mortifying, but you will not know how your dog feels about the thing untill you have tried it, you can only guesse it's reaction.
With rewards, you can figure out pretty easiliy, without causing any potential damage to the dog, what it values the most, what it's second favorite is etc... With aversives, you will not know how worried your dog is about it untill you try it. You can't show a dog a spray collar and see how eager it is to avoid it unless you actually squirt it.

Sorry, I'm waffling for England now, I'll stop!! Hope that helps a bit though :)

My sisters Boxer would bark alot at the neighbours dogs when younger. Sis thought it would be a good idea to squirt the dog in the face with water. The dog thought it was a great game and is now one of her favourite games!!!!

This doesn't mean that squirting a dog is not cruel, it means that you can't predict the dogs reaction of things that are intended to be 'aversive' untill you actually try it out.  I personaly wouldn't take the risk.

Can anyone else remember the television clip of the german shepherds in the pub who used to sit and wait for the owner to squirt them with water from a soda syphon? One of the main reasons I have never squirted water in a dogs face, the GSD's seemd to be enjoying it. :-D

House training at this time of year will possibly take a lot longer than in hte summer. After all, would you like to go out and sit in the cold when you wnet to the loo? ;-) I have spent many a freezing night at 2 or 3 in the morning waiting for a pup to do its business. It's one of the things you do when you have a pup. They grow up quickly though, so should learn to be clean all night within a few weeks.  So long as you are vigilant. Life has to be put on hold until they are reliable.

Peppe

Presumably he goes out for a last wee at night...  Is he peeing properly or going to the toilet when he should - do you go out with him to check?  Is there anything in your garden? 

My youngster went through a phase when the weather turned, of not peeing properly.  All 3 of my male dogs generally need to pee more than once (cos they never bother to finish if distracted) and it also coincided with my husband just turfing them out and leaving them to it.  As soon as I started going out into the garden again with them, it stopped.  They just needed reminding to finish properly - and getting some extra praise certainly helped :)

The other issue we had with my terrier type mongrel is when we had a hedgehog in the garden 1) he never bothered to pee as he was far too busy having a staring competition with the h'pig and 2) he fretted about said h'pig long after we asked him to come back inside.  Both of these things started him barking after his lights out!!

Finally, the same dog always resists bedtime if my mother in law has been staying here (I wonder what she lets him get away with !) OR if he can hear us still rattling about for too long after we've put him to bed.  He would probably have preferred a bit longer sleeping glued to the radiator...

You might find it's a simple answer but it could take a bit of working through.  As long as you are sure his needs have been met, and he's really ready for bed, then I'd persevere for a little while longer.  I wouldn't let it drag on, but it's worth trying some alternative strategies, like a short walk before bedtime, just to see if it works.  Good luck :)

I remember that clip, very funny! :-D