8 months old, early morning barking, what should i do? Help!! U/D still no joy

[rebeccabloor]

Hi all,

After some advice please because i'm not sure what to do the the right results..............

Bentley has always been fairly good at night going right through till 7/7.30 since he was 3 months old.

Anyway, in the last few weeks he has been waking early (5/6 am) and whining and yapping then builds up to full barking if we don't get up 

There is no apparent reason for this and i know its not for the toilet as he has woke me up in the night before when OH hasnt toileted him properly before hes gone bed, and his barking is very different when its the toilet he needs. and i have got up in the last 2 wks and he hasnt been interested in going out at all, just play 

It has started to stress the household in the morning, and i believe he is trying to dictate when he gets up and is 'trying it on'. I've have said to OH that we need to IGNORE this behaviour because if he (bentley) thinks that his noise has got us up then it will encourage more of the same unwanted behaviour.

Am i correct in this action and is it likely to curb his unwanted barking?

Also, when i decide to get up and come down stairs to put the kettle on i will not let him out his crate straightaway, i will not even look at bentley untill he is quiet. Is this sending the right msg to him?

Bentley does appear to be a very 'vocal' cocker and we have never encouraged him to be noisy.
I would just like to get some control again or at least know that what im doing is the right thing to do cause it really is wearing me and OH down and George is missing out on his sleep too!!!!!


UPDATE. Still no joy on the barking. I don't know what else to do. 

I realise alot of COLers have their fluffy babies in their bedrooms on floor or bed and my OH has suggested having him in his bed on the floor tonight because he is so tired at being woken up.......

I'm really not happy about just letting him (Bentley) manipulating me into a desicion i didn't want to make based on the last 4 weeks of barking from 5 am...........

He has been crated every night since coming home to us and i'm unsure as to why he isn't conforming to us ignoring him till 7am? He BARKS CONSTANTLY for up to 2 HRS.

I thought it was the neighbour leaving but this isn't the case. He has started when there has been no distraction at all. I have been half awake when he starts. We dare not go toilet in the small hours incase that starts him off....

We are all putting ear plugs in but not until waking us all and we all ignore him when we get up at 7am but he soon shuts up when i enter the kitchen knowing i won't even look at him until he's quiet. He responds well when i'm up but not when we are upstairs..............

Please someone tell me this is all worth it!!!! We are on the verge of breaking point. Im so tired and i have been very tearful tonight because you all know how it can get you down i'm sure.


 

[SimonandMandy]

Sorry absolutely no useful advice but just to say good luck and welcome to the terrible teens.  Harvey started night games from about 6 months and it was all about human contact - it is likely that if you respond and give in to Bentley coming into the bedroom (quite likely what he is after) then that will be it going forward.  Harvey started with barking and whining, his latest was working out how to get our attention for toilet after he had a bit of tummy trouble, now if he really wants into bed at 4am he dances like an idiot    Be prepared that Bentley will always be one step ahead 

If you can ignore keep perservering (we decided we liked our sleep too much but have stuck to our guns about not being on our bed during the night)

[cerinrich]

Poor you. Hattie's noisiness in general, and barking in the night in particular, has been the most stressful thing about her. She was great when she first came home and then at about four months she started barking in the early hours. At first she seemed to need a pee but then it became more and more frequent and she only wanted to play. As we're in a terrace I got really stressed about it so we went to see our neighbours and took them bottles of wine to apologise in advance and explained that we were going to leave her and see if that stopped it. It did, in only about 3 or 4 nights. She started again after Christmas but I made new blinds that made it much darker where she sleeps and now she's great. She does bark as soon as she hears us in the morning (6.15am unfortunately) which is something we're working on, but sleeping through the night has (touch wood) stopped being a problem. So, I thoroughly recommend making sure that is it really dark where Bentley sleeps and, if you're sure he doesn't need the toilet, just leave him and see how that goes. Try not to be stressed and good luck!

[SkyeSue]

I don't have much in the way of advice for you except that I think you're doing the right thing by using ignoring tactics. It definitely sounds llike your pup has learnt how to get your attention, at hours you'd prefer he was sleeping! I have found that ignoring any of Chloe's bad behaviour is soooo effective.....the less fuss I make, the calmer she becomes.
Good luck 

[bracken]

We had really bad problems with Rosie she barked for about 4 months at night we tried to ignore the behaviour but ended up so tired we gave in and she now sleeps on her bed in our room  if she needs a wee during the night (rarely) I get up let her out without saying a word. She then gets back on her bed and goes to sleep.
When she first went upstairs she wandered around but I picked her up and popped her straight onto my bed saying ... BED.
Putting her in our room was not taken lightly but it has been great 
Good luck I know how stressful it can be with a barking cocker.
Jo

[SkyeSue]

We had really bad problems with Rosie she barked for about 4 months at night we tried to ignore the behaviour but ended up so tired we gave in and she now sleeps on her bed in our room  if she needs a wee during the night (rarely) I get up let her out without saying a word. She then gets back on her bed and goes to sleep.
When she first went upstairs she wandered around but I picked her up and popped her straight onto my bed saying ... BED.
Putting her in our room was not taken lightly but it has been great 
Good luck I know how stressful it can be with a barking cocker.
Jo

Ooops maybe I should add that I gave in too  Ignoring tactics might work for some things, but I couldn't ignore Chloe's persistant wines throughout the night, and she now sleeps on/in my bed....

