Dog barks at night

ddebski_us

Hello all

Molly, a 5 month old Lakeland x terrier, makes an eerie bark in the middle of the night if she hears our neighbours outside (we're in a terraced house so neighbours are in close proximity). I understand that it is a warning bark but it is loud and she only settles once I've been down to reassure her.

Apart from asking the neighbours to be home by 10pm (our bedtime), does anyone have any ideas to help stop this? I know it's a warning bark and if we were broken in to, we'd be grateful but it does need to be stopped in its tracks.

xDx

Kittendreich

I'd stop going down to reassure her - might be annoying for a while till she gets the idea...but she is now used to barking till you come (i.e. she has done her 'job' and alerted you to come and check out the noise). It also means that she gets a pat & some comfort just for barking so it is worth her while continuing. Tough love is the only way forward - at only 5 months she will be learning lifetime habits so worth putting her straight now. There was an episode of Dog Borstal where they used negative training with a strict NO and a spray of water for continued barking overnight, but not a way of training everyone is comfortable with.

I'd a spell of a few weeks that my dog would get me up in the night to go outside. He had a stomach bug initially so did need to get out in the night, but once he was better it became a habit which I had to break (once I knew his bug had passed). We had a few nights where he'd come and wake me & I'd ignore him unless he was very persistent (in which case he was let out, no fuss, no pats). I soon got better at reading when he did need out (a rare occurrence again) and what was just the habit.