Night time issues, any advice please?

[cuntspud]

We have an 18month old working cocker.
He has always slept happily in his bed in the kitchen until recently.
We have a stair gate on the door and he has always gone straight to bed with no issues.
However, he has now worked out how to jump over the gate to get into the living room to sleep on the sofa!
We removed the the gate as we were worried he would hurt himself getting over and shut the door on him instead. Which he hates! Whining, crying, howling eventually barking
When we go down to tell him to get in his bed, he is very wound up and stressed.
He has eventually settled but then will start again shortly after throughout the first half of the night (up to about 2.30am)
So what do we do? Keep going with putting him back? Or give in and cover the sofas?
In an ideal world we would train him to sleep happily back in his bed in the kitchen as we have fabric sofas and he's a stinker
Any advice on how to go about this would be lovely!

Ignore him. Your going down is giving him attention and reinforcing the idea that howling and barking gets him what he wants. It will be a hard few nights but he'll soon learn. If he was perfectly happy sleeping in there before he will be again.

I'm being soft aren't I!

Well it's hard when they seem so stressed but sometimes you do have to let them figure it out by themselves. It's very easy to fall for the mournful howling and big brown eyes. That's how so many dogs get spoiled! Give him a few nights, get yourself some earplugs and see how it goes.

I'd cover the sofa and leave him in there

OP, you say you're being soft.
So am I.
I would let him sleep on the sofa.

Am I reading this right, you used to have to door open and now it's closed, so he's shut in? That might be making him feel a bit lonely.

I'd cover the sofa and let him snore happily away all night, but my dog sleeps on my bed so my opinion is probably not that sensible.

Yes, I've only started shutting the door because he was leaping over the stair gate that was on the door.
I figured it was the door being shut that has upset him but he will not stop trying to get over the gate, I'm worried he's going to hurt himself as he doesn't make it in one go if you see what I mean.
I'm going to give in aren't I

Of course you are

Just think how happy he'll be lying on his back, legs all over the place leaving his hair and smell all over your sofa. How can you say no. And you won't be woken in the night. It's a win all round.

Like this you mean?

Exactly like that.

Aww.

Love a happy ending.