Has adolescence hit or do we have a problem?

[KellyDP]

Hi,

Walter is a nine month mini puppy and up to now has been brilliant. However, he seems to have two issues of concern and I don't know if this is just him hitting adolescence or whether there is a wider problem.

He has started waking in the night and howling and crying...last night it was on and off for most of the night (started at 12:30 and went on to 4:30) and on other nights this last week its ranged from 10 min to an hour. He is in his crate with the door shut and we have tried ignoring him but this does not seem to be working. He did this a month ago for a few nights, and I went down to check he was OK, let him out in the garden but he was just over excited to see me, and when I put him back in his crate he howled non stop for two hours. This passed but has now come back and I am struggling to cope with the lack of sleep and we can't open the windows at night due to the noise. He wakes very early which we have accepted is just something we have to put up with, but I can't understand why he keeps waking in the night - from about 12 weeks he slept through the night with no noise. I think its just attention seeking - my husband is at home most of the day and I work from home, so he is used to us being with him during the day - although we have built up to leave him for 2 hours with a Kong and he seems to do OK if we are out. We have tried leaving the crate door open, but this has not made any difference (he howled non stop so I put him back in)

The other problem is barking at visitors - last night we had some friends over and he just did not stop barking on and off all evening, to the point our friends left early. He is a lockdown puppy but has been well socialised in our village and we have taken him into the local town and a big city for plenty walks, sitting him on benches to watch people and have also gone on a number of trips to the coast which have been busy, he is nervous but does really well. We have had a number of friends over in the last two months and he has barked for about 5 minutes but settled down (with high value treats) and then been OK. However, last night he just did not stop barking all evening. We could only get him to be quiet by picking him up and sitting him on our lap and even then if one of our friends moved slightly he went crazy. We tried sitting in the garden and indoors and both were just as bad. I am now worried we can't have people over and this as well as the howling at night is really upsetting for us as we entertain a lot. We can accept that he will bark when someone arrives and we warn friends and ask them to give a treat when they arrive, but we do expect that he should settle down after a few minutes. Could this just be adolescence perhaps making him much more nervous and does anyone have any advice on how to maybe stop these behaviours?

Just to add he gets two good walks a day, he is on a raw diet and has been to a six week puppy training class which he did brilliantly at. I am really hoping this is him becoming a teenager and with patience he will improve?

[zeta1454]

Hi Kelly,

It is not easy to give a definite answer to your question and it may be more a combination of different factors with the barking issue. Without a doubt though adolescence is a challenging time for families whose dogs are going through a phase of rising hormones and mental and physical changes which do lead to erratic behaviours which may seem out of character from their younger puppy days.

Growing pains, anxiety and a lower threshold for reactive barking are all possible causes for behaviour changes as well as or triggered by the hormonal surges and these should resolve as a dog matures into adulthood if the phase is managed well. It sounds as though you have been doing everything you could do with socialisation etc. but adolescence is typically a time when the benefits of training and previous relaxed sociable behaviour can suddenly seem to disappear - it can happen with adolescent humans too! The good news is that with patience and continued focus on training, when the adolescent hormones settle you should have a well balanced friendly mature dog and the things you thought were lost will all come back into place again.

However, just to comment on your specific issues. The barking at night is a hard one to cope with especially if you are losing sleep. Unless your puppy is unwell, he shouldn’t need to go out to toilet in the night so it is a case of trying to work out why he is waking so regularly and unable to settle. Dogs are generally sociable creatures who do love company and being close with their family ( wild dogs tend to sleep all in a heap close together which is comforting and gives a feeling of safety). Many family pet dogs do become accustomed to sleeping in a crate and some are quite happy with this but there are some who, despite early crate training, will always crave being close to their humans at night and it may be that your pup’s adolescent nervousness is making him feel less secure when he wakes at night and so he barks for your attention and reassurance. However, although this might explain why he barks /cannot just settle down, there is also the question as to why he is waking in the first place. Is there any trigger that you can identify that might disturb his sleep- - a noise from a household appliance (dishwasher or freezer) or outside noise (car in the street or people passing by or animal / bird noise such as owl hooting or fox call. The sound need not be loud as dogs’ hearing is exceptionally keen and just scratching noise or possibly the scent of a creature outside your house might be enough to trigger a reaction if he is anxious. The other possible reasons I can think of are the temperature - is he getting too hot in the crate now the summer nights have become more muggy; or is he finding the crate too small to stretch out and get a comfortable sleeping position? I know with our oldest dog (a month short of 14 years old) he has been waking at about 1 a.m. and panting /restless and I have had to move him downstairs to a different bed in a cooler room. He doesn’t bark but wakes me with his restlessness as he sleeps on my bed but I am now considering moving him downstairs for the night so he has more space and can find a cool spot where he can change position more easily. He does now suffer with some arthritis so staying in one position for a long time can be uncomfortable. These are just random ideas to maybe consider as, finding a reason for your pup’s waking and then not settling may help to work out how to resolve it.

