Since Sunday Charlie has not wanted to go to bed at night. For the year that we have had him he has happily gone to bed about 10pm without being asked and settled for the night, not a peep. Both Hattie and Charlie's beds are in a large unitility area which is nice and warm, we do close the door at night only. He now goes and sleeps on the landing and refuses to go into bed and when we did manage to get him into he utility room he made such a fuss jumping at the door and seemed quite anxious that we opened it and left it opened, but in the mornings he is on the landing, he just looks so worried ears and tail down, yet he is happily asleep in his bed right now with not a care in the world. We really don't know what this is about. He really wants to sleep in one of the bedrooms! What should we do and is this strange? Thanks Helen
Re: Strange bedtime behaviour! Hi Helen I guess something must have happened during the night that upset him. One of my labs got very upset when we had a mouse in the kitchen! Once the mouse was despatched, she was happy again! It is often difficult to pinpoint what starts a dog off being upset, it could be something he heard outside, or he might have felt ill, had a tummy ache, caught a claw under something and hurt himself, the list is potentially endless. Whatever it was, he then associated that unpleasant thing with the room he was in. It definitely is not uncommon and this sort of thing is often the trigger for night waking problems in a younger dog. But perhaps it is more important to decide how you deal with it? If you are happy to let him sleep on the landing then it probably doesn't matter, but if you aren't then you need to be firm about leaving him in the utility room, otherwise he will quickly learn how to get to sleep on the landing, long after whatever upset him in the utility room, has gone away! Pippa
Re: Strange bedtime behaviour! Thanks Pippa, we don't have a problem with him sleeping on the landing and have let him for the past couple of nights until he is happy to go to his bed in the future - odd boy...
