GR barking at night; out of ideas

[Hjb2410]

Our golden retriever is 1 next month and despite being in season the last three nearly four weeks has been behaving perfectly....

Fast forward to this evening, we put her in her crate like normal at 10.30 she barked for approximately 30 mins in which we let her out to toilet again and back in.

She settled and slept until 12.10 when she started barking again.

We've let her out multiple times to go toilet with no interaction or discussion, tried letting her come and sleep in our room and she is still barking constantly.

She's well behaved in her crate and this is so out of character for her.
I'm concerned about our neighbours and am not sure what else to do, is anyone awake who maybe able to offer some advise!

Thank youB

When mine barks at night it's because he has heard something. I suspect foxes set mine off.

I have a white noise machine which helps muffle the sounds outside but I find if mine is fixated on barking I need to snap him out of it and usually something like getting him to sit or do a trick makes him focus on me and breaks that cycle of him barking. I can then settle him again.

However, around the age of 1 I remember mine definitely started to behave differently. He didn't want to sleep in the crate anymore when he had been perfectly happy in there and he started getting more vocal about protecting 'his house'.

How is she now. Did you manage to settle her and get some sleep?

My Border Terrier did this for a fortnight until I worked out he was scared of the dark (honestly, and started randomly at 8 years old!) £5 night light plugged in from Wilkos and stopped straight away. Only barks now if he needs a wee and at 9.5 years old I can live with that!

Has she heard or smelt something outside? Mine does this if there's a cat in the garden!

Check your home for rodents.

We got a citronella bark collar for our lab - when the dog barks, the vibrations trigger a squirt of citronella which the dog doesn't like.

It works from the second bark. We don't need it now, it changed his behaviour.

Rather than looking at HER behaviour you need to look at what's the catalyst. If she's being a brat that's one thing, but if this is unlike the dog then it's almost assuredly not the dog that's the problem.

@BiteyShark
Thanks for your message
Saturday night she barked until 2am and nothing was helping so I went and slept in the front room with her on the couch and she slept all night.

Last night we'd given her loads of physical and mental stimulation so thought she will be tired out. Got to 12.40am and she started barking again :/ but this time I took her out for a wee and when that didn't work my husband did what you suggested a quick training session, changed the radio channel and that seemed to work as she settled and was quiet until we got up.

You said you had a similar issue where yours was barking in the crate when previously had been happy, what did you do to resolve this?

I can't cope with her barking every night around midnight

@Sforsh49 @adaline @stabulous @actiongirl1978

We checkout outside and checked the kitchen for anything but I'm going to pull all the kick boards out and check under there incase anything has created a home there.

We have a spare night light so I might try that too incase she is scared of the dark.

If things don't improve will go to the vets get her checked out

I actually stopped using the crate at that time as I figured he was telling me he wasn't happy any more in the crate and as he had 'earned his stripes' so to speak we gave it a go and he was ok.

However, you might not want to abandon the crate and if it's around the same time each night I wonder if something specific is setting her off outside. If you use a radio at night perhaps try a white noise instead as that muffles things whereas you will always get some silence at times with a radio channel.

Out dog used to go mental at hedgehogs. Could detect them miles away 🙄

@BiteyShark
I did say that to my husband because when I slept in the front room on Saturday she slept on the couch and didn't move all night. We had always said around age 1 we would look at getting rid of the crate.

I will have a look at white noise, Do you have any you recommend?

I actually have a couple of Lectrofan white noise machines because I also use one when we go away on holiday (really helps in hotels to drown out other people shutting doors etc).

All of my goldies for the last 40 years have slept upstairs- in their beds not mine btw.
I have never used a crate- but I know others like them.
I would guess she is hearing something- we have a neighbour who sometimes works shifts and Ddog hears her go out and come back. Another would react to cows in the field behind the house.
As they are at the side of my bed, it is easy to quickly calm them so they don't bark.

Perhaps she is just telling you she is a bit cold or lonely and wants to be with you? Goldens are very social dogs and really don't like to be left.

@BiteyShark
I've ordered one from amazon :) tbh I quite like the sound of them so I maybe purchasing another one!

@averylongtimeago
I think it's definitely something setting her off.

She did do this awhile ago and it lasted three nights but there had been a run of attempted burglary's near where we live so think she had heard them and scared them off. We haven't heard of anything similar occurring this time.

We have tried her sleeping up in our room but she just thinks it play time which is why the other night I ended up sleeping in the front room with her on the couch and she settled straight away there because she wouldn't in our room.

HjB my neighbours have a dog this age going through her first season and has been exactly the same - thankfully they must have started sleeping down with her because we have heard less barking (since we talked to them about it). So just a plea on behalf of your neighbours...

@BiteyShark
White noise arrived today, trialing it this evening; fingers crossed! X

@EvaHarknessRose
Our neighbours love our pup and know she is usually very well behaved so are aware this barking is out of character for her.

We've spoken to our neighbours, have a good relationship with them and have explained we are doing everything we can to resolve this barking issue.

Ultimately owners sleeping downstairs is only a short term solution therefore we need to try and understand what is setting her off to resolve it once and for all for all parties involved.

How was your night? Any better?

I definitely agree with phasing out the crate - as she’s maturing it’s likely she wants the freedom to keep an eye on her home. A lot of goodies want to ‘check’ their humans are ok overnight do freedom to patrol may help

Also I think you’re already aware of this but care that you don’t inadvertently reinforce the barking by giving her attention when she does this. The idea of a quick distraction/training session is sensible

We got a citronella bark collar for our lab - when the dog barks, the vibrations trigger a squirt of citronella which the dog doesn't like.

Please don’t do this. Research shows that dogs may find citronella more aversive than electric shocks. Just because citronella seems more benign to us, it does not mean dogs perceive it in the same way - their noses are highly sensitive and citinella is very punishing. Punishment methods are cruel, do not address the triggers for barking and often create inadvertent behaviour problems.

@BiteyShark
Slightly better, she woke at 12 and 3am and whined but only for the shortest amount of time (compared to other nights this week) and then seemed to settle herself back down.

I'm hoping it's just the stress of Christmas etc and she will go back to sleeping normal; fingers crossed.

Fingers crossed she starts to settle down at night.

You say she's been in season, how long has she finished her season? Sometimes the hormones don't settle straight away which can cause unusual behaviour (suspicious barking being one of them). For this reason PLEASE do not use an anti bark collar. You have no idea what she is barking for so punishing her will cause further behavioural problems, particularly if she is feeling unsettled and hormonal.

I agree with trying to phase out of the crate, you may find she no longer needs it. Continue your bedtime routine with her but just crate door open and see if she might settle better overnight.

@Veterinari
Holly's 1 on Sunday and we had always said when she was 1 to phase out the crate but I'm in two minds at the minute with her being unsettled at night.

Yeah at the start we only went down to let her out for the toilet as soon as it become apparent she didn't need the toilet we didn't go down because we didn't want her to feel she was being rewarded with attention.

Would never use any form of negative training, we are very much positive reinforcement so would never use any sort of collars as 'punishment'

@WitcheryNights
We went to the vets on NYE's and they confirmed she had finished her season but in terms of timing etc it was 4 weeks ago today when she started her season.

As it's so out of character for her we did think maybe it was her hormones settling down or the excitement of Christmas.

When we went to the vets they did check her over and said on the face she seems fine so ruled out any obvious medical problems.

We know it's not needing to go toilet and can't seem to find anything that's unsettling her but obvious know that her hearing is better than ours.

Would never ever use any form of dog collars or anything like that for punishment very much believe in positive reinforcement.

Just bothered by it as it's so out of character and want to make sure she's ok.