The most common reasons why do dogs bark at night include the following:
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- Excitement
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- Anxiety
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- Fear
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- Anger
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- Wariness at Newcomers
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- Strange Noises Outside
Going deeper, the type, tone, and overall nature of your dog’s barking can indicate a wide range of different reasons that spark their desire to communicate with you.
Help, My Barking Dog Is Barking At Night & Keeping Me Awake
If you’re a dog lover, you know how powerful the bond is between yourself and your four-legged friend.
No matter what kind of day you’ve had or what kind of mood you’re in, your dog is always there, ready to greet you when you come home at the end of the day.
The loyalty dogs show their owners have been documented for at least as long as Western Literature, with Homer’s Odyssey featuring Perpetual Good Dog Argus waiting twenty years for his master Odysseus to return from the Trojan Wars and his travels after that.
Shakespeare includes the loveable dog/master duo of Lance and Crab in Two Gentlemen of Verona.
From dog-loving actresses such as Marilyn Monroe and Salma Hayek to Pablo Picasso’s pet wiener dog, Lump, to Presidential pooches, the Queen and her corgis, and beyond, dogs have been loyal companions to some of the most famous and influential figures of our age.
Your dog is, without question, one of the best parts of your life.
You and your dog have a relationship that goes beyond words – which is good since, being a dog, they’re not much of a conversationalist.
You love your dog and are grateful for the energy and care they show you, but everyone needs their personal space and time to rest, and while Rover may think that they have the essential thing in the world to show you, chances are that you don’t believe so 3 am on a Tuesday is the time to do it.
But Rover doesn’t know that, so he goes barking, even after you’ve told him for the umpteenth time to stop.
And that isn’t the only potential problem you face.
Sometimes dogs express themselves not through excessive barking but through chewing – to the detriment of any number of furnishings or gardened plants you might own.
Dogs Barking At Night – What should a dog owner do?
Here are a few tips and tricks to help keep your dog from chewing, barking, chewing, barking, or disturbing your home.
Why Do Dogs Bark?
Before you can figure out how to solve your dog’s excessive barking problem, you have to determine what’s causing it in the first place.
This may sound simple on the surface – after all, barking is barking. How complicated can it be?
Quite a bit.
To return to that “conversationalist” quip from above, in the same way, that humans can speak to one another for different reasons, the same holds with your dog and barking.
Dog Anxiety May Be The Cause
Let’s first tackle a significant potential cause of excessive barking and chewing – anxiety. As humans do, dogs can feel
anxious about different things. When they do, they might express that anxiety via a nervous habit – for example, chewing on whatever’s nearby.
As such, it is paramount to figure out what’s causing your dog’s anxiety and resolve the issue, thereby determining the barking and chewing problems.
That said, this can be easier said than done.
Reasons That Your Dog Might Be Anxious
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- Seeing something outside or on your property that disturbs them
- Seeing another dog, cat, or another type of pet, thus provokes a sense of territoriality
- You have added another pet to your home, thus provoking a sense of territoriality
- Changes to their diet
- Changes to their environment
- Other changes around the house
Those are just a few potential causes of your dog’s anxiety. You’ll want to watch them closely and work to figure out just what in particular is troubling them.
What’s more, you can also bring your dog to a pet behavior expert.
They will often not only be able to diagnose the root cause of your dog’s anxiety, but they can likewise help devise different means to address it.
Dog Excitability
On the other hand, perhaps anxiety is the last thing that comes to mind when you look at your dog.
You see them racing around, barking day and night while chewing away, looking and acting happy as a clam.
It might very well be that they are. It can pose a dilemma if your dog is barking or chewing out of a sense of joy.
On the one hand, you’d always rather your dog be happy rather than anxious.
On the other hand, you don’t want any preventive or corrective steps that you take to rid your dog of that happiness.
You’ll thus want to proceed with caution to ensure that whatever actions you take here to address the barking or chewing alone doesn’t crush your dog’s spirit.
You don’t want to quash their happiness; redirect it towards something less disruptive or destructive.
Addressing Your Dog’s Barking at night
So, just what can you do?
Well, you can start by downloading the dog behavior Bible right here.
Above all, you don’t want to yell at your dog. Not only will this not solve the underlying problem, but if it affects your dog, it will be negative.
Instead, you want to make sure that you maintain a positive tone, just as you would when trying to coax a toddler to eat their vegetables.
You also want to make sure that you keep your commands consistent. You don’t want to confuse your dog.
Once you start using one of the methodologies listed below, stick to your tactics as much as possible to create a pattern your dog can anticipate and, eventually, understand.
