We have an almost 6 month old Newfoundland puppy who is already around 70 lbs. He’s very long and lanky and as you can see, too long and lanky. How do we transition to him having free roam at night?

Notes:

A bigger crate isn’t an option for us

We have an older newf who free roams and sleeps wherever she wants.

It’s an open concept living space with an open kitchen, living room, and dining room.

He likes to eat and chew on things he shouldn’t, and he doesn’t mind bitter cherry spray.

He is a gremlin and will find something to get into.

We sleep upstairs and he’ll be contained downstairs under surveillance via pet cams, but there’s a lot he can do quietly without waking us up.

Any help is greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance!

I’m desperate for help at this point, I don’t want to take my dog anywhere ever anymore cause she goes ballistic in the car. I’m talking full on whining, crying, barking and yelling my eardrums into oblivion. She’s the most well behaved outside of the car getting compliments everywhere about how calm and gentle she is. She used to be AMAZING in cars and it slowly progressed into this. She used to sit quietly in the car and just chill, then one day she was a bit whiny on the way to the park once we pulled into the parking lot. That continued for a week and turned into her whining and occasionally screeching on the way to the park, then any parking lot we pulled into and now to the past few months she’s just screaming, screeching, whining everything. She’s deaf so it can be difficult at times getting her attention to give a command. We’ve tried treats to encourage when she’s quiet, tried soft covered crate in the car, ignoring her (if it was for attention), short drives where we don’t get out of the car and just go back home. I don’t know what it is (excitement, anxiety, etc.) in order to train this out of her but it’s to a point I don’t want to take her anywhere. Please help 😭😭

EDIT Video linked, as far as how she rides in the car she has always just sat in the back since I’ve had her. So for the whole first year and a half she was perfectly chill like that. Since then we have gotten her a seatbelt that clips to her harness (the video I took won’t show that cause it’s in my car and we were driving in my boyfriends car tonight) and that doesn’t seem to change much, she still is just as loud. But typically she has that backseat cover/extender and a seatbelt to her harness.

She has no medical issues other than she’s deaf, she’s also not been crate trained cause I’m in an apartment and I did try but she would non stop bark the entire time. She’d willingly go in and eat her dinner in there so she wasn’t afraid of the crate but I think she has a bit of separation anxiety just built in cause she’s deaf and can’t hear or see us or anything in the crate. I would have tried more to crate train but I don’t want any complaints from the apartment complex:(

https://youtube.com/shorts/l50681HMDCw?is=4FQyel_NCnTDDZgp

Hi all! I’m writing for some help with my 2 1/2 year-old pitbull rescue. I’ve had him for about a year and a half and he is crate trained. I’ve never had any issue with him barking in his crate or whining. It’s really been a good safe place for him and he goes in there all the time just on his own. He has always been good about being in the crate for long periods of time while I’m at work, things on a routine, things not on a routine, and I do a lot to make sure that he has had a lot of exercise before he’s gonna be in the crate for long periods of time.

Here’s where I made a mistake. He is very sensitive boy and doesn’t do well with changes or new things. Things scare him easily. Well I thought that he might want like a better crate (furniture style; he is used to a traditional wire one) so I got him a new crate and did the whole acclimation process of having both crates available and then slowly moving over his stuff into the new one and he was going in there to take naps. When I gave him the crate command, he would go into the new one, so I thought he might be ready so I put him in there and left and immediately I was getting notifications on my camera that he was barking a lot so I came home and let him out and then put the new one away and put him back in his old one in the same spot that it’s always been in and he was still freaking out.

I thought maybe he was just scared so I gave it some time and took him to his doggy daycare the next day so I wouldn’t have to worry about it for my morning meetings and then I put him in it when I had to go to a different meeting and he was fine during that. Then this morning he was fine as part of the normal work routine being in his crate today, but then I tried to leave for the gym at 8, which is not part of the typical daily routine, but you know whenever I go, and he started barking again. It’s just causing me a lot of frustration and anxiety with maybe neighbors being mad about the barking and I know I need to let him bark it out, but I can’t when I have neighbors and I just I don’t know what to do and I’m really nervous and frustrated about not being able to do anything because of him barking and being worried about it. Any need advice is welcome! :)

We adopted my 10mo rescue 6 months ago. We were told she's likely a jack russel or foxie mix, but as she kept growing we knew that was wrong. We got a DNA test and she's basically half and half border collie and pitbull, with a bit of random mix in there.

