Hey guys - I have a situation with my lab that I wanted to see if there are any ideas on how best to deal with it. I have a female black lab that will be 10 at Christmas so this isn't a puppy issue. She's spent her whole life sleeping in a crate at night but over the past 6 months or so she has started whining/crying in the middle of the night. I started out letting her out to go to the bathroom but half the time she would try to start playing and she definitely didn't have to go to the bathroom. We moved her crate from the garage to inside the house. Some times she seems to be panting so I was letting her out to get water but half the time she ignored the water. I've tried ignoring her to not give her attention but she starts barking. I've started taking her for a short walk at night before bedtime so she can stretch her legs a bit, gets some attention, goes to the bathroom, and drinks some water. Sometimes I go in there and simply tell her to hush and lie back down which only works sometimes.

So, any ideas on how best to handle this and get her to stop?

Thanks - DOZIER

Dogs live in a world of learned reactions...

It sounds like your dog has you trained. If you're pretty certain that she does not have to relieve herself, then I would start trying to completely ignore her when she begins to whine/bark. Simply put, she may have learned that if she makes noise then she will get some kind of attention from you. I'd guess it will probably take several nights of ignoring the behavior to make progress.

Move her out of the house and back to the garage.

My lab will be 13 in 2weeks. He has either slept in his kennel(in garage) when cold or out on the porch his entire life. Last winter he started howling in his kennel in the garage at night. First couple times I did like you let him out thinking he needed to use the bathroom but he just seemed to want to play. He eventually woke me up when it was nice and cold(high 20s) which he wasn't used to because he sleeps in kennel in garage when cold and I proceeded to wake up, let him outside and leave him outside the rest of the night. After a couple nights of that he apparently decided it wasn't wise to howl in the kennel anymore and didn't howl anymore the remainder of the winter. We will see if he remembers it when it starts getting cold out.

If you only have the one dog. A dog whistle is a great tool to use when they get noisy at night. Keep next to bed and blow the piss out of it till he stops.

Thanks for the ideas

Maybe she is lonely put a stuffed critter in her kennel or maybe one of your old shirts 😃

Old joints get stiff and hurt at night. Might be that she is not resting comfortably. Mine is 11 and still wants to run, jump, and act like she's still a 3 yr old. You could tell after a hard day that she was stiff and hurting some at night so I started giving her glucosamine tablets every day, about 9 months ago, and I think that it has really helped her. She doesn't have any problem sleeping all night now.