Why Does A Puppy Keep Barking When It Moves to A New Home?

This may happen to every dog parent: You brings home a new puppy and introduces all family members to the cute furry baby and says goodnight to it before you sleep. However, the puppy barks loudly at midnight for unknown reason and you can hardly fall asleep. It keeps barking almost the whole night, as if there are endless amount of strength and energy in its tiny body.

Why does a puppy keep barking when it moves to a new home? The reason can be varied:

1. Your puppy is hungry and thirsty.

If you doesn’t give it food or water before you go to sleep, your puppy will keep barking to tell you that it’s hungry and thirsty until you know what it really needs. When the puppy first come to your house, it’s necessary to feed it 4 times a day for the first 3 months. A meal before bed is more important to it.

2. Your puppy wants your attention.

Dogs are very alert when they first come to a new house. When the surrounding is quiet, especially in the early morning, sudden sounds of passers-by or cars will easily make your puppy bark loudly. A little movement will make puppies bark, especially to young, ignorant dogs. Older dogs will not easily bark. You should notice that you should not use intimacy to calm it down, or your puppy might think you’re encouraging him to bark.

3. Puppies sleep a lot in daytime and get energetic at night.

In general, dogs under 4 months need long hours of sleep, they need to sleep about 10-18 hours per day. If your puppy sleeps too much - like more than 10 hours, it will be full of energy at night. It will bark to wake you up, hoping that you can play with it. You can prepare some toys and small items for your puppy during the day. If it plays toys and does not sleep all the day, it will feel tired at night and won’t bark or play at night. You can prepare plush toys, small balls and sound toys for it. Dogs love these type of toys.

4. Puppies are afraid of strange environment, darkness and loneliness.

Puppies may feel lonely and scared when they come to a strange place as they just leave their mother and siblings. They will also cry because they feel scared and unsafe, just as babies cry for being afraid of darkness. This is the most common reason of puppies keep barking after moving to a new house. So when the first night you bring your puppy home, don’t leave it alone in the house or the cage. You should let it sleep on where it can easily see or find you. You can place your puppy’s sleep pad or its cage beside you, such as your bedside, the corner of your bedroom. You can also put your old clothes or some small toys in its pad or cage, which can ease its loneliness and fear. If your puppy still keep barking, you can slightly tap its head. When you puppy gradually gets adapted to its new house as it grows, it can sleep alone without your companion.

5. Puppies bark because they just want to bark.

To be honestly, not all dogs are cute, obedient angels. There are also dogs that are naughty and unruly. Sometimes they keep barking just because they want to get people’s attention, or they just want to show their presence - in a provocative way. At this time, you should make it stop barking. When your puppy is barking, you can use a pan to make a loud sound next to it to scare it and saying “No” at the same time. Or you can make the sound louder and let your puppy know who’s the boss - of course, don’t spank the puppy.

Generally speaking, there are very few disobedient dogs who bark inexplicably. Firstly, we must figure out the actual reason of the problem, and then correct it.