Hi

I have a 1 1/2 year old golden retreiver named Jazz (my husband and I
are music teachers ) ) who has been a FANTASTIC dog. For the past
three nights, Jazz has started whining and barking starting about 5-10
minutes after we crate him for bed and lasts for as long as we can
endure (last night it was about 4 hours, hoping that it would just
stop and he would go to sleep). I have been searching through these
threads trying to find some answers, but nothing seems to fit the
situation. His crate isn't near any windows or doors so he can't see
any possible animals that might be outside; we always let him out to
go to the bathroom before bedtime; my husband thought that it might
have been because of the full moon the other night, but the barking
happened again last night when there wasn't a full moon; we don't have
a paper delivered or anything of that nature that could cause him to
bark. The thing that I don't understand is that when we say
"bedtime," he runs right into his crate, which is something he's
always done, and obviously he knows it's not a punishment of any kind.
Another person's post said that when they let their dog out, it just
wants to play...well, when we let him out, he just quitely goes and
lays down on his spot on the couch where he spends most of the day (we
never crate him during the day, even when we're at work - the crate is
just his "bed"). Since this started happening on Saturday night
(11/8/03), we've been home during the day, so he's had plenty of
interaction and playing time, and it's been a long weekend with
Veteran's Day so it's been the same every day that he's barked at
night. We don't really want to make it a habit of letting him out of
the crate at night, but we need to get some sleep!!! PLEASE HELP
US!!!!!

Thank you so much!!!!
Pam