2 year old beagle

Question
Hello- I have a 2 year old female beagle who will not sleep through the night. She is spayed and is mostly an outside dog. Nothing has changed in her daily routine or eating habits over the last month, but she will not sleep during the night. My fiance takes her on a long walk every morning before we leave for work and then when we get home we keep her active both indoors and outdoors pretty much until we go to bed. About a month ago she started waking up in the middle of the night to go out and now it seems to be worse. Sometimes when she goes out she will do her business and other times she just roams around the yard. We tried ignoring her one time and she peed on the floor, so now we let her out everytime so she doesn't go in the house. The other problem is she barks while outside. Now that doesn't sound like that big of a deal but at 3am it is. she barks if she smells the trace of another animal. we have thought about an anti bark collar that we can put on her just at times we wouldn't want her to bark but I don't like the idea of shocking her and my fiance doesn't think that the spray kind would phase her. I know this is a lot but my fiance is on the verge of getting rid of the dog. Can you help?

Answer
Can you install a doggie door and teach her to use it so she can let herself out at night? There's nothing wrong with using an anti bark collar, and they do work. I would put one on her at bedtime and take it off again in the morning. There are anti bark collars that emit a high pitched beep when the dog barks, but I have never had success with those, and often the beeping is more annoying than the barking.

What most people don't realize is that bark collars do not actually shock the dog. They do use static electricity as a correction, but it's no worse than when you get out of your car and 'shock' yourself on the door when you close it, or when you 'shock' yourself on the doorknob after shuffling across the carpet in the wintertime. Most dogs only have to feel this correction a few times and then they know that when they are wearing the collar, if they bark they will be corrected, and so they don't bark as long as the collar is on them, whether it's turned on or not. Personally, I have never liked the Petsafe brand collars, because they go off at noises other than barking. Innotek makes a bark collar that works ok for most dogs, and Dogtra does as well. Dogtra has to be ordered online unless you can find a dealer in your area (go to www.dogtra.com to find out), but Innotek can be purchased at most pet stores. I recommend getting the rechargeable one from Innotek if you choose to go with Innotek, even though it costs a little more, because you save money in the long run by not having to buy batteries. If you choose Dogtra, I'd go with their new collar, the YS300. It has a 'pager' mode that does not 'shock,' but vibrates as a correction. If that is not enough, you can then switch it to 'shock mode' and it will vibrate a warning with the first bark, and then emit a static correction thereafter. The dog will quickly learn to stop barking when it feels the vibration, and there you go! :^)