Dixie May our shih-tzu/maltese is now 5 months old and is very well crate-trained (no thanks to us--we just kept going what the breeder obviously had going great already). She sleeps in her crate in the kitchen/laundry room and the problem we are having is the earlier than we would like waking that is now punctuated with barks let out at spaced intervals. At first I thought she needed to urinate, but that is unfounded. If I took her out she just seemed to play around and not really care if she went or not. Then we thought it was too light with the season change so we closed all the blinds and covered her crate. Did not really seem to make a difference. I have paid attention to how much exercise she got the day and evening before, when she ate/drank last but do not see a trend.
We went to the beach last week and she stayed in the room with us and the kids in her crate and did much better. If she barked she was not taken out. We did tell her to quiet which she did pretty well but still occasional barks occurred until we were ready to get up. She never got frantic and it does not escalate, it just goes on for about an hour from 5:30 to 6:30 or so which is too early for us with 4 kids including a baby. On trips in her crate she never barks and if she does it sounds different from the "I'm bored, pay attention to me" bark she has in the early morning. Now that we are back from vacation and she was put back in the room out of our room the barking seemed to be worse --earlier and louder and more persistent, so we gave it a try letting her sleep last night back in our room in the crate (slippery slope here I guess) but it seemed to help and was better than screaming at her to quiet 2-3 times. This morning she sat quietly in her crate next to our bed and did not bark at all even though she was up and I let her out for good behaviour at 6:45 which was acceptable.
Soooooo, my real question is this--what is the best way to hush a bored, awake, dog in a crate doing the intermittent unfrenzied occasional bark for an hour until it is time to get up? Thanks so much for any input. I read all the threads posted about crate barking and whining, just hoped someone would have something more specific for this situation.

Your "little girl", Dixie May, is still a baby, and babies sleep and wake whenever they want. What it sounds like is that she wants to be near you even when she's in her crate, you are her pack leader and she likes the comfort that you give her. Try a trail run with her in her crate in your bedroom another night and see if she barks or not. If not, maybe keep her in your room at night with a blanket over her crate. If she does bark... it's back to the drawing board. Possibly try to really work her before going to bed, play till she drops. Exercise her regularly throughout the day(I'm sure you do) and see if that helps.
That's about all I got, maybe someone else will have a couple ideas. Let us know how things are going.

If she doesn't bark early in the morning when traveling and sharing your room, but she does bark when your at home and she is away from you, how about letting her sleep in her crate in your room all the time?

They love us and want to be near us, can you imagine how she feels waking up alone versus in your room where she can hear you, smell you and possibly see you?

p.s. Our pup does great at night in his crate, if he whines it is because he MUST go to the bathroom. Most nights I wake at just the hint of a whine. If I don't hear him, then he barks. I always here that. If for some reason I take him out to go potty and he doesn't go, and then he barks when he is back in his crate (RARE, but has happened) I tell him QUIET/ENOUGH ... if he persists, then I hit the side of the Crate, to startle him. On the very few occassions that it has happened ... it has worked. Of course, if the pup is separate from you, that is harder to do without getting out of bed. Cheers!

Edited by Louanne Manter (03/29/2007 12:36 AM)
Edit reason: added P.S.

I let mine bark all it wants , I just know eventually they'll come around and accept the fact that that is where they have to sleep(that's when our king charles was a pup 8 weeks)He barked all night but eventually he realized he was going to stay there no matter what.Now he's 7 months and sleeps in my sons' bed, go figure.Back then I'd put ear plugs, it works wonders..

Our Choc. Lab is about six months old now and she is a endless ball of ENERGY, I swear she defies the laws of Physics with her energy and "crazy'ness"??

Seems to me that everybody here is hit'in on the same notion, let the dog sleep in your room, or close to your room, but within sight, smell, and hearing distance.

Our Lab was similar at first when we got her, but we keep the bedroom door open and her crate is outside facing the door. Eventhough she has a cover on the crate, she can see, and hear us move around. Now that she is a bit older and doesn't chew up everything(still careful about what is around), we let her sleep in the room on her bed?

It is very hard to tell the "I'm bored" bark/yelp, from the "I really gotta go to the Bathroom" bark, but you'll get it in time???

It's nice here and starting to hit spring time in upstate NY; as I can remember all of our dogs have gotten a bit restless this time of year eventhough we play outside with her for atleast 3-4 hours-a-day no matter what the temp or weather is doing!!

I know somepeople try putting dogs in the bsement or garage, but I would much rather my budy be in my room and not outside like they are some scurge (sp?)

Later...

adam

So the bedroom thing is going great--she has slept the past 2 nights without so much as a whine or bark and even on waking in the morning was in no rush to get let out even though we were out of bed. She could still see and hear us and seemed perfectly content. Thank you all so much for the imput!

Wonderful! Congrats!

Thanks for the feedback!