[madspence2]

I have a three month old male Boxer puppy that is crated while he is alone and at night. He is usually pretty good about it at night, only sometimes do we get the 5-10 minutes of barking. The problem arises if someone wakes him up during the night, usually when someone goes to the bathroom or he hears the snow plow. Once he wakes up we are bombarded with an onslaught of barking that just doesnt end. It doesnt make any difference if it is 2:00am or 6:00 am, we are treated to an hour or two of relentless barking. I dont want to go to the cage since that would be rewarding his behavior. To tell you the truth, I am on the verge of getting a barking collar. Anyone have any ideas? Please remember this is only when noises wake him up in the middle of the night.

 

[Amaryllis]

Before you shock an infant dog for doing what is natural to a dog, have you communicated to him that quiet is expected in the crate? Do you reward quiet? Have you taught him a "quiet" command? Does he have things to do in the crate, and are you sure he doesn't have to go to the bathroom? If I get woken up at 3am, I have to get up and pee. It doesn't matter that I don't normally get up until 5:45, I'm up, I have to pee. Dogs aren't much different.

Training a quiet command isn't hard. Any time your dog stops barking, not just in the crate, any time, say "quiet" click and treat. Eventually, he will get the idea that quiet means stop barking, and you can use it on command.

 

[doxiemommy]

I agree. Three months old is just a baby. When you wake up a baby, they don't always have the ability to soothe themselves back to sleep. Whether it's a human baby or puppy, waking up in the middle of the night can be scary, and it can take awhile for them to become calm enough to get back to sleep.

I'd say, take him out for a potty trip, (even if he normally sleeps through the night). But, no fuss, no cuddling, just out, no nonsense, then back to the crate. You could even try giving him a kong or bully stick when you put him back in the crate. Chewing on a bully stick used to put both our dogs right to sleep when they were puppies.