[BruceUK]

Alfie has developed a bit of a habit of waking up and having a barking fit during the night. Normally it seems to be between 4am & 6am, and I think it might simply be that it's his first summer (well, as summer as we get in England) and the combination of dawn and some of the windows open is setting him off on an alert bark. Our trainer/daycare lady says she thinks he's in his second fear stage, so I guess it could be that.

We're simply ignoring it and going back to sleep, but it is quite annoying and I was wondering what if anything we can do to stop it, or whether just waiting the behaviour out is the best thing.

 

[momtolabs]

I taught my dogs the "enough" command. Both mine know how to speak on command so I would say "speak" then "enough" and treat when they stopped barking. Is there any sounds that could be triggering it? Trash truck? People? a dog? My dogs started barking every night and it turned out to be a family of foxes running through my yard every night. They started it up again and now there is a loose GSD in town that no one can catch. So there could be things triggering it.

 

[BruceUK]

It doesn't last long enough for me to go downstairs and tell him to stop, and I don't want him to get the idea that by barking I'll come down and see him. I know he has better hearing, smell etc than me, but sometimes I swear he's just woken himself up by farting or something