Indoor dog barking at night

mooeire

Any tips on what to do if dog keeps barking even when let sleep in the house? He is an american bulldog and seems to be afraid of wind, rain and being on his own. He is brought on a long walk daily, there is also a pug in the house who sleeps upstairs.

andreac

Does the pug not sleep with him? Hes probably barking for attention and company rather than being afraid. Why cant the two dogs sleep together or at least in the same room?

maggiepip

Thats a bit of a recipe for disaster OP - 2 dogs in the house and one of them getting more privileges/attention than the other. Hes almost definitely barking because he has been left on his own his doggy pal is upstairs with the rest of the family. You should sleep both together either up or downstairs.

DBB

Jayney... I have one dog upstairs and one downstairs too! The big dog won't hear of sleeping anywhere other than in her bed in the kitchen, despite repeated invitations to join us all upstairs!
Anyway OP, does your dog act like this if left alone during the day too? Have you tried playing a radio just loud enough to drown out those scary noises, but not so loud to keep you from sleeping?
Does the dog bark when it's not windy or noisy outside?

maggiepip

Yeah but its different if the dog wants to stay downstairs. If we left one of our 3 downstairs at night with the other 2 upstairs (all 3 sleep in the bedroom) two of them would go mad barking and crying (just to edit and be more specific 2 of them would let you know verbally the 3rd would quietly - but unhappily stay alone). If we left the 3 together downstairs they would be fine (although they would prefer to be upstairs!)

mooeire

He is my gf's dog, her father is looking after him now. He barks wether its windy or not and if he is left outside, they dont trust the american bulldog with the pug over night.

andreac

mooeire wrote: »

He is my gf's dog, her father is looking after him now. He barks wether its windy or not and if he is left outside, they dont trust the american bulldog with the pug over night.

Then put one or other of them in a crate for the night. I feel sorry for the dog as he's all alone whole everyone else is all together, it's very unfair on the dog to keep him apart like that.

DBB

maggiepip wrote: »

Yeah but its different if the dog wants to stay downstairs. If we left one of our 3 downstairs at night with the other 2 upstairs (all 3 sleep in the bedroom) two of them would go mad barking and crying (just to edit and be more specific 2 of them would let you know verbally the 3rd would quietly - but unhappily stay alone). If we left the 3 together downstairs they would be fine (although they would prefer to be upstairs!)

Ah I know maggiepip, I know mine are a little different as this is the way it's always been.. they know no different.
OP, as a matter of interest, does the Bulldog stay quiet if he is kept with the Pug? So, for example, if one of them were to be crated upstairs, or indeed if they were both to sleep downstairs with one crated, would this be likely to help quieten down the big dog, do you know?
I'm thinking that he's anxious about being on his own (am I right in thinking that American Bulldogs are real babies despite the hard exterior? I don't know a huge amount about them!), and that noises and strange sounds give him a bit of a reason to start barking. If he was a little more relaxed, he might not bark at all at the noises.
Re-looking at where the dogs sleep is a good plan, but it might also help to get an Adaptil diffuser to plug in near the big fella's bed, and perhaps a Thundershirt, to help keep him a little more chilled out. It should also help to have a radio playing at lowish volume: classical music and talk radio have been shown to help lower anxiety in dogs, so it's worth a go.

nala2012

If he's crate trained put him in there and cover the crate otherwise leave the tv on. That's what worked with nala i used to have the tv on timer so it'd just be on for 40 mins and it worked