My dog howls when the baby cries. It simply aggravates the whole issue...

[Marionlam]

Hi all,

I am yet to find someone with the same problem (let alone a solution!), so thought I'd try here.

I have an 8 year old, female border collie and a 19 months old little boy with quite a temper and sleep issues. What really doesn't help anybody, is that the dog has always howled the house down every time baby cries. We do our best to ignore it, but when you're sleep deprived and already trying to deal with a temper tantrums or night terrors, this is the last thing you need. I've tried to send her away ("Bed!"), but she seems desperate to get as near the scene as possible - whether it is to make sure we hear her telling us the baby is crying, or looking for comfort, I couldn't tell you...

I was told several time we should let the baby cry it out until he calms down / goes back to sleep, but this is near impossible with a howling dog... And the neighbours are getting funny about it, too.

Anyone had the same problem? Any suggestions?

Thanks!!

Would it work if you record the baby crying and then try to train the dog to be quiet using that. Trying to get the dog to be quiet at the same time as the baby must be rather stressful, this way you could deal with it in a slightly more relaxed fashion!

Mmm... Worth a try I guess, although the idea of having to hear that cry anymore than I have to makes me want to jump out of the window!

If DH and I are both in the house when it happens, we have been known to divide and conquer, ie one will deal with the baby whilst the other will sit with the dog and try and praise her when she shuts up and say 'No' when she howls. It seems to work for short moments, but so far it's never been enough that we can count on it if we're not both in the house.

Are you thinking, giving her dog biscuits if she'll just ignore the cry?

I must admit, I can't blame her, it's a noise designed to be very uncomfortable...

My dog used to howl when there were people working outside (about 99% of the days of the year) but I used to give him a treat ball with a few cat biscuits inside or his kong with peanut butter in. After a couple of weeks he stopped the initial howl and after a month he forgot to do it altogether

We had a dog that did something similar. In the end we put some gravel in a plastic bottle and used to rattle it near his ears when he started barking. The noise would startle him and cause him to stop.