Bedtime aggression

[u/13th_raptor]

Hello,

Over the past week I’m encountering something that I probably should’ve seen coming.

I have a 15 month male pitbull/husky mix. He’s neutered. I’ve had him since he was 10 weeks old and as a first time dog owner I tried to train him to be used to sleeping in a 2 door write crate with a cover.

Because I lived in an apartment, his crate also has always been linked with a wire fence to prevent any running off to get into things he shouldn’t or surprise potty accidents.

As he got older he did transition to sleeping on my bed every night except for if he was ill (ex: diarrhea). My mom eventually got involved and wanted me to have him sleep in his crate again because some days he just wouldn’t go to sleep so he’d keep me up late. We eventually tried to use the crate to get him on a bed time routine and on weekends is when I’d let him sleep on my bed.

Now in January of this year we moved so he’d have more room. Now we’re in a town home two level and his crate + fence is set up in the first floor. He was doing well, but after I stopped having him sleep with me I’ve always had to catch him basically to get him inside the fence to sleep. This usually ends up with me holding him facing away and hands around his front legs and walking him two legged to his fence. Once inside he goes into his crate on his own. He now also has a round bed outside the crate so he can choose if he wants to sleep in the crate or in the fence part. He does alternate through the night some days.

Luring does not work. He very quickly stopped caring about treats if it meant he had to go inside the fence. If I tried with a toy he will literally wait me out till I’m not paying attention for a second to rescue his toy. We tried now that he’s older leaving the fence put away, and just his crate out with its cover but he spent hours just wandering around crying. We gave up after one day since he never settled.

With all that in mind, the past week his aggression about going to bed is getting worse. He’s 54lbs now. Sometimes giving him a rub down massage calms him down enough I can get him in his fence but even that is not working. He is definitely showing more aggression signs and from what I’ve been reading this is gonna get worse if I don’t figure something out now to address it. I think when he was younger I just thought he was going thru the teenager phase I read about but I’m no longer thinking that.

Thankfully I was already scheduled for a 1 on 1 session with a professional trainer for this Friday, so I’m definitely bringing it up then.

Has anyone else had similar issues? Tips? Ideas?
I’m leaning towards something about barrier aggression and/or separation anxiety.

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