Help! Dog not sleeping through the night

abt8113

We moved this past weekend, and now our dog is not sleeping through the night. She jumps off the bed, and then cries to get back up all night long. She is also barking at every noise she hears. Needless to say, we are getting no sleep at all! Any advice on making her feel more comfortable? Our other dog is handling the move much better. TIA'

Caz1221

It may just take time, but how are you reacting (if at all) to her when she gets up and barks?  She might be doing it to get attention, so ignoring her could help.  When we moved, one of our dogs started having barking fits in the middle of the night at any noise (sometimes we couldn't even figure out what triggered it).  We crated him for a week or so (he was already crate trained but was being allowed to sleep in his own dog bed for the first time when we moved), and it helped a ton.  He didn't bark at all when he slept in his crate, and he didn't bark any more when we transitioned him out of the crate 1-2 weeks later.  I think the crate helped him feel more secure in the new place.  The other things you might try is giving her more exercise and mental stimulation so she's tired and will sleep through the night and/or getting a white noise machine (or just running a fan) to drown out any noises that are waking her up.  Our white noise machine worked like a charm with our second dog (who was not used to city/apartment noises when we adopted him).  GL!

ETA: I wanted to add that both of our dogs have always slept in our bedroom, either in crates or in their own dog beds (never on our bed).  I don't think you need to move her to a different room (that might cause more issues since dogs like to be with their people), but revoking bed privileges might be worth considering - sort of like when a dog starts resource-guarding a piece of furniture - if she can't behave properly on the bed, the privilege of being on it is rescinded until she can.

KayJ88

You might find this harsh, but neither of my dogs sleep on our bed at night or even in our room. First because they snore loudly, and second because they are constantly getting up and down from the bed whenever they feel like it. They sleep in a very comfortable crate at night, so they don't get into trouble and so we all can get rest. They have a dog bed in there and have each other for company. It's big enough for them to both comfortably, sit, lie down and turn around without stepping on eachother.

If your dogs are well behaved and do not need to be supervised, I might suggest finding a different room in the house, put down a comfortable dog bed (if they aren't prone to chewing/eating things) and teaching them that is their spot at bed time or get them a crate. You might have a few nights of whining, until they adjust, but eventually they will figure it out. My dogs know the commaned "bed time" means they go and lie down in their crate and are perfectly happy with it.

Eliz77

My dogs were pretty restless when we first moved into our new home. I found spending more time with them before bed helped settle them down. We'd take a long walk, play fetch in the yard and do some Agility drills. It took some time, but eventually they settled in. Both of my dogs are also crate trained, so when I would go out, in the crates they would go. That seemed to help give them a safe place. Now that we are all settled in, they are not in crates when we aren't home, but those 1st few months, being crated seemed to be the best thing.

abt8113

Thanks for the advice. Both the dogs are crate trained and we keep them there during the day. Because they are crated when we are at work, I don't like to do it st night. Last night, we played for an hour before bed time, and it was better. I also realized that she could see out the window from the bed which I think added to the barking. We also turned the fan on which tuned thing out. Hopefully over the next week or so it will get better. H is getting really frustrated with them (well one specifically), but I am a little more understanding.