With the barking at visitors, again this is likely adolescent behaviour that he will grow out of, if he didn’t do this previously. Some dogs are not sociable and will always bark at people who come to the house and it is very common, even for generally well behaved dogs, to bark at people when they arrive and when they leave so this may be a case of trying to manage where your pup is when you have visitors. I know you mentioned that you do raw feed and wonder if you have ever offered your dog a meaty bone to chew? We are in a slightly different position to you in that we live in a rural area and very rarely have visitors to the house so it has been much more difficult getting ours used to people coming into the home. As a result one or two of our dogs are very much inclined to persistently barking if and when relatives or friends do call in. We have found though that the one thing which keeps them all quiet for a couple of hours in a crate is having a meaty bone. It can be messy and a bit smelly so you would have to be OK with this and have the crate away from the rooms with the guests but it might be worth a try. We choose a bone that is too large for them to swallow to avoid choking and will take plenty of gnawing - not just a chicken wing or trachea which rarely last long. Most of the prepared raw food for dogs companies do sell these bones too. I do regularly check that they are OK whenever they are chewing a bone but have never had an issue with the large ‘play bones’ and they are a guarantee with our 12 dogs to keep them all quiet even the worst barkers. This is a suggestion for now rather than a permanent if you have regular visitors but maybe something to bear in mind if things are difficult and training is not yet showing a difference.

There are a couple of links here re adolescence in dogs as much to reassure you that you are not alone in going through this but you may find more helpful advice from others on the Forum too

https://blog.smartanimaltraining.com/20 ... olescence/

https://www.dogsbehavingbetter.com/dog- ... ious-puppy

Also re the bones:

https://www.wolftucker.co.uk/blog/talki ... cky-simon/

https://paleoridge.co.uk/shop-raw/diy-lamb-ribs

https://www.naturalinstinct.com/play-bo ... mall-0-7kg

If you do try meaty bones, be aware that the marrow in marrow bones can be too rich for some dogs, ours are best with lamb necks or ribs or something of that kind.

[Schnauzerluv]

Could you move his crate to your bedroom, even if it's for just a little while? Then gradually move it back?

Was this the 1st time you've had visitors at your home since you got your pup? I will say there's a difference between being socialized with strangers at the park and your home. I recently brought my pup (10 months old) to my parent's house (his 1st time in another home) and he also barked at my parents on and off and watched them closely the whole time IN THEIR OWN HOME!

There's also cortisol (stress hormone) that builds up and causes the dog to react right away the next trigger. If it hadn't been much time between the visits, he may need some calm days to unwind. Maybe there was more activity with the latest visitors?

Next visit, I will have my parents toss treats away from themselves, especially if he is following them barking (mouthing at their calves). Then I will call him over to me and start a game of tug to distract and let him know what I want him to do instead.

[schnauzer]

I would move the crate to your bedroom as they like to be close to you, our boy has been in our bedroom since the day he came home, he's gone all night from day one not needing the toilet during the night. Sleeps all night I do cover his crate but he knows we are there. He's now 4 years old & still wants his crate at bedtime his choice but suits us as know that if we go away he will be fine if left in a hotel room.
When he barks put him out of the room, close the door when he stops bring him back in keep repeating if he barks he will soon get the message that if barks he goes out of the room.

[KellyDP]

Thank you for your posts and the advice which is appreciated. We have now moved Walter into our bedroom at night and can report that we have gone five nights without a sound and are catching up on much needed sleep! Initially we had avoided moving his crate upstairs as we have a cat and wanted to give the cat the upstairs as her area, especially whilst she adjusted to having a dog in the house. They are now friends (well Walter wants to be friends and the cat is still deciding!) but actually it has worked quite well, as we keep the crate door closed and our cat does not seem to mind. Walter has slept all through the night, and whereas when he was downstairs he was waking at 6am, he now sleeps in until we get up without a sound. He also seems much more relaxed when we get up and in the day so I think having the security of us being close by has really helped him. We just have to train him to use the stairs now!

We are having another visitor tomorrow evening so we will see how he gets on....it is someone he has met before so it will be interesting to see how he reacts. We will try and go slow and not expect too much - we have a summer BBQ coming up with a number of people coming around so we have arranged for our friends to have him for a few hours so as not to stress him out too much. I have some meaty bones on order so will try that too, but I think he is a gentle soul that just needs time and patience, so we will keep persevering and try to keep things as low key as possible for him whilst he gets used to us having visitors.

[Schnauzerluv]

Great i'm glad it's working to have him closer to yourself at night and you can catch on some much needed sleep! It's so important to get a good sleep so you can deal with other things throughout your day.

How did it go with the visitors last night?

[KellyDP]

He was little better than last time....he barked on their arrival but calmed down after 5 minutes and was happy to leave them alone until later in the evening when he decided that they were allowed to sit in our lounge but not move - he barked every time they moved! We will keep persevering!

[Schnauzerluv]

Glad he was a bit better......
I'll be following, we are having some people over for the 1st time with our pup in July, I have no idea how it will go.

Thanks for letting me know and hope it goes well for you.