my male black lab

Question
I have a 1 year old black lab.  We got him when he was 4 months old.  My question is at night when I put him in the crate he just barks and barks to we have no choise do to neighbors we have to let him out.  I have tried toys treats and even had him in my room with me in the crate and all he did was bark. And every night he has to be in my room with the door shut for the most 6 hours and everytime he poops. Oh and i didnt add he has my door a mess scrathing to get out I get up and take him out potty at least 1 time in that 6 hours and give him all the time he needs to potty always over 5 minutes and I wake up to poop in my room every single night and i have used pet cleaner and removed the carpet and he will go on the heardwood floor. Any answers to this would be so welcome he is very hard to handle and get less sleep a night...thanks

Answer
Hi Dee,

By letting your dog out of his crate when he's barking, you have trained him that he'll get his way, and WILL be let out of his crate eventually when he barks! It will take time to train your dog to be quiet when he's crated, since he knows that barking works. There is no "quick" method of doing this.

Increasing the amount of exercise, in the way of a couple extra leashed walks, or a good run in the park can help take the edge off a dog's energy level, and make crate training easier.

Yelling "be quiet" at a barking dog may actually reinforce its barking behavior. For many dogs any type of attention is rewarding, even if it's negative attention, or reprimands.
Work at training your dog to be quiet in his crate at different times during the day. Your dog may cry or whine, clap your hands loudly and tell him "Quiet", if that doesn't work, use a spray bottle or water pistol and give him a squirt in the face the moment he starts making noise, while firmly saying "Quiet!". Only let him out of the crate when he's quiet, even if that's just for 30 seconds. Gradually increase the amount of time that your dog must remain quiet in the crate before you release and reward him.

Be sure to take your dog outside for one last walk of the day before you go to sleep, to avoid the house training accidents you currently are having. Your dog should not have the run of your home, or be unsupervised if you can't rely on him not to have accidents. Don't blame the dog for accidents, since he's not trained! The responsibility is all yours here. He needs to be contained either in a crate, or in an area of a room (with the help of a child gate or two). Lay a thick layer of newspaper in whichever area you contain your dog in, so accidents will be easy to clean up. Here are directions on how to paper train your dog:

http://www.artofdogtraining.com/papertrain.htm

http://www.howcast.com/guides/935-How-To-PaperTrain-Your-Dog

Talk to your neighbors, so they know you're trying to train your dog. Offer the neighbors a couple of pairs of ear plugs, along with your sincere apologies.

Best of luck,

Patti