Matty sure likes to bark :(

[sprayeddog]

Well I thought Matty's finally grew out of his barking habit when he's stopped barking early in the morning for almost a month ... but seems like the nightmare is back

When we first brought him home, Matty used to bark when he woke up in the morning, regardless of the time. We keep him in an fenced off area close to our bedroom, so needless to say it's very annoying when he barks at 4am. We tried a lot of things, and they didn't seem to work initially but eventually he just stopped barking. We thought he's grown out of it.

It lasted for almost a month, and when he woke up at 5am or 6am he'd still whine a bit, and I'd take him out to relief himself in the backyard, then I'll put him back in his den and we'll go back to sleep. He'd play with his toys or sleep in his room without barking.

Eventually he could even hold it through the night and didn't even whine until we wake up ~ 7:30am. We thought we saw the light at the end of the tunnel. We could finally sleep through the night without letting him out and without him barking through the night.

But then since a couple weeks ago, he started whining in the middle of the night again so we had to let him out ... it could be 3am, 4am or 5am ... after doing this for a few nights me and my wife discussed about it and decided he shoul be able to hold it through the night. He's done it before, and he should learn to hold it. So we decided we would let him whine and not let him out until we wake up. We'd see if there's any accident in his den. If there is, we'd have to start letting him out again.

Well, the good news is he CAN hold it through the night. He'd still start whining beginning at ~ 5-6am, but he hasn't had 1 accident in his den until we let him out at 7ish.

The bad news is whining's turned into barking and these days he'd wake up ~ 5-6am, he'd whine for a bit, and then start barking. He' bark non-stop from 5-6am until we wake up at 7am.

I decided to let him out again when he whines the past 2 days, hoping it'd stop his barking now he doesn't have to hold it. but after I put him back and tell him to sleep, he'd start barking again like in the old days. He's gone full circle by now and it's a pain on those days when we're really tired and he'd start barking non-stop from 5:30am ...

We figured what we're going to do is ignore him when he barks from now on ... we tried everything and nothing seems to work anyways so if we ignore him at least we don't have to get up. Maybe we'll go get some earplugs ... I dunno.

[debanneball]

LOL - about that waking up, when we got Stella, she was up at 4 am for the LONGEST time. She is now close to 2 years, and is now up by 5 am at the latest. Have you considered letting your dog sleep in the same room as you, so he's close by. Who knows, maybe he's lonely and just the sound of your breathing (snoring) may help stop the whining. As for the barking, heck, he's just waking up the neighbourhood. Telling the sun to rise and that he wants to play. By the way, how old is Matty?

[sprayeddog]

Leaving him in the room is not really an option. The bedroom is not puppy-proof, and Matty is still teething.

[tenderfoot]

You could easily tether him on a short 18" lead to the side of your bed (short/long enough for him to stand up, turn around and lie down again). He can't get up and get into trouble and you are right there to correct any barking.
He really isn't teething per se - puppies don't truly "teeth" when they are getting their adult teeth in. The adult teeth dissolve the roots of the baby teeth as they are pushing into the original hole created by the baby tooth. They are not cutting through tissue like human babies do and do not feel the pain human babies do. It's more like a little itchy and chewing feels good, but heck adult dogs think chewing feels good too. So thinking the chewing will pass may not be accurate.