[BabyB]

We had really bad problems with Rosie she barked for about 4 months at night we tried to ignore the behaviour but ended up so tired we gave in and she now sleeps on her bed in our room  if she needs a wee during the night (rarely) I get up let her out without saying a word. She then gets back on her bed and goes to sleep.
When she first went upstairs she wandered around but I picked her up and popped her straight onto my bed saying ... BED.
Putting her in our room was not taken lightly but it has been great 
Good luck I know how stressful it can be with a barking cocker.
Jo

Ooops maybe I should add that I gave in too  Ignoring tactics might work for some things, but I couldn't ignore Chloe's persistant wines throughout the night, and she now sleeps on/in my bed....

We had no noise at night from Henry as we'd crate trained him.  Katie then came along (18mths old) and was having none of it.  So they both now sleep upstairs.

Henry is now really cheeky and gets on the pillows, paws the duvet so that it has a gap and he crawls underneath and sleeps at the bottom of the bed  .

Katie sleeps on two large pillows beside my side of the bed, and Henry will get too hot, climb over my feet and jump off onto Katie's cushions  .

I have no answer to your Bentley, but he'd make a good hot water bottle 

I also agree with Cerinrich - darker curtains certainly make ours stay in bed longer of a weekend

[Sharon]

My Dylan started doing this, we thought about what it could be, either the heating coming on or the fact he was getting cold because the heating wasn't on.............ends up it was neither, it was our neighbour who leaves home for work every morning at 5.30am and lets his chickens out before he goes, which makes all the security lights in our garden go on, we've now switched them off and he sleeps through till 8am 

[rebeccabloor]

We cant allow him upstairs. OH won't like the dog hairs on/ in bed and i have to agree.

I don't want to 'give in' to his demands.......although i'm not convinced it is a 'demand' more pushing the boundaries but if i know ignoring him will give him the correct msg then i feel we can persevere........

We all now have earplugs............


BTW he sleeps in the kitchen in his crate has a kong at night and the crate is half covered. The blinds are closed and 5/6.30 it is still very dark. nott sure if i can change the enviroment anymore....

[PennyB]

I had this problem when my two were a lot younger - I would go downstairs and ignore them/no eye contact, let them out so at least I knew they didn't want the toilet, and then when back in I'd may be go to the loo (downstairs) or to the cupboard and 'pretend' to do something there for a couple of minutes (so they had my prescence but not my attention). On my way back up I'd then firmly ask them to go back to their bed and went back up. Sadly its tiring but puppies are even at this age and sometimes there's no magic trick to solving the problem.

[bracken]

We cant allow him upstairs. OH won't like the dog hairs on/ in bed and i have to agree.

I don't want to 'give in' to his demands.......although i'm not convinced it is a 'demand' more pushing the boundaries but if i know ignoring him will give him the correct msg then i feel we can persevere........

We all now have earplugs............


BTW he sleeps in the kitchen in his crate has a kong at night and the crate is half covered. The blinds are closed and 5/6.30 it is still very dark. nott sure if i can change the enviroment anymore....

he could sleep on his own bed not on yours  mine only get on the bed in the morning
Good luck with the ear plugs  fingers crossed he settles soon
Jo

[cerinrich]

We are meanies and knew that we didn't want Hattie in our bedroom. It did get to the point when we nearly 'gave in' (the night after she'd been noisy about 6 times between 2am and 6am and I was almost in tears by the time we were supposed to get up) but knew that there would be no going back - hang on in there if you really don't want Bentley in your bedroom and good luck again!

[rebeccabloor]

I've realised what it is this morning.

It's the sound of a neighbours car starting up and driving off!!!!!!

i heard it yesterday and today and Bentley starts as soon as the car has drove off..........

Cannot do anything about that so it really is a case of ignoring him isn't it.

I kind of feel sorry for him but theres not a chance he will be able to sleep upstairs.

I really hope he settles down but theres no telling if he actually will is there?

It's a good job we live in a detatched house or the said neighbours wife wouldn't be too imprssed would she....even though it's HER husband leaving that triggers him off!!!! 

[supergirl]

I've realised what it is this morning.

It's the sound of a neighbours car starting up and driving off!!!!!!

i heard it yesterday and today and Bentley starts as soon as the car has drove off..........

Cannot do anything about that so it really is a case of ignoring him isn't it.

I kind of feel sorry for him but theres not a chance he will be able to sleep upstairs.

I really hope he settles down but theres no telling if he actually will is there?

It's a good job we live in a detatched house or the said neighbours wife wouldn't be too imprssed would she....even though it's HER husband leaving that triggers him off!!!! 

Had this with Roly too - neighbours start work early and he used hear them get up - not barking but crying quite loudly.  He was usually crated overnight, but I found that when I left the crate open he was fine and he preferred to be able to wonder around the kitchen when he was awake and sleep where he wanted to.

[black taz]

I know i am going to get criticised for this, but Taz used to get wake us at 5.30 ish every morning and it was causing me a lot of stress as i don't cope with lack of sleep very well.

What i did was spray a little water on the kitchen floor (not at him) i think the distraction of the water (cos he would lick it) was enough. I did not actually go in the kitchen, just put my hand though (i can see through the door so knew i wasn't likely to catch him with the water). Only had to do it a couple of times and now we get to about 7 at the weekends (we are up at 6.15 in the week anyway and we usually wake him up - perhaps he should return the favour to us).

We actually made the decision to let him sleep upstairs last night (not because he cries now, but because i felt guilty because my other dogs sleeps with us).    OH got a lick at 8am.  He did not sleep in our bedroom most of the time (his decision) but on the landing.