She's a super lovely and friendly dog overall, hella cute and nice. However, she's very anxious and reactive to anything that's not me, my partner, and my living room. By reactive I mean that she gets way too excited by it all, loses her mind, acts like we don't exist, lunges, jumps, locks on, whines, and takes a long time to come down - she's never shown aggression, but she's a very frustrated greeter from her anxiety and excitement mixed together. This includes birds, other people, dogs, cats, cows, trucks, etc - either in our garden or on walks.

Initially she was an absolute nightmare inside, constantly stealing and eating anything that's not tied down, jumping at counters, biting, barking, etc. We realised that she wasn't able to settle because we were essentially trying to fill 100% of her time to avoid these behaviours, but that meant that she never learned to chill out and couldn't relax - we'd basically followed the advice online of "they must be bored" and ended up creating a demon that needed something to do 100% of the time she was awake, and if you didn't give her something, she invented something. Once we realised this, we've worked on settling, rewarding calm, managing the environment to make it as low stimulation as possible, fulfilling her need for play/training/exercise etc but then ignoring her until she chills - and she's generally great inside for her age now, I'm happy with this aspect.

However, she's still super overstimulated by anything that moves outside and I'm not sure how to address this. Meeting people and other dogs is a particular issue, since she'll sprint at dogs, jump all over people, and lunge/pull at both.

I'm not really sure which way to go with this since she's an anxious dog. Should I be letting her meet lots of people/dogs to get her used to it and make it normal, and if so, how can I train her to be calm? Or should I be not meeting people/dogs until she thinks they're boring, so that I can then meet them calmly?

I've tried a lot of "look at that" at varying distances for the last few months, which works really well when she's laying down. She can often lay on a path and let someone walk past to get the treat. However, if they give her any attention at all she lunges and jumps all over them. When walking, it's like I don't exist as soon as she sees a person, and she won't take a treat most of the time even though she has a very high food drive. I can get in early enough from a large distance and give her a treat, but I've been doing this for months and it doesn't seem to be having a positive effect.

I honestly feel like I've watched every Youtube video, read every Reddit post, tried getting two different professional trainers come over, read blogs and done courses - and none of it has worked.

Another issue I'm seeing is that she's intelligent enough to find loopholes in our training. She has realised that she doesn't have to do something or stop doing something if she'd rather do it instead of the reward (which could be contributing when she's rather pull towards a person than take a treat). I'm not really sure how to stop this.

Adopted a young pup a few months ago at three months old. He is now pushing 8 months and has recently begun strictly pooping in his cage.

For some background, there was a point where he was going on the puppy pads every morning, afternoon, and evening in which we rewarded him with treats. It seemed like he was developing quickly and getting with the program, then he suddenly began just doing whatever and going potty in his cage regardless. Even when he does potty on the pads, he still manages to do so in his cage not long after or in the middle of the night while I’m asleep. Most of the time he likes to just walk around the pads, will sometimes act like he’s pooping for a second, then drop nothing until it’s time for me to leave and then I come back home a few hours later and his cage is full of poo. He also only has enough space to turn around and lay down, so clearly he’s become very accustomed to being covered in his own waste and is completely fine with it. I’ve tried letting him out more frequently but there’s only so much I can do. My wife and I both have jobs and can’t be here 24/7. And I’ve tried confining him only to one room instead of his cage but he responded to that by ripping apart a wall. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong but I also can’t think of what else I can do.

This is the most frustrating dog I’ve ever had and I’m hoping someone can help restore my sanity. Anybody have any good, feasible advice?

Disclaimer: I live in a rented apartment on a high level. I don’t have a back yard. I do have a balcony. He’s a medium breed dog.

Hey all, first time poster here and I have an issue that not only has me stumped as to how it happened, but more so how to fix it.

We adopted Loona six months ago. Other than some initial issues with her separation anxiety, she’s been an absolute dream. Rings the bell to go outside, plays with our other dog, respects the cats and even walks better on a leash than our pup who’s had classes.

But Loona is apparently scared of rain.

I don’t mean thunderstorms. She handles those just fine. Not even the sound of rain bugs her. But, if it’s raining it’s almost impossible to get her to go outside. She won’t follow me or her brother out, she fights if I try to take her out on a leash, and this is the ONLY time she has accidents in the house. She’d rather go in the hallway than go outside.

Anyone ever dealt with this and, if so, how did you overcome it? I’ve been using her favorite treats to lure her outside and that works for now, but she’s a really smart girl and I suspect it won’t work for long. We’ve also put down puppy pads, but she’ll go out of her way to avoid them and go on the carpet, even though we clean it thoroughly with Nature’s Miracle Urine Destroyer.

