Dog barking at night

[GailReid]

Hi, I have a 4 year old Canaan who has generally been fine at nights, no barking unless there is a loud unexpected noise somewhere. She had been sleeping in a room upstairs where I usually leave the TV on as it covers the sounds of the wild dogs on the hills nearby and not a peep from her til morning. We had to move her to a different room, and for a few nights she slept in the bedroom with us - some nights quiet and then she kept waking me up with small growls and barks. So we moved her to the living room (tv on as before), but the last 2 nights, she's started barking loudly and continuously every 1 -2 hours until in get up and quieten her. She's not standing up looking out the window at anything, and is still curled up on her mat just barking.  Do you have any suggestions, as the lack of sleep is getting to me?

 

[Adrienne]

Hello and welcome to the forums,

Canaan are very attentive watch dogs and they are naturally inclined to barking, but of course, it's annoying when it gets out of hand. 

Often times, with this kind of barking at night, the culprit is some type of critter. Many critters are nocturnal and can make sounds that we cannot detect. A dogs hearing range is significantly superior to ours. In fact, the dog’s hearing range is twice as wide as the human’s hearing range. To be more accurate, according to  Louisiana State University, humans can hear sounds between 64-23.00Hz while dogs can detect sounds between 67-45.000Hz.

So it might turn insightful inspecting the walls, under the deck, crawl spaces and attics for signs of nocturnal critters. They may often leave some signs such as chewed up areas and waste. Sometimes, a professional may be needed when the critters are hiding inside inconspicuous places, that are difficult to look at. These experts may have special tools to detect critters that we may have otherwise never been aware of. I know of a dog who barked insistently at night and it turned out there was a little mouse living behind a cabinet. 

Another possibility are distant sounds, you mentioned wild dogs so that can be a possibility. In such cases, it may help to keep the dog away from windows, in a room farthest away from noisy areas, and use some type of white noise to buffer sounds. I know you have been using the TV, but perhaps there are frequent pauses or moments of silence (think movies with scenes where nothing really audible happens or it's very low) rather than continuous sound coverage. So perhaps among these pauses she is focusing on outside noises.

It may be therefore perhaps worthy of trying using something that provides more noise coverage such as a white noise machine, like those that they make for babies. This may cover enough the light, distant sounds, but hopefully should not cover sounds that matter the most (like loud odd and unusual noises nearby the home and yard). 

The barking can also be an attention-seeking behavior.  After having a taste of how nice it feels to sleep in your bedroom in good company, she is now struggling sleeping on her own. Bringing her back to the bedroom (if that's OK of course) with some noise machine playing may be a good compromise if it works in reducing the barking. 

 

 

 

[FrederykBlot]

Hello,

 

I'm restarting this post, as it would have a complete double

We had our first neighborhood problem thanks to little Loki (it's more truely because we were dumb I have to admit)

One night, Loki started some tantrum in the yard a bit late.
Before bedtime, usually we chill outside while he calmy chase flies or other insects, and chill himself, chewing or beginning his night.
At some point, I guess he saw or heard some critters in the fields around, and started some barking
While he usually settles, and is calm at night, we tried the ignoring behavior, but it intensified... the more he continued, the more we were like "ok he will stop now"
It went on, way too long, and way too late... so we try to shush him off by shouting "quiet ! quiet ! it's late"... I'm pretty sure it encouraged him even more
He didn't stop until 11PM when we said, "ok we're doomed" and put him to sleep

The day after, one of our neighbor (a friendly one who loves Loki) came to us, explaining yesterday was too much... for her, it's ok, she's understanding as she had dogs, but she told us someone else we didn't heared shouted something like "DAMNIT !!! MAKE IT STOP !!! NOW !"
It was hot, so the windows were open and so....

So I found myself yesterday, being a mailman to deliver an excuse letter in all the houses in the neighborhood :)

 

 

That being said, we now have started to seriously train barking at triggers as we still want to enjoy to yard at nights, and different global night management

 

We first started with environment control : for now, the part where he can view the fields is forbidden at night. We switched to the road side, and he's now tied to the long leash in a restricted perimeter around us, where he can have access to a little part of the house + a little part of the yard with access to grass  

First question on this : he seemed "weird" about that. I guess it's understandable, as he has more restrictions than before, without really knowing why
Still, we tried to ease into it, as we will be out chilling also in the same spot, and gave very good edible chew like ham bones
Is there anything special to do ? or any special recommandations in case of change of routine in a "worse" way ?

 

We went also on barking / trigger training, and our implementation is quite simple : when we hear a loud barking, we're coming with high value food, and calling "Loki !" or smacking sound as positive interrupter, and start treating when he looks at the trigger (dog / people passing by, birds, critters...) and remains calm

question : is there a risk we reinforce "he barks => we come" which is counterproductive if it's attention seeking barking. If so, how should we proceed, as the triggers are coming randomly  ?

