Silence is Golden... with a lemon twist?

A few weeks ago, as Skala was turning 6 months old, I decided that it was time to transition him to sleeping out in the kennel with the adults. This also meant having him sleep in the dog box with the other dogs when I'm on the road. As we travel a lot during the running season, it is not always possible to have him with me at night, so now seemed to be a good time to start. The sleeping in the dog box went relatively well, it only took a couple of trips for him to get the hang of things. I flipped down the wall of the M*A*S*H* unit to make a double box, and put him in with Raven who he is often kenneled with, and quite adores. That box is rather roomy and they tend to use it as a bit of a romper room, but as long as they are quiet at night I figured this would be easier than putting him by himself. That will come, but for now this works.

A couple of Fridays ago I started putting him out for the nights as well. Initially this worked quite well, he was with Ellie, Raven and KitKat, so quite happy, and I thought "wow, this is easy!" Too easy it would seem....

Now on weekdays I get up at 3:45am so on Sunday night when he took to howling at 1:50am, I was not pleased. Initially I ignored it, hoping that no reaction was better than negative reinforcement. I swear when I peeked out at the kennel all of the others had their paws over their ears. This went on for 3 nights, and my temper started getting frayed. Night 4 I got up at 1:50am and yelled at him. The others lifted their heads and looked very pointedly at Skala as if to say "It ain't us making that racket, just so you know" This went on for another few nights, and at this point I was starting to fall asleep at the wheel driving.

So I decided to bring out the big guns! I have a citronella No-Bark collar, and after testing the battery to determine it still worked I put Skala to bed in the kennel wearing it. Sure enough, 1:50am rolls around and he starts to howl and abruptly stops. Ahhhhhhhh I smiled as I rolled over and went back to sleep to blissful silence from the kennel.

So, Skala has been wearing the collar for a couple of nights now. Because he also screams for his food, as a side bar, the kennel has taken to having a nice citrusy scent at feeding times.

When I kennel the dogs at night I always give them a bedtime cookie. Last night I brought them all down to the kennel, snapped on the collar on Skala, and one by one gave them their cookies. Skala and Raven were last, and as both are a little over enthusiastic about grabbing them, I'm working with them both to teach them to take cookies nicely. Both youngsters grabbed at the cookies in my hand and I withdrew the cookies and bent over them and said "nicely" and went to hand them out again. At this point Skala barked his enthusiasm and psssssssssst the collar went off.... and you guessed it, full blast in my face. As I was sneezing and spitting out the citronella, I swear I saw him turn to his little partner in crime and grin.

Skala @ 6 months

Yep, Silence is golden..... P-tooie....