My sister had her baby and came home yesterday, however; every time the baby cried the dogs barked until he stopped and so on. will they eventually get used to his cries. I can't take crying and barking I need sleep

Maybe. Or it might get worse. (Strange new thing in my house, thing made noise, I barked at it until it shut up--the barking worked!)

Time to work on rewarding the dog for silence.

"Time to work on rewarding the dog for silence. "


Also, I think it will go faster if you are extremely casual about it, have the dog near you (not near the baby), wake up, and casually comment whatever your "It's all good" casual comment is about what may look like danger or something bad to the dog.

If you have no "It's all good" casual comment for the dog, I'd make one.

And then after the dog is used to it, I'd get the puffy ear plugs for myself. Read on the package how to squinch them up and insert them, holding them in place until they expand to fill the outer canal. They still allow phone, barking, etc., to be heard, but far more muffled.

JMO!

How are the dogs about the crying during the day?

Do you have any chances during waking hours to do some marker training for ignoring and being quiet around the baby?

the problem is they did not seem concerned during the day because they are busy and we are up and doing stuff the tv is on etc. but at night they are in the crate and everything is off with us trying to sleep but then the baby starts to cry. I will work on the marker ,and invest in ear plugs.

Is there anywhere nearer to you (or are they already near you) so that you can spend a few nights getting them through this?

So the first time the baby wakes up and cries, then the dogs bark, I would get up, go the the crates tell them everything is fine and ask them to be quiet (assuming the command has been pre-established). When they stop, mark and reward (small container of treats on the crate will make it easy). Then go back to bed.

The next time they wake you up, you will have to get up, go to the crates and this time only the quiet command. Mark, reward.

If they do not stop after you have asked them to be quiet the second time, I would be giving a correction(leash on top of the crate for easy access) and putting them back in - reinforce "quiet" and go back to bed. I think a night or two of this and they will understand to be quiet when the baby cries.

^^this sounds good

IME, the dogs get used to the noise pretty quick if they figure out that it is nothing to get excited about.

ETA - my story on barking dog in the middle of the night. A couple of months after I got Kenzi, and within the first week or so of letting her sleep loose in my room, I was rudely woken up in the middle of the night to a crazy, barking dog. It seems that coon hunters and their baying dogs were across the road in the woods. At 4 in the morning. After I had stayed up until 1am finishing homework for the morning. Kipp and Missy were sleeping right through it, but not Kenzi.

I tried quieting her down a couple times in my barely awake stupor. She'd quiet down, then hear them again and start barking. I finaly threw a pillow at her. Not something I'd recommend, but I was cranky and groggy and couldn't think of anything better in that state of mind. It worked, she was finally quiet and I finally got back to sleep.

But she did learn pretty quickly to sleep through the new "normal" noises.

Edited by Mara Jessup (09/16/2011 11:28 AM)
Edit reason: my story

Thank you I will try that. Hopefully this will work in a timely manner.