Is the implementation at least okay-ish to get some results ? It has becoming a neighborhood issue, so we definitely say "its ok for now, we will address this later"

 

Thank you for your help

 

[Adrienne]

So I found myself yesterday, being a mailman to deliver an excuse letter in all the houses in the neighborhood 🙂

That was very nice of you to do that! 

 so we try to shush him off by shouting "quiet ! quiet ! it's late"... I'm pretty sure it encouraged him even more

Yes, it's unfortunate but when we start yelling at dogs for barking, they are often too aroused to listen and may even interpret our yelling as us joining in the barking frenzy rather than us trying to shush them. 

We first started with environment control : for now, the part where he can view the fields is forbidden at night. We switched to the road side, and he's now tied to the long leash in a restricted perimeter around us, where he can have access to a little part of the house + a little part of the yard with access to grass  

First question on this : he seemed "weird" about that. I guess it's understandable, as he has more restrictions than before, without really knowing why
Still, we tried to ease into it, as we will be out chilling also in the same spot, and gave very good edible chew like ham bones
Is there anything special to do ? or any special recommandations in case of change of routine in a "worse" way?

When a dog had access to a large area or was free to roam off leash, and then we  must provide access to smaller areas or put them on leash, it is possible for some frustration to build in, especially initially. It is a good idea to give something tasty to compensate.

I used to board/train a dog who who was used to roam free in the yard and eat his own poop. When he was in my care,  I kept him on leash to prevent him from engaging in the poop eating. Needless to say, he was unhappy with that and would scratch his collar in frustration. Things changed though for the best once he realized that sticking nearby me and ignoring walking by his poop, earned him tasty rewards. 

We went also on barking / trigger training, and our implementation is quite simple : when we hear a loud barking, we're coming with high value food, and calling "Loki !" or smacking sound as positive interrupter, and start treating when he looks at the trigger (dog / people passing by, birds, critters...) and remains calm.

question : is there a risk we reinforce "he barks => we come" which is counterproductive if it's attention seeking barking. If so, how should we proceed, as the triggers are coming randomly  ?

Is the implementation at least okay-ish to get some results ? It has becoming a neighborhood issue, so we definitely say "its ok for now, we will address this later"

It would be important here to distinguish barking at triggers and barking for attention as it requires a different approach.

Barking at triggers: dogs will orient toward stimuli, ears perked in direction of sound, you will often hear/see the triggers (although not always). At night may intensify as the dog becomes more alert and reacts to nocturnal triggers and sounds. 

Barking for attention: dog is usually bored, happens often indoors, there is nothing better to do, dog is bored and the dog orients the barking towards the owner or barks at something random hoping for a response. 

From your description, it sounds like there was something going on in the fields. As you know, lappies are herding dogs, and as such they tend to bark and make good watch dogs. Environmental control is important in such cases (keeping dogs away from areas that evoke the most barking-taking dogs out at times they are less likely to bark). It should be the primary approach considering that patience may run thin in neighbors as it takes time to train a reliable response to reduce barking.

Also, through environmental control we are preventing rehearsal of the problem behavior, considering that, when dogs are bored or find a "job" such as taking watchdog duties seriously, it becomes habit forming, to the point that dogs will head out in the evening, just with the intent to bark. 

When we have some time to train, it helps to take baby steps, creating new routines, where we teach the dog to engage in something else in the evening outdoors that is fun and rewarding to do like a game of hide and seek, finding a hidden ball etc. 

Also helpful is, if possible, being very attentive and identifying what is triggering the barking. If you know it's triggered by a specific sound or sight, you can try the "hear that" method, making your smacking sound BEFORE he has a chance to bark. 

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/fear-noises/

If the triggers are random, unexpected or you cannot hear them, train a fluent response so that you can stop him in his tracks and redirect him to some activity that engages him.  If he still reverts to barking despite this approach, it's time to give priority to your neighbors and take him back inside or to an area where he is less likely to bark. 

 

[FrederykBlot]

Thank you for the insight

 

It's definitely trigger barking I think, as attention seeking usually comes as taking shoes or biting furnitures

 

I guess we're not that bad then

Environnement control seems to work, as the other side of the yard is more "boring", he triggers less often on this side

 

And the training seems ok-ish at least. We always get the first barking indicating the triggers, but he goes less and less in repetitive barking

Excitement play some role here, higher the excitement, the less he wanting to stop, have to monitor that also

 

Kind regards

[Adrienne]

Yes, too much exciting play can trigger barking too in dogs prone to that so you'll have to find the right balance between keeping him busy to not bark at triggers and not getting him too excited to trigger excitement barking. Games that keep his mouth busy can help with that (bottle game, treasure hunts, clicker training etc)