Dog barking during the night 😩

[BaconAndAvocado]

Help! Our almost 2yo Lab has started barking at all hours during the night!

Sometimes I let him out in case he needs a wee, which he doesn’t. And then I’m worrying about the neighbours as he’s so loud! He is toiletted when we go up to bed at 11ish.

He was a bit out of sorts when we had the really hot weather about a week ago,but it hasn’t been hot here over the past few days.

He has a 90 minute walk in the morning. Wonder whether he needs another walk in the evening?

He’s my first dog so it’s all new to me!

Other than the recent barking, he’s been a dream.

Is there something outside bothering him? They can hear foxes or other wildlife that we can’t. My friends dog kept kicking off at night and they couldn’t understand why, turns out they had hedgehogs living at the bottom of their garden and coming out at night!

TheFlis12345 Yes, we’ve had a hedgehog recently!! But what can I do? I wouldn’t want to move or disturb a hedgehog.....

What else does he do terms of entertainment? Our dog goes out 3 times a day - sometimes longer walks, sometimes shorter, to different parks or places - has 2 x 15 minute training sessions, eats his dinner from feeding toys or scattered in the garden and has a dedicated play session. If he just has one walk a day he might be bored/want attention.

One walk per day for a young lab isn't enough, of course he needs an evening walk.

White noise?

If you have a smart speaker, you can ask it to play sleep noises (like thunderstorms or rainfall) when you go to bed. Help drown out any garden noises?

Definitely introduce an evening walk, doesn’t have to be an energetic one. A leisurely sniffari will do! Also play brain games with him as mental stimulation is just as important.

Wind down with playing an hour or so before bedtime.

Where does he sleep? Mine takes himself off to bed in his crate at night, he used to bark in there until I started putting a blanket over the top (like a parrot!) and now he snoozes for England.

Thanks all for the tips and advice!

Up until the past few nights, he's been sleeping like a baby so this is very out of character.

I would shorten the morning walk and introduce a "sniffari" in the evening - you don't want to do anything that's going to fire him up, so something nice and calming is best - keep him on the lead and just allow him to sniff.

I do these with my beagle - keep him on the lead and just do a slow, sniffy pavement walk. We don't cover much ground but he comes home exhausted.

Not necessarily. Walking makes them fitter. It doesn't really tire them out. It can have the opposite effect, depending on the environment.

Brain games are far more effective. Sniffing and problem solving especially.

Defo sniffy walk before bed.

Where does your dog sleep? We found our dog was more settled sleeping in our room.

I didn’t realise that this kind of walk could be tiring!

We play bran games but he’ll often destroy the toys involved 🤣
I get a blanket and hide lots of small treats in it then fold it up multiple times. He loves this.

Sniffy walks are the best - tires them out far more than a romp around the neighbourhood. Can you shorten his morning walk and build in a slower one in the evening with some brain games through the day? ChenDog’s favourite is small rags stored in a jar of cloves and I then hide the rags around the house - hold the clove jar under his nose, say ‘mark it’, then ‘go find’ and treat and reward when he finds (don’t say find it more than once, let him work it out). It sounds likes something nocturnal is coming out and is waking him - I second the white noise to try and drown it out.

SirChenjins your cloves game sounds great! Thank you, I’ll definitely give that a try.
Last night, he slept through without an evening walk.
Yep, must be hedgehogs, foxes etc.

I think it's something like 10 minutes of sniffing is the equivalent of an hour of physical exercise.

Sniffing is so so important ☺️

We play hide the toy about an hour before bed, she loves this game and it tired her out.