[bobbyh09]

I have a year old vizsla that will sleep in his kennel 90% of the night but always every morning around 4 or 5 am starts whining and barking. Anyone have any advice for me on how to correct this? My wife and I are expecting our first child and we cannot have this happening when the new baby arrives.. Thanks in advance.

I've read many of these post on here about crating at night and have tried most of the tips and nothing seems to work.. the only thing I haven't tried is letting him roam the house at night but I have a feelilng he will think its play time and start playing with our other dog..

Thanks again..
Bob

 

[gunnr]

How long has the dog been in the kennel during the nite?

Mine start about the same time, because they need to go to the bathroom. It's not a problem for me because I get up at 4:30am, but everyone's schedule is different.

 

[bobbyh09]

Like I said he is a year old...
We go to bed around 10 or 10:30 and wake up at 6.. he barks sometimes at 4 or 5 or sometimes 3am.
We always limit his water after 8pm.. and take him out several times before we kennel him.
I don't think its a bathroom issue.. I think he is bored.
Thanks for the help!

 

[jp]

We went through something similar at about the same age, but a little earlier in the night (1-3). I tried every combination of letting her go outside, drink, stretch, etc. Sometimes I think there was a real thirst or poop need, but usually there was no apparent reason. After a month of bad sleep for us we decided to go cold turkey and refuse to respond. After a few days she gave up. (okay, maybe a times of yelling "be quiet") We always know we "win" when the whining turns into a low sigh/grumble sound.
Now at almost 2 we are going through a much worse case of this that starts almost right away at night. My wife has also been pregnant and we think it's a separation anxiety tied to detecting hormones or change of routine. I have long post about it a month ago. It's getting better, but we still get about 20 minutes each night of the same thing for this past week. The baby comes home tomorrow so we'll see how it changes everything.

 

[bobbyh09]

Thanks for the advice and heads up..
Yeah my wife and I have never really went cold turkey we are going to try that this weekend maybe starting tomorrow night.. No matter what we aren' t getting out of bed..
I tried to tell my wife that at the begining that we need to be strict about it and we never were.. now we are regretting!
So I am buying some ear plugs tonight and giving it a whirl
Thanks again!

 

[grnyg]

Hello,

Sounds familiar as my 17 month old Vizsla male Guszti used to do that once we gave up on him roaming the house at night. We got him an extra large crate, stuffed it with a couch cushion sized, 4 inch thick dog bed, and left his favorite blanket in the crate. We also put it in the corner of the family room and covered the crate with a second blanket to afford him some privacy. Guszti goes to bed anywhere from 21:30 to 23:00, the ritual usually consists of him going out to potty one last time, me opening his crate and letting him in, and then me covering him with his blanket (stays in crate, I don't let him take it out). When we started this, he did whine a bit and even barked. Instead of yelling at him, I just dropped a kid's shoe on top of the crate while he was barking; which started him into silence but I made sure he could not see or hear me do it. After a night or two of this, he figured it out and now sleeps well past 07:00 or even 08:30 some days without a peep. Some nights he actually taps on the crate so he can be let in.

All in all, making his crate as comfortable as possible, somewhat private, and used as time out spot only sparingly made him want to spend time there. I wish you the best, good luck.

 

[jp]

We're still having nighttime issues, and it got really bad this weekend. Penny had been crying about 5-10 minutes each night in her kennel after we went to bed, but it suddenly increased and Saturday night she cried the entire night. The vet has had her on meds which keep her from having panic attacks, but she still cries and cries. We sleep upstairs and the kennel is downstairs, and we've always had that arrangement. (She's 23 months) She quiets down when we get up and start moving, I guess hoping we'll come downstairs. The only way I could get her to sleep last night was to stay downstairs, albeit in another room, until she calmed down enough to go to sleep. That was 2 am. But that convinces me it's a separation issue. We hesitate to move her crate upstairs because of territorial cats, and I want her to be able to be separated from us for other occasions as well. Definitely not what we need with the new baby.