We have two rescue dogs; one's nearly three and has been with us since she was a pup and the second's just seven months old and he arrived two months ago. They get on great; one's a jr and the other a jr cross. The problem is that the new arrival starts barking at about 3am at least every other night and doesn't stop until its time to get up for work. He's literally driving me insane. We have a petsafe fence, so both dogs have free run of about 3/4 of an acre. They have two kennels and tend both to sleep together in one. We've tried closing the kennel door at night but the small fella literally scratched the door open. He made bits of it! Shouting at him to be quiet doesn't seem to work. He just licks your face......

If we ever have to rehome ours I can guarantee who ever took them on would need to get up at 4am for first walk of the day, Mollie has been used to getting up at that time for all her 12 years, unbroken by holidays when it would be really nice as I don't need to get up for work to have a lie in. Betty has only been here for a year and is very used to it too.

You may just have a dog used to getting up early due to the past home they had.

We used to keep the dog flap open for our dogs at night, and every evening if so much as a gnat farted outside one of my dogs would run outside barking. Not only did it wake us up, but I felt sorry for our neighbours. I thought we were being nice letting her go in and out for a wee whenever she felt the need.

Anyway - I decided in the end to stop the nocturnal wanderings of my dog and instead shut her inside. She has (with her brother) full access to everything downstairs but she isn't allowed upstairs. Since shutting her in about 2yrs ago now she hasn't barked once. Not even when the neighbours are being noisy. Very odd.

Could you perhaps let them stay indoors overnight, and shut them in (and by that I mean in the house, not in the kennel). It might be is woofing as he is scared of being away from you ?

Ignore him, totally. Dogs perceive any attention, whether its negative or not as better than no attention at all. What they don't like is being ignored, so the best way to stop behaviour you don't want is to ignore it. It's one of the hardest things you can do, ignore a persistently barking dog that's driving you round the bend, but it is the best way of curing him. Whatever you do, don't shout at him, he will not only take that as a notion that you are awake and responding to him, he will think your shouting is you joining in, encouraging him, and he will actually bark more to outdo you! And the more/ louder you shout, the more/ louder he will go!

So you need to do the opposite - teach him that barking gets him nowhere and has no affect whatsoever. Next time he barks, pretend there's no dog there and you can't hear a thing. Oh and he'll know if your not convincing enough, so you have to put on an oscar winning performance! Don't speak to him, don't touch him, don't even look at him, do not in any way acknowledge that he's there, let alone making a noise. Once he realises that you don't respond to him in any way whatsoever if he barks, he will stop, because for some strange reason you can't seem to hear him so its pointless doing it.

Some dogs learn it quickly, some take more time, and it depends how long they've been allowed to get away with it for, but as long as you ignore him every single time he barks, he will eventually realise that it is not the way to get your attention, it might have worked with his last owner, but not you. Just to warn you, you might want earplugs for a bit, because when you first start this, the chances are he will be worse than ever for a bit, as he won't understand why your suddenly not responding and will try even harder to get your attention. Didn't give in - its better to have a week or so of no sleep than years of getting up at 3am.

I agree with a lot of what you say Collie as we ignore the dogs if they bark during the day, and now they just whimper a little if someone walks past. But I know with my Vizsla that, if she whines in the night (rarely) and we say NO in a stern voice, that always does the trick.

Your very lucky, most dogs quickly learn that nothing gets their owner's attention faster than a persistent volley of barking

Thanks for all the replies. I hope you're not right molliepops, but it makes a bit of sense as it seems to be around the same time - 3.30am - every morning!


I know one morning I chased him around the garden and picked him up and he was delighted - started licking my face..... so I think you have a point. The thing is, it's not just me. OH usually sleeps through it but my 12 year old daughter was crying one night she was finding it so hard to sleep. I'm sure the neighbours aren't too thrilled with us either . My only hope is that Sindy (the older) was a bit like this when we first got her and she completely stopped barking at night eventually. She's now started joining in with him, though.

I also think the locking inside might be worth considering as I feel it's cats or foxes or something that they're barking at; they're running around the perimeter of the garden (we're in a fairly rural area) yelping at something.

Thanks again for the food for thought.

I hope your neighbours don't live too close, it must be murder for them.

Let them sleep downstairs in your house. Get a stair gate to stop them going upstairs or confine them to one room. I've had dogs all my adult life and have never had a dog with a barking problem. It would drive me round the bend.

Teach the dog to bark and be quiet on command.

First teach him to bark buy using the command 'SPEAK'. When he barks give him a reward. When he's got the hang of that you can get him to bark, then use the command, 'QUIET!'. Make sure you are firm, with this one in your tone of voice. Hold a hand up too to emphasise it. If he stops barking give him a treat. Eventually you will be able to shout 'QUIET' out the window when he barks, and he will be quiet. Eventually he will understand that you really don't want him to bark at night.

JR's are clever dogs. He'll soon pick it up.

They're not really that close. The nearest house is about 500m away; as I said it's a rural area. But I'd imagine they can hear it faintly, at least. We haven't had any complaints yet and they passed me in the road earlier with a big hearty wave...... I'm going to try Armi's tip. 'Shurrruppp' isn't working for some reason.

Unless he knows what you're saying he just thinks you're shouting at 3am too. He then thinks, "Even Patsy is at it - he must want me to carry on. It's great this 3am barking lark"