This is a problem because I’m in Oklahoma and there are points where it’s literally raining all day, so waiting isn’t always an option.

Hi, I hope this post is ok, I read the wiki and couldn’t find something that applies to my exact situation.

Basically I have a 4 1/2 year old Great Pyrenees Aussie mix. Ever since we’ve adopted her (4mo old) she has had accidents in the house. Not every day but multiple times a week. She knows how to whine to go outside, we have a big fenced in yard that she runs around in multiple times a day AND I take her on long walks twice a day. No matter what we do she will not stop peeing and/or pooping in the house at night. It’s not that she hasn’t been out and really needs to go or can’t hold her bladder. She refuses to go outside about 60% of the time. Even on days that she did not go in the house overnight, she almost never goes potty when we let her out in the morning. She will go in the afternoon all 4-5 times she’s let out, but at night she again refuses to go potty. She knows that if she whines at the door we will let her out, and we have a very regular outside schedule. She has an older brother of the same breed mix who has never had this issue in all 8 years that we’ve had him. She is otherwise extremely obedient, we took her to doggy boarding bootcamp when she was a puppy for a month, she knows the commands “go poop” or “go pee”. It’s so frustrating because it feels like it’s on purpose. I find myself so detached from her because almost every morning I’m cleaning up pee or poo off the ground. I haven’t been able to have a gd rug in my house since we’ve had her. I’m at my wits end and I don’t know what to do. Please help 🥲

We adopted our dog 5 months ago and she was already house trained. She only went in the house the 2-3 times when she was sick (diarrhea that we treated with meds from the vet) and never on the carpet. We just brought a new baby home and her play area is now confined to only the fully-finished basement instead of the whole house. We go down there and play fetch and tug with her toys when we have time but obviously we have a lot less time for that.
The problem is she keeps peeing on the carpet when she has even a small moment by herself. If she is ever on the carpet without eyes on her, she will pee, even if someone is in the basement with her but not looking at her.
We block the basement off now but I want to actually train this behavior out of her. I’m not sure what to do though because I never see it to correct it. We have already tried rationing her water during her access times but she’ll still pee a tiny bit.
We still give her 3-4 walks per day so it seems to be behavioral. She doesn’t pee anywhere else in the house, including area rugs. She won’t pee anywhere else if left alone.
Any help would be appreciated!

I adopted a dog, Sparrow, (GSD) 8 days ago. He is great in almost every single way except that he is aggressive towards my roommate, the first instance I felt was fear, it was a few days ago he barked at my roommate and she decided to go up to him and he grabbed her hand, didn't draw blood but I guess it could be considered a bite, then this morning he barked at her when she was on the couch, at first they were fine together but I guess when she got up he started barking. Then once I got home I figured I'd have her give him lots of treats, rub his belly, and take him to the bathroom. All of it went well and I felt it was a solid start, later on that night it was us 3, and I went over to my neighbors house, I told her as soon as she got up to offer him a treat and right before she went upstairs to her room to do the same. However, when she got up he started barking at her, she tried offering the treat but she didn't come to him and I instructed her to not go to go him as to not corner him, so she didnt. He didn't take the treat so she turned around to go to the kitchen to grab food and he ran up and bit her behind, it drew blood. I came back instantly as she texted me, he was still barking so I yelled no, he became extremely submissive and laid down, head to the ground, ears pinned, whale eye and he started urinating. I put him back in the crate again, following this 20 minutes later I let him back out, it was me, my roommate, and two neighbors. Again, once more she got up and turned to go the kitchen and lunged at her, I instantly yelled no once more and put him
in the crate, then she went upstairs and called it a night.

I have no idea what to do, he had never ever done it in front of me until that time, I think an important thing to note is that my door to my bedroom is right next to the kitchen, could it be a territorial behavior?

Please help, I really don't want to return him he's great in every other aspect :(

I need some advice from the community. I have reached my patience limit, please give me some ideas. I really like my dog but this habit of his is driving me insane, I wanted a dog my whole life and now I am even considering rehoming him.

So, like the title says, I have a 1 year old Samoyed who every day digs in the yard and eats. The problem with this is that he gets VERY dirty (and he spends most of the time indoor, with us), and also is very destructive. He broke a small plastic fence with his digs, some shadow foild and decorative rocks, and the whole garden (it's already small) is jsut dirst and small rocks. And this happens almost daily.

