# My Puppy is suddenly barking at night



## Marcella

Hello everyone - this is my first post and I am after some advice please. I have a 6 month old cockapoo called Freddie who has suddenly started barking at night in his crate. He has been so good since we have had him - goes into his crate every night happily and we don't hear a peep from him until the morning. The only unusal thing that has happened is our rabbit died on Saturday night - we woke up Sunday morning to find him passed away in his crate which we kept the opposite side of the room to Freddies. Could this have affected Freddie ? We only had our rabbit two weeks so I'm not sure this is the problem. Any advice would be so welcome. X


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## HenryPup27

Oh gosh so sorry to hear about your rabbit. That could possibly be the problem with Freddie, tricky to say. Our Henry has just turned a year old – he was absolutely good as gold in his crate for the whole first year (although he did love to wake up and want to get up at around 6am every day!), then all of a sudden a few weeks ago he started waking up at 3am each night. He didn't need the loo as he can hold it for almost 12 hours overnight these days, so we knew it wasn't that. He just wanted to be with us. We had never really considered the crate to be a long term thing (it works wonders for accelerated house training of course), but because he was fine with it all that time we felt no reason to change things. However, 3am wake up calls were not good! He just wanted to be with us, so we decided to ditch the crate and now we all sleep soundly in our bedroom – he even loves a lie in these days which is a revelation! Our very early mornings are now at an end thank goodness, we were pretty tired!

I am not sure if Freddie is feeling the same thing, they are such companion animals, and being separated from you might be the problem. Could you have him in the room with you in his crate? Or no crate altogether? I don't know your set-up or what you would prefer to happen long term, but Henry now sleeps soundly and quietly with us, and so do we. Phew! The crate was brilliant, and I would recommend every new puppy owner to use one, but once he'd decided he was done with it, there was no point in forcing him when actually the alternative was much more peaceful for everyone. Hope that helps.


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## Marcella

Thank you HenryPup27 - I would actually be more than happy for Freddie to sleep upstairs with us at night. I gave in to him at 3.15 am last night and brought him upstairs but he was on the bed, then off it, then wanting to get back up, then jumping on us .........he was a nightmare ! The night before he barked until I went down and slept on the settee with him. He wandered off into his crate about 2 am that night and I just shut him in and he was fine. I might bring his bed up with us tonight and see will he settle in that. Thanks again for your advice X


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## HenryPup27

Ahh yes, I would say don't worry about the up and down and round and round thing – Henry did that for the first 2-3 nights too. I think he just couldn't believe his luck that he was upstairs with us! Plus there are lots of new/different sounds to get used to. I promise you that after a few nights he will settle down beautifully and you won't even notice he's there.

Henry settles down for about 10 minutes, then gets off to the bed to get a drink, and then gets back up and we don't hear any more from him until we wake him up in the morning to go downstairs. It's bliss! I was always in the camp of "no dogs on the sofa or the bed!" but I've relented on both of those because Henry is just so lovely – plus he's clean and doesn't shed hair. I use Leonor Unstoppables on our bed linen and in the mornings he smells of that!


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## LPC

Marcella said:


> Thank you HenryPup27 - I would actually be more than happy for Freddie to sleep upstairs with us at night. I gave in to him at 3.15 am last night and brought him upstairs but he was on the bed, then off it, then wanting to get back up, then jumping on us .........he was a nightmare ! The night before he barked until I went down and slept on the settee with him. He wandered off into his crate about 2 am that night and I just shut him in and he was fine. I might bring his bed up with us tonight and see will he settle in that. Thanks again for your advice X


Our Forgy sleeps happily on his own dog bed (actually two sun-lounger covers sewn together!) near our bed. When we first got him, he wanted to sleep with us on our bed, but we persisted and he now happily sleeps near us on his dog bed. As long as he is near us and feels secure, he is fine and never disturbs us.

I am very sorry to read about your rabbit having passed over so suddenly. Rabbits are, sadly, prone to such sudden infections. About twenty years ago our dear rabbit called Ellie, who was in perfect health, suddenly passed away with no warning, except for being bit "off colour" for the day before.

Dogs are very sensitive animals, who are very aware of other beings around them (not just humans but also any other creatures). Your dog will most certainly have sensed that the rabbit has passed and may well have been upset by this. Dogs notice things on levels that we humans - forever so busy with our daily affairs, just like ants! - do not always appreciate.

Perhaps having your dog near to you at night may help to give some reassurance. Every best wish to you!


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## eeverett

Dogs wake and go back to sleep all night. The barking is for your attention and after it works once it can quickly become a habit. This happened with our dog when I got out of bed and went into another room about 2am one night. Unbeknownst to me (due to headphones) my dog began to cry and bark, which woke my husband who took the dog out. After that he whined and barked at around that time each night until we ignored it. Took 2 or 3 nights to extinguish that behavior. BTW our dog is in a crate in our bedroom.


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