Most Common Steps To Take Include
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- Remove the Source: If the cause of your dog’s barking is external, you might well want to try to remove the cause of the barking. This can be as simple as erecting a fence to block your dog’s view of things that might be bothering them. If your dog stays indoors and barks at something outside, you might want to consider closing the blinds or curtains.
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- Ignoring the Barking: While it might be tempting to respond to your dog’s barking every time they start, you’ll want to refrain from doing so for the same reason you wouldn’t do so with a toddler. If your dog is barking for attention, you want to be careful about how you give it. On the one hand, you don’t want to ignore your dog. At the same time, if they think barking will always summon you, stopping their barking may be a no-go. Finding a balance between responding to and ignoring your dog’s barking is thus critical.
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- Give Treats: This one can be tricky. You don’t want to spoil your dog, after all. That said, if you command your dog to stop, they do, and you give them a small treat as a reward, you can start to condition your dog to treat the command seriously.
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- Solving the Anxiety: Anxiety can be a huge reason for your dog barking or chewing away. Finding ways to get them used to whatever’s bothering them can be an effective way to stop these nervous habits. For example, if you have gotten another dog, cat, or other pet to which your dog is barking and reacting, you’ll want to work to get them used to their new companion slowly
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- Keep your dog and the new pet in separate rooms. Give them different spots in the home. Please do not allow them to interact at first, except when you deliberately bring the new pet in, at which point you’ll want to counteract any barking or chewing on the part of your dog with treats. As stated above, this can slowly start to condition your dog to associate the new pet with treats and, thus, train them to react to their presence positively.
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- Exercise: Last but not least, it’s worth noting that exercise can often be an effective means of managing your dog’s barking. If your dog is barking because of an excess of energy, you need to find a way to give them more exercise. Finding a professional dog walker, giving them more playtime yourself, installing an automatic ball launch with which they can play fetch – whatever it takes to burn off that excess energy.
Dog Chewing And Barking At Night
The same holds for excessive chewing. Before we can figure out how to keep your dog from chewing, we must determine why they’re doing it.
Dogs can chew on different items for many other reasons, including:
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- Boredom
- Teething as a Young Puppy
- Attention-Seeking Behavior
- Anxiety
- An Improper Diet
Addressing Your Dog’s Chewing
Many of the same tactics can be employed to help keep your dog from chewing.
Removing items you do not want them to chew, eliminating the sources of anxiety that may be causing them to chew, and giving them treats after they have gone a while without chewing – can be effective ways to address the problem.
In addition, some other, more specific ways to help keep your dog from chewing up your home include:
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- Supply Your Dog with Chew Toys: To be fair, it’s somewhat unrealistic to expect your dog not to chew anything at all. That’s just what dogs do. As such, a simple yet effective solution to your dog’s chewing problem might be to supply them with chew toys, bones, or other items that are okay for them to chew.
- You’ll want to encourage them to chew their new toys while taking away or discouraging your dog from chewing those items that are off-limits. If the new toys are fun and you are clear and consistent about what’s okay to chew and what isn’t, chances are good that they’ll get the message.
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- Playing Fetch with Chew Toys: On a related note, that old idea of exercise can work well with solving your dog’s chewing problem. You’ll want to take some chew toys and play fetch with your dog. You’ll burn off some of that extra energy while allowing them to chew to their heart’s content, potentially solving two dog behavioral problems for the price of one.
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- Nutritional Advice: You should also ensure that your dog isn’t chewing things to try to solve deficiencies in their diet. Suppose your pet is chewing on something organic with the idea of eating it. In that case, eating it, you’ll want to ensure that they don’t while checking with your veterinarian to determine whether a nutritional deficiency may be the cause.
Puppy Proofing Your Home:
- If you are raising a puppy, you want to take special care to ensure that the space in which you present them has been prepared for them ahead of time. This means ensuring that any items you do not wish to chew are moved out of the way forward of time. Your puppy is very young and still learning.
- They aren’t going to know right away what’s okay and what isn’t, especially when it comes to something as natural to a dog as chewing. As such, it is probably best for all involved to skirt the problem by removing anything you don’t want them to chew from the area you are keeping and raising them. In addition, you’ll want to lightly encourage them to chew the chew toys that you can provide them when they’re old enough to start chewing the “right” things from the start.
You and your dog are best friends.
Your dog offers you a great deal of love and care. It’s only fair you return it by finding the right solutions when seeking ways to keep your dog from chewing or barking excessively.
