Barking Dog!

Question
QUESTION: Hi Dr. Jill! I have a question about my 9 year old collie Mac. I am 20 years old and live with my parents and Mac is our family dog. When we moved into our new house about 8 years ago, my parents wanted Mac to be an outside dog because of our new wood floors and new white carpet that my parents didn't want ruined because of the dog. My little brother and I talked them into letting the dog reign in the basement which is a finished living room/bed room/ bathroom and large unfinished back room that is made for storage, in which our family spends the majority of our time. He gets the entire basement now for his living space. At night we put him in the unfinished storage room to sleep. My issue is...when we put him in the back room for bedtime he'll start barking. Not like the occasional bark every couple hours, I'm talking like multiple bark sequences a couple times every hour. I know collie's are vocal dogs, but this is insane! We've tried to let him outside to use the bathroom but he doesn't need to go, we've tried putting him outside on his rope and that works in the summer, but in the winter it is way too cold in Minnesota, we've tried going down there and telling him "no bark" and that works for about 15 minutes and then he's back to doing the same behavior all night long. During the day he doesn't get much attention because everyone is at work except for my mom who works part time but goes down there a couple times a day to let him out. Our family eats dinner and then goes down to watch football or TV shows and that is our time to play with Mac everyday. I'm wondering if maybe his sleeping pattern is off? If he is sleeping during the day and then staying awake all night and barking? But he has never acted like this before, as the behavior started about a year ago. My family has resorted to putting fans or machines for noise in our rooms so we can just ignore his barking. I don't like to do that because I feel like Mac needs something but then when I go down to let him go outside he just walks out the door and turns around and stares at me and doesn't use the bathroom. What can we do, his constant barking is driving us insane!!!

ANSWER: This dog is living in mostly solitary confinement; he's ok with it during the day because NO ONE RESPONDS TO HIS BARKING.  However, at night, after the family has spent time with him, he wants TO BE WITH YOU.  There's absolutely no reason this dog can't join you in your bedroom.  I know this is not your house, but your parents' choosing a floor and a rug over a living object is, to me, unconscionable.  However, that being said: you are rewarding the barking by responding.  You CANNOT respond at all; he's been outdoors to do his stuff, so that's not the problem, so you can easily comfort yourself that he does not need to be let outdoors.  GOING DOWN THERE is TRAINING the barking.  You must IGNORE IT, and you must do this every single night consistently for as long as it takes (and it might take weeks.)

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QUESTION: I completely agree with you Dr. Jill. I can argue with them until I am blue in the face they will not let our dog come up to the main or upper level. I will be moving out in the next year or so and Mac is coming with me and will have FULL REIGN of my house! As for ignoring the behavior, we have been doing that for MONTHS!!! We learned after a couple months that going down there does not help so we have stopped for at least the past 6 months. His behavior is not changing!!! Should we continue to just ignore it or is there something else you would suggest? Thanks again for all your help so far, I really appreciate it.

Answer
Bully for you for your humane care of this dog and your awareness that your parents (who SHOULD be setting an EXAMPLE) aren't up to par.  If your dog is persisting in barking, even though NO ONE has rewarded it AT ALL for a full six months (even ONE reward can result in persistent unwanted behavior), then the dog may be hearing/scenting something you don't (such as little unwanted "visitors", or a neighbor coming/going late at night) or may be responding to some loss of vision (dog's eyesight is worse than ours and, even though their night time vision is more acute, a progressive loss of vision can cause all sorts of problems.)  TAKE THE DOG to the veterinarian and present him/her with this persistent problem.  Be sure the dog is not suffering from orthopedic problems, vision loss, hearing loss, cognitive loss, due to age (or any other condition: full blood chemistry and full physical evaluation are required.)  If the dog's health is fine (and your veterinarian must be up to speed,,,not just the vet at the corner), then your dog is definitely responding to something environmental that you are unaware of (scent or sound or even visual) or simply (because of age) becoming unable to sustain this horrible social isolation.  Since you are leaving and taking the dog with you, this torture is almost over.