As I've posted before I have a 17 week old puppy and a 3 yr old (aprox) female dobe that we just rescued. Both dogs are doing GREAT in every respect except one.

The barking from the crate is driving me nuts <img src="http://www.leerburgkennels.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" /> I don't go to the crate when they are barking and don't do anything at all. Thought they would get the message that barking wouldn't work but its been about 4 weeks for the pup and a week for the dobe and they still bark way too much. If they are bedded down for the night (everyone in bed including us) the dobe will bark for about 10 min and then go to sleep. But if one is crated and the other is out or outside the barking does not stop. The dobe is recovering from heartworm and I'm really trying to keep her quiet. I won't let her play with the pup or run the back yard and we keep her walks slow and pretty short. I am worried about the way she gets herself all worked up in the crate from the danger perspective because of the heartworm.

The dobie is really good in the house and she just wants to be with me. I have thought about trying to crate her the absolute minimum (she would be stuck to me like glue, velcro dog) but the experimenting I've done with this has resulted in her being worse when she does have to go back to the crate. I am thinking about getting a sedative for her to get through the next 4 weeks just to ease the stress and agitation she has initially in the crate.

If both dogs are crated, they can see each other and as long as I'm out of the house there is little to no barking. If I'm doing anything that is not active the barking almost never stops. Right now its been about 15 min and both dogs are going to town and after a while it kinda gets on ones nerves but the main issue is the dobe's health issue. When I get done with this post I'll go down and go to bed. That will start the 10 minutes the dobe will carry on and the pup will stop after about 3 min. They have been barking non stop since I came upstairs to the office.

Any suggestions? <img src="http://www.leerburgkennels.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

Glenn:
Barking can be cyclical, dogs can get stuck barking for barking's sake. It's frequently a boredom or an attention getting device. Even punishment is attention (I'm not insinuating you abuse your dogs). Crate the dogs where they can't see you or each other. Make sure they've been given enough exercise to burn off the extra energy.

Our neighbors (the Beaglemans) three dogs barked incessantly in their tiny apartment lawn overflowing with junk. I purchased an item called a barker breaker. It's an electronic device that emits a loud annoying tone in response to the dog's barking. The noise startles the dog and interrupts the cycle. It worked on the Beagleman's dogs, I lent it to another neighbor and it worked for bored pit bulls that had destroyed a large and expensive patio set out of boredom.

Thanks for the reply. I will probably try moving the dobie's crate into the family room and see if that makes a difference.