What to do about a Guard Dog

[sgour]

Charlie is a great guard dog. He is very alert and always lets me know when someone is outside. His favorite thing (besides his walks) is sitting in the window watching the neighborhood kids play. Once, one of them fell off their bike, and because of him, I went out and helped him. Anyway, here is the problem. He is of course, most alert at night when I am asleep. Hubby works thirds, so I am home alone. Well, last week, someone tried to break into my neighbors house. Charlie was barking histerically, so I looked out the window to see what he was barking at, and I saw the guys loading up their cars. I called the police, and all was well. It turned out that the robbers were ex-friends of his, but that's another story.

Ever since then, Charlie barks at everything. Cars driving by, cars pulling up in my neighbors yard (they keep weird hours), and he will bark until I get up and let him know everything is okay. I need to sleep!! He kept me up a good portion of the night last night with this. How do I get him to stop?? I don't want him to stop barking when he hears something suspicious, but how do I help to learn when to bark and when not too. If I repremand him for barking and waking me up, then he will not bark if something is really going on. How do I teach him the difference?

Thanks
Shannon

[GretaJack]

Does he have free range of the house at night? If so try confining him to just one room, preferably with out a lot of windows. Try to keep the stimuli to a minimum. He can still hear what is going on and can sense something strange, so he will still be good on his instincts as to protecting, but might cope better with the normalities of day to day life if he isn't overstimulated. Just a thought

[sgour]

He does have free range of the house, they both sleep with me. What he does though, is we will all be sleeping, then he'll hear something, growl and then jump up to see what it is. Then I have to get up and look and let him know it is okay and that I am not scared. He has slept with us ever since we got him (4 years now) and I don't want to confine him to a different room after all this time. Also, if something were going on, the only room that has the least amount of windows, and is furthest from the road is to far from my bedroom, so I wouldn't hear him.

We don't live in a bad neighborhood though, so maybe I will confine him to the bedroom, and then I don't have to get up to tell him all is well. Plus my window faces the road, so if I have to check I can take a peak out the window. He is only like this at night, during the day only if one of the kids gets hurt or cries.

Thanks.

[Dax]

I bet he got a lot of excitement & praise when he caught those bad guys (Applause by the way.. good for you both) Now he's up for it - looking for reasons to get a repeat performance. I think he'll settle back down after a time but in the mean time - perhaps you shouldn't get up to check the house. Just ignore - or say with no real emotion - good boy now back to sleep. If he keeps it up - locking him out of your bedroom into another room might be a way to teach him you don't like it plus let's you get some sleep.

[sgour]

I was wondering if the praise may have done it. He has gotten better in the last couple of days. I haven't been getting up to check (at least not that he can see..you never know) and that seems to be working.

Thanks to all for the advice.

Here is a picture of my little body guard. I love this guy!

[Rip's Girl]

He's a beautiful dog.

Another thing, my Papillon is an overzealous guard dog, and I believe it is just his territorial nature, combined with him being intact. Is Charlie neutered? If you aren't planning on breeding him, neutering might cut down on that anxiousness and the need to protect his territory. (It might just be his personality, but sometimes it is hormonal and that can be solved by neutering.)