5 Reasons Your Lab Barks All Night Long

How to Make Your Lab Stop Barking and Preserve Your Sanity

After a long hard day at work you come home to a peaceful night of rest and the only thing louder than your dog barking, is your neighbor yelling at your dog barking… Try these steps.

First, find out why your dog is barking.

1) Letting a lazy dog lie?

This may seem like a no brainer, but just like you hit the gym after a long day in the office, your dog needs some exercise too. This doesn’t just mean letting your dog out the back door while you watch TV. Most dogs need 30-60 mins of active exercise a day. The solution to this is… (drum roll here) give your dog the needed exercise, take your dog on a walk or to the park. Take him on a picknick you and your family. Some people’s job schedules don’t have time to walk the dog, that’s why there are services like rover.com, they offer dog walking services for people who don’t have time to give their dog the needed exercise. Barking at other

2) Watchdog Syndrome

While it’s nice to have your dog alert you if a burglar is sneaking out of your window with your wife’s jewelry, you don’t necessarily need to know if a squirrel is in your neighbor’s tree, a bird lands on your fence, or a car drives by on the road. How to keep your dog from letting you know about every single occurrence from 1 AM – 6 AM.? We’ll there a couple of things you can do here. Now your first impulse might be shoes at the dog (I don’t recommend this) as you could not only harm the dog, but it will most likely chew up your shoes. What I recommend in this situation is to get a shock collar (static correction collar). See this article for the for why you should or shouldn’t use a shock collar and this one for the five best shock collars for labs (and other medium-sized dogs)

3) The attention factor

Your dog may just be barking for attention. The best thing to do here is to completely ignore your dog. If every time he starts barking you lean out the door and yell at him, not only will you get hoarse, but your dog actually considers this attention. Every time your dog is lonely he knows that all he has to do is bark you’ll come outside. He’d rather you be outside and angry than inside and ignoring him. It’s very important to completely ignore your dog if he is barking for attention. Can’t wait? The only other way is to get a shock collar, here are the best 5 in my experience.

4) Is rover hurt?

This is something that I’ve seen overlooked before, YOU NEED TO MAKE SURE YOUR DOG IS IN GOOD HEALTH. Dogs sometimes bark when they need your help. Your dog may be hurt, sick, or in pain. Is the collar too tight, line wrapped up, paw stuck. Don’t neglect watching out for your pup. Raising dogs is a lot like raising children, you’ve got to be watching out for them constantly. Put your dog on a regular vet schedule, and make sure he’s getting food with the proper nutritional value.

5) Old Dog, New Dog

There are two categories of dogs that will just bark. Puppies, and old dogs. The stereotypical old dog will howl at the moon all night long. In reality, this isn’t that var from the truth, studies have shown that old dogs get arthritis, dementia, and other painful conditions. Consider having your local vet have a look and see if there are any issues. Puppies, however, will often times bark because of separation anxiety. Remember, this is a big change in your dog’s life, he’s just left all his brothers, sisters and mother and changed locations into a whole new world. Be lenient he’ll grow out of it.

Still having issues, If you can’t fix your dogs barking by any of these means, try a static correctional collar. They deliver a harmless static shock to your dog, and the good ones have safety features to shut it off if your dog keeps getting shocked. See this article on when to use them and when not to.