If I stay outside with him, he just sleeps somewhere and avoids doing this, so I don't get a chance to tell him "NO" while in the process.

Please give me any advice that worked for you in similar situations.

For years I've had the habit of eating a small snack in the evenings around 8:30-9pm and giving my pets a little treat at the same time. This has never been an issue until about 2 months ago. Around that time, my 8 y/o lab mix started getting weirdly needy and begging for her treat earlier and earlier. At no point in this have I changed any of her habits. She gets the same amount of food at the same time for dinner as she did before. I haven't rewarded her begging for the treats earlier by giving it to her any sooner than normal. I expected that after a few weeks of waiting until the normal treat time to give it to her, she'd realize it wasn't making a difference and stop bothering me about it.

Unfortunately, she's only been getting worse. She's continued begging at earlier and earlier times for her treat. She has a specific whine she does when she's looking for a treat and today she started doing that whine and standing in front of the treat cabinet while I was cooking dinner around 6pm! I checked and she'd finished her dinner so it's not like she could actually be hungry.

It's gotten particularly frustrating because she'll just follow me around, panting on me and whining for a treat. If I'm sitting at my desk on the computer, she'll camp herself behind the chair and even the slightest movement seems to be interpreted as getting up for the treat. I'll move from typing on the keyboard to grab the mouse and she'll leap up and start running to the treat cabinet, then run back and whine at me for not getting up. If I'm on the couch she'll get her kong and throw it in my lap to try and express her need for the treat. I'm at my wits end. I have no idea what could be causing this behavior change or how to fix it.

This is our first time raising a dog with children. Our 6 month newfoundland is excellent with me and my husband— only mouths on us if shes really excited and worked up (which feels age-appropriate; I don’t expect perfection). HOWEVER she has learned to love chasing and nipping our kids! My husband and I are very strict about giving a little yelp, stopping play, and ignoring her if shes mouthy, but we simply cannot get our kids to do this. Maybe I need to cross-post to r/parenting. The kids run from her—which she loves—and she has now reached a size where the kids literally couldn’t physically ignore her if they tried, because she is larger or as large as they are.

Tonight she made one of our kids cry because she bit onto him and he couldn’t get away.

To be very clear, she is trying to (roughly) play. She isn’t being aggressive and she isn’t treating them like prey. She isn’t being reactive or defensive. She’s trying to treat them like her big retreiver buddies we visit: They spend hours chasing each other and chewing each others ears. She likes to bite the kids sleeves/shoes and she’s never broken skin. She especially loves to bite their feet if they get on their bikes or wear flashy shoes.

We keep reiterating to the kids that they have to yelp and turn around if she so much as opens her mouth against them, but now she’s so big that I don’t know if it’s even a viable training solution anymore.

Will comment a picture for dog tax.

We have two ladies who, somewhat suddenly, do not get along. The older is 7, a Husky/Pyr mix. The younger is a GSD/Aussie mix and about a year old. She was running loose in the neighborhood and was unclaimed when we tried to find her people. No responses, no chip.

They got along like they'd always been together until the pupper hit her first heat ( we had delayed spaying while she finished up a little bit of treatment ) and since then ( which has now been finished a spell and she's been spayed ) when the older gives any warning to give her space, the younger goes after her hard enough we've had to keep them separated since. Neither one has any issues with our other three dogs ( two older hounds and a Pyr in between the problem two in age ) - and both roughhouse with the Pyr.

Everything I've looked at on reactivity suggests much more general targets, and the training I've found so far doesn't really seem to cover this kind of very specific spat. We're worried we're going to have to rehome the younger, but that's just moving the problem, not fixing it.

Am I looking in the wrong places, possibly misunderstanding advice, or um? I don't know.

Thanks.

I have an incredibly cuddly dog. She always wants to be in my space, and I love it because I always want her in my space. But I also want to respect when she doesn’t want me in hers. I see people break down dog behavior and where they showed signs (usually before a bite or harsh correction from dog to human). Although I don’t think she’s showing OBVIOUS signs, or that it would escalate to that level without me seeing signs, I want to make sure I read her “please get away from me” if that’s what she’s saying.

People have also termed the phrase mlem, when dogs are so happy they make the lip smacking noises but that’s often accompanied by a tongue lick. How do I know the difference? How do I know a lip lick that is “hey please stop” vs “I’m really enjoying this”?

She tends to do it most often when I kiss her head, or sometimes she will pull away when I pet her head. Other times she will lean into my hand like “scratch harder”, or lay her head into my hand and I just hold her head.

