I'm at the end of my tether with new dog barking at night.

[VivaLeBeaver]

We've only had him 10 days...he's 6 months old.

First couple of nights he took a while to settle into his crate but I'd expect this. Then he seemed OK apart from the fact he poos in his crate most nights about 3am. He then barks hysterically so I get up, clean the poo up, put him in the garden and then back in his crate.

He normally settles quite well. Apart from last night. He barked from 2am non-stop, and I mean non-stop. Ignored him for over 2 hours, then went down and told him off. He was quiet for 3 mins and then started up again.

I'm shattered, dh is in a foul mood. I put the dog in one of the outbuildings at 5am just to try and get some sleep, but he's managed to make a hole in the brick wall and then stuck his head out and carried on barking. I'm sorry, but I was desperate and probably not very rational. DH is muttering about sending the dog back which I really don't want to do......I don't think dh is serious.

There's no way DH would allow him to sleep with us at night. He could at a push sleep on dd's bed and if he was better house trained I'd be keener on this. I'm concerened he'll poo in her bedroom or even on her bed in the night.

I totally sympathise - I had problems with both my dogs barking during the night, and it is truly soul-destroying.

Tried the ultrasound thingy - didn't work. I do have a citronella puffer collar which I use on the big dog during the day if he gets too yappy, but he's settled down a good bit now.

When we first got him we tried sleeping him in a crate in the utility room. He hated it and used to scrape and scratch at the floor of it all night. Once he was house-trained he was allowed to sleep on the sofa, which worked well for a few years. In recent months he's had the odd wee in the house, so he now sleeps in the kitchen with the door closed. He'll scrtach at the door when he thinks it's time to get up, but that's nowhere near as stress-induing as the barking.

My younger dog is now 20 months, and was crate trained from an early age. Again, we started with the crate in the utility room - bark bark bark. We temporarily moved the crate into our bedroom - it's still there!

As an aside - I think Max's weeing in the house was a result of us smugly saying a few months ago "Oh, both dogs are house trained now, let's replace the stair carpet!" to which Max's reaction was "this carpet doesn't smell right. Hang on...."

Chin up, keep trying different approaches. They're pack animals so they do like to be with other members of the pack when they're sleeping.

Oh, and for agility - you might need to wait till he's over a year old before doing all that jumping and leaping.

My pup was needing to poo during the night so I massively reduced his dinner and fed him earlier at 5.30 pm

He now has a big breakfast and lunch and small dinner,

Touch wood he hasn't pooed at night since.

Agility is great fun! You should give it a go! Some agility clubs do puppy clases where they don't do any jumping but they get them to step over low poles and it helps give them a sense of what they are doing with their feet. They can also start with the dog walk without it's legs and do tunnels.

If you want to get a head start you can teach your puppy left and right, I'm sure they'll be YouTube vids to show you how.

If you're anywhere near West London I'd be happy to recommend our club.

Nowhere Near London but thanks. We start obedience classes on Monday and the same trainer also does agility so i will ask him when we can start.