Night time barking

[Mairyhinge]

Hi we've had Trigger since he was 8 weeks old, he's now almost 12 months. He's slept in his crate, with the door closed and a blanket over it every night, only very occasionally needing out for a wee OR an upset stomach but not had that for ages. He's slept all nigh, every night, no problems until...
This weekend has been horrendous.
Friday night we decided to leave his crate door open, he can be trusted to roam round the downstairs, so didn't worry. The night was fine, and he was in his bed Saturday when I got up.
Saturday night every so often he barked, and it's a really piercing sound, so I would come down and let him out. Again, his crate door was open and he was covered. This happened a couple of times.
Same Sunday night, I ended up closing his door in the thought that maybe he felt insecure?
Last night again, after being in bed half an hour he barked, I took him out, nothing, back to bed, 40 minutes later he barked again, so this time I opened his door, took the blanket off his crate and closed the kitchen door so he could just roam round the kitchen. He was fine then until this morning, and was in his bed asleep when I got up.
I'm guessing he's been too warm, but I desperately don't want this to become a habit now. I'm starting to dread bedtime. I can't leave him to bark because it's so loud and shrill it's awful.
I can't understand why he's gone from being a fab sleeper to this.
Could he feel insecure with his door open?
Has anyone else had this problem with the warmer weather?
He's 1 on the 21st may if age could be an issue?!

[Whatdoiknow31]

Could be that he first barked because of the door being open, saw that got a response from you and is now doing it for attention. These dogs will quickly try to train us if they can.

We had the same problem with ours, similar age to yours. Dog trainer said to tell him to be quite then back that up with a squirt of water so he relates the ‘quiet’ to being squirted. Unfortunately our house is quite long, our bedroom at one end, him in the room beneath ours and the stairs at the opposite end. So by the time we would get down to squirt him it had lost it’s meaning (dogs are very much ‘in the moment’)We bought a training collar (a vibration one), just use the beep noise. As soon as he barks he gets beeped. Seems to be working so far, until he outsmarts us that is.

[Mairyhinge]

Thank you, that's actually really insightful. But I agree by the time you get there to squirt water they've stopped ( temporarily).
Last night hubby was gonna go kick him ( he wouldn't hurt him but he's really had enough). Son Is doing GCSEs so I don't want him disturbed.
Tonight he will have clean bedding (!) and a sheet instead of blanket over his crate, see if that helps!

[Sofabitch]

We have a vibration collar. Works wonders.