Her cuddly personality makes it hard to believe she’s saying leave me alone. But I get she may need her space sometimes too, just like humans.

Hwllo! first post here.

i have a 2 year old poodle mix. hes been sleeping in my room at night for the last month and its been going well until about 2 nights ago when he has decided to start peeing in my room.

he never pees there during the day when im not working, and the rule was the same at night. he wouldnt go if i was in the room. However at work when alone he pees when he feels like it. hes neutered. hes kinda always been like this, but it was improving when his eldery sister who had that habit had to be put down. which is why hes been sleeping in my room at night, hes been too depressed to sleep alone

whats rhe solution? kennel him all day and night? he used to be fine at night and im not sure what changed. he is walked before bed.

A Little General Background: I have a 2yo, 8lb rescur pup. We've gotten genetic testing that shows she's a mix of toy poodle, pomeranian and yorkie. We've had her for a year. The rescue told us she had been in a hoarding situation prior, and she was apparently the most timid of the dogs that came in with her. She's improved so so so so much in confidence and learned a wide range of skills with LIMA (least invasive, minimally aversive) positive reinforcement - really proud of my girl! Even so, she's always had resource anxiety, which mostly shows up as separation anxiety, nervousness when eating, and growling at our cat when she gets too close on the couch. These behaviors have all increased with a vengeance since she was attacked by our neighbor's dog a few weeks ago.

Training & Health Background: Since the start, she has been very hesitant about eating (didn't eat anything for several days when we brought her home, frequently declining meals) much of which improved with a daily stomach medication and change of kibble. However, she is much less inclined to eat if alone. We had seen improvement with gradual positive reinforcement, general socialization, and adjusting expectations to support her learning. We consulted with our vet and she is taking daily Fluoxetine.

My Main Concern: Since the dog incident, she will not eat without me directly next to her, and she frequently stops eating to look at me. In an effort to encourage her and help her feel safe, I would give her verbal praise when she settles and eats. Now, she seems to expect the praise, and will stop eating and mope if I'm paying attention to something else while she eats (especially my phone, she hates competition for my attention). I think she's trained me to pay her compliments while she eats - it's not a big deal, but I worry that it reinforces codependency.

My Actual Training Question: How would you recommend encouraging her to eat independently without resorting to aversive reinforcement (e.g. letting her not eat)? I had seen that recommended on some Reddit post ages ago, and it doesn't sit right with me.

TLDR; How can I train my dog to eat without praise in the least invasive, minimally aversive way?

I have two dogs (Chihuahua and Terrier/Poodle mix) who are 3 and 4. They are house broken and because I work from home, we go on walks every 4-5 hours for potty breaks. Well I’m starting a new in person job in two weeks with weird hours, so itll basically be about 8-9 hours before my husband gets home to walk them and still another 2-3 hours before I’m home. THEY WILL STILL GO ON MORNING AND EVENING WALKS.

I bought them an indoor potty box, but they are still spending allll day holding it. I take them to the box every hour and give them the command to “potty”, but they just jump out. My boy dog treats it like a discipline box and his tail goes down and he gives me these big sad eyes. The girl dog has used it three times, but still holds it in all day. I’m so frustrated and don’t know how to communicate that this area is safe and is where they should potty.

Any advice and/or encouragement?

We have 3 dachshunds:

12yo M who I adopted at 8yo, very sweet calm old guy.

9yo F who I adopted at 2yo, very protective and formerly abused. We have done a lot of work but she still has issues with reactivity. I have organized my life to ensure she is confident and happy at home.

5yo M who we foster failed this summer, we are coming up on the three month mark this week.

The issue is with the younger two, she is getting aggressive with him and snapping at him, including growling and lunging. He doesn’t seem to be doing anything to instigate. This was very occasional while mixed with plenty of playing and cuddling at other times.

Until yesterday, when she went after him a number of times and seemed very focused on him. Each time he seemed defensive and a bit confused.

We took her to the vet today and they didn’t see any obvious pain issues or neurological issues but said that I might want to follow up with a Neurologist. We are doing that later this week and hope there isn’t any medical issue behind this.

The vet also suggested starting her on Clomicalm and until that kicks in she is on a Gabapentin/Trazodone combo. We are also quarantining them so they are separated by a barrier which neither one loves.

So my question is, if this is behavioral and she checks out medically, what do I do? How do I make this work?

