Barking (well not really) at night

[Wasseem Sidhom]

So the challenge with our 5 month old Cooper is his freaking out at night.

Let me paint you a picture :)

'Twas the night before tomorrow, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;
And mamma in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled down for a long nightly nap,

When all of a sudden Mr. Cooper decides to let out 1 powerful bark before passing back out.

Said bark of course startles mamma and I and have a challenge to go back to that long nap. This happens 2 or 3 times each night. Should I expect Mr. Cooper to actually be all quite without a whimper all night...or is this nightly interruption our future?

He is usually sleeping next to my bed on the ground or in the hallway.  And God forbid one of the children has to get up for the bathroom in the middle of the night...he freaks out and as you can imagine more chaos occurs.

Some of this is my problem because I failed as a puppy owner to make him fall in love with the crate and gave up on it two weeks into having him.

So aside from starting crate training all over...which I now am planning on doing but that's a topic for another conversation...is there something i should do about these sudden barks?

[MichaelJH2000]

Cooper needs to be conditioned or desensitized  to whatever sound, motion or other stimulus is causing him to bark. It will take some work, but I would begin by creating the same conditions that occur at night when he and the rest of the family sleeps. Then, simulate whatever occurs that makes him bark. Do this until he becomes accustomed to it. If he freaks when the kids get up to go to the bathroom, have them simulate going to the bathroom several times a night until he learns that this is normal. This may take some time. Good luck.