We have had our new rescue dog (greyhound x lurcher 8 months old) 4 weeks now.
All started well and he settled into a new routine fairly quickly. We were both off work for the first week that he came and left him for short periods with no issues. In the second week we both were back to work; partner works full time Mon-Fri and I work part time in a school Wed-Fri. Again, no issues with my partner popping back at lunch time to see him. In the third week the snow came and i was unable to go to work. I therefore spent a lot of time with the dog and this was combined with being unable to walk him very far as the conditions were too slippery. Then we went away for a night at a dog friendly hotel (we knew this would be a stretch but my partner had booked it for my birthday way before we got the dog and we realised we could take him with us!) it became apparent that we couldn't leave him in the hotel room (despite this being ok with the hotel) as he would immediately start barking. We then obviously spent one night with him in the same room as us. Since then we have had a visitor for two nights with another dog who wasn't impressed by our dog at all and did not want to play. Our dog was v excited by the other dog and desperate to interact but we ended up separating them. Anyway since the snow, the dog has started barking at 4am....then 3.30am and the past two nights barked when put to bed and then roughly every hour. We are exhausted.
He sleeps downstairs in the kitchen and is fed twice a day and walked twice a day..walk time probably totals an hour. I have booked for a behaviourist to come and assess him in a couple of weeks as we have other issues from his past to tackle (mainly lack of recall) but the sleeping thing is really a deal breaker. I have been coming down and saying 'no, bed' and turning away which does eventually work but I'm not sure why its still getting worse overall?
I cannot just let him bark as we are in a semi-detached with neighbours ( i feel dreadful about the noise!!!)
Any advice will be reallllllly appreciated and sorry for such a long post.
Thanks