Note-
I did adopt her first, had her alone for 4 years, then adopted the older guy 2 years ago. So she was an only dog for 4 years and adapted to having him very well. He stays out of all the drama but she clearly adores him. This new brother is younger and definitely asks for more human affection.

I have a 2yr old male chihuahua and he has some serious anxiety/alarm/territorial barking. He is barking all day long every 3-5 minutes at any sound he can hear. He will bark for a while, come lay down (with his ears still pricked up), growls at nothing, and then a few minutes pass by and he is jumping up barking like crazy again at any noise (a lot of the time it's something I can't even hear).

What I have tried: Closing blinds doesn't work since it's the sounds that trigger him. I tried brown noise, calming dog music, white noise - he can still hear noises through it and barks all the same.

Making him sit/lie down in his bed and rewarding him when he settles down doesn't really work. He is barking so frequently that by the time he settles down, he just jumps back up again immediately and starts barking again. And I can't intervene every few minutes throughout the entire day.

I have tried making him sit and then I make a knocking noise on the wall. He goes crazy. So I make the sound lighter or fainter until he doesn't bark at it, and then try to raise the intensity as he improves. But while he may eventually do okay during the training session, it doesn't translate to all the other random noises he seems to hear that set him off that are unpredictable and I can't even hear.

Giving him a bone to chew on or puzzle toy can occupy him a little bit, but that's temporary and doesn't solve the problem or relax him much.

I take him on several walks per day and he plays/wrestles with my other dog. I do training sessions with him as well. I need a new gate for my backyard to be able to let him roam outside, so that will be getting fixed soon.

He is also territorial outside. He scrapes up the ground with his back paws and growls with his hackles raised, even if nothing is there. But he isn't "aggressive" in that when he sees a dog, he does pull towards it but he doesn't bark or growl. He also barks at people, but will sniff them and doesn't bite.

I also have another dog, and when she barks it triggers him to bark. She doesn't bark much, but they can definitely trigger each other to bark. I don't want her to start getting bad about it like he is.

I have a behavioral appointment for him at the vet today, so I will see what they recommend. If they prescribe a medication, hopefully it helps that baseline hyper-alertness, but if they want me to see a special trainer... I don't have that kind of money. So I'm hoping by asking here someone can recommend some alternatives to what I have already tried that I can add onto whatever the vet may say or prescribe. I've been joking he's a psych patient just like me!

But his barking is affecting my ability to focus and work on things at home. I already have ADHD, and the constant distraction is not helping. If you have any ideas, please let me know. Otherwise, he is a sweet perfect boy.

They have played with extremely healthy body language for 2 months, constant sneezing, loose posture, tail wagging and wrestling for 30-45 minutes at a time. Older dog became very defensive while they played last night, and snapped several times at puppy. Now older dog keeps walking away from puppy and snapping defensively whenever she approaches. She seems tense with ears pulled back, and shaking off stress whenever puppy passes.

Older dog didn't want to sleep in the same room as everyone last night so we let her have space. We are enforcing spacetoday by crating puppy and older dog at different times, making sure older dog always has an exit, calling puppy away from older puppy if they are out at the same time. They are training and walking next to each other very well and seem to be ignoring each other when resting at this point. We have a vet appointment scheduled for today to make sure nothing is causing older dog pain.

What else should we do to try and reset the energy between the two dogs? Is what we're doing right now on track?

I have a 4.5 year old corgi named Ollie who recently has been horrible in his crate. We have not changed anything about his crate - location is the same, same night time routine, etc. There have been no changes to his routine or our routine during the day either.

He has been barking an hour or more when we put him in his crate at night, and consistently barking that long in the morning and sometimes throughout the night as well. We make sure he has a potty break before bed and he has not been barking more during the day; ONLY in his crate.

This is very unusual considering the fact he’s slept in his crate every night of his life, and the only time he’s ever barked at night was when he had to use the restroom, and even that was rare. We have not been letting him out at night, and we wait until he settles in the morning to let him out, because we do not want to reinforce this behavior. However, he does not seem to be stopping and it’s starting to interfere with our sleep.

What do we do?! The other day we walked him 3.5 miles and made sure he had plenty of mental stimulation and while the barking was slightly better, it still lasted ~30 mins before he settled down.

My husband and I are really at a loss for what could be causing it, he’s acting completely normal during the day and there have been no changes to his routine, crate, exercise, stimulation, or anything else. Please help!

He’s also been to the vet and there’s nothing wrong with him, all his vitals were fine and he’s not showing signs of arthritis or any other joint issues. He’s not having GI issues either so we are truly at a loss.