night time wakefulness

Question
I have a 8 month old golden mix rescue dog. She has been a great puppy!! But for the last week to ten days she has been extremely hyper at night. She becomes fiesty and wants to play with her toys and if you stop playing she barks to go out. If we let her out she stays out for 20 minutes or so and comes in and starts all over again. It has been 2-3am before she settles down.I have tried to keep her from sleeping earlier in teh evening and the children have run with her outside for long periods of time. She usually just comes up the stairs at about 10:30 with us and falls asleep at the side of our
bed. Now if i try to make her stay there she jumps and growls to play tag with her!! Help i need to sleep!!  

Answer
You're letting this puppy call the shots.  Responding to her "barking to go out" is a huge reward; she seems to be in charge, and she apparently knows it!  I think she needs some firm signals that YOU are in charge.  Play is social interaction between dogs and their conspecifics (that's you and the kids.)  It's a determinant of rank, strength, dominance and a learning experience.  This dog is learning all the wrong things: she demands play, acts out by barking (and you may have actually trained her to bark at the door to go out, totally inadvertently) and is (as you report) "growling" to play "tag"!  NOT OK.

You must institute a regimen of positive reinforcement training.  I'd like you to go to karen pryor's web site and learn about how to introduce and use a clicker; I'd also like you to read Patricia McConnell's book on positive reinforcement training.  Teach this dog, in multiple SHORT sessions every day, one behavior at a time that she can ALWAYS perform successfully.  Start with "sit" (but use a unique word, one the kids DO NOT KNOW).  Be certain your children do NOT MESS with your training regimen; unless they're over the age of 12, they will really screw it up.  Once your dog has acquired a conditioned response to your word for "sit" and can do it 100% of the time (ten out of ten trials), ask her to WORK for everything.  If she wants to play, she has to sit, and YOU keep the toy when YOU are finished playing; if she wants to eat, she has to 'sit", to go out or come in, "sit", to get a treat, "sit", etc.  This will promote you psychologically and will give her a positive behavior that will reward her.  DO NOT allow her to run you ragged or run your household; as you learn about, and implement, positive reinforcement training, you should teach her several behaviors she can always perform successfully and incorporate them into her daily life.  She needs STRUCTURE.

Regarding her demand for play:  so far, you have been rewarding this behavior (even negative attention is better than none, something you know if you have young children!)  Once she has obtained a solid "sit" and you ask her for that behavior before playing with her (and keep the toy at the end of the game), if she demonstrates demand put her on very lightweight, long training leash for a few minutes and ignore her totally.  Only "agree" to play with her when the time is suitable for you, and certainly not in the middle of the night or at a late hour when you are planning to retire.  Restraint (on training leash) will help her to calm herself; ignoring her will quickly teach her that her antics and demands are not working.  Concomitantly, she will be learning that "working" ("sit" and other learned behaviors) does earn attention and reward.  This hysterical phase of puppyhood will pass!  How you deal with it is the key to success.  If she continues to disrupt your sleep, REMOVE HER from your bedroom!  I don't care how old the dog is, if it growls at me it certainly DOES NOT SLEEP in my bedroom!  Give her a soft bed in the kitchen.  She has to earn sleeping in your room, that's the heart of your "den".  So far, she hasn't earned it.