Hello, My girl is now 4 years old and things have been ok in the night for years, just the occasional need for a night-time toilet break but usually just fine, sleeping through with no problems or disturbances. However, in the last few months she has woken up at anywhere between 12.30am - 5.30am and sometimes more than once, for say 5 out of 7 nights per week. We have a night-time routine which is exactly the same, no changes in bed/bed position, etc., always goes into the garden to do her business (both!) last thing at night, settles down straight away; this has worked since she was quite young. Now she does all this as normal, then barks... once. Then twice, three times. Ten times. It is as if she is calling us rather than barking at an intruder, say. When we eventually go down to her, sometimes she appears to want to go out to relieve herself and other times she just sits on her bed, looking at us standing at the back door beckoning to her to go out! She can be a monkey at times generally so we try to ignore the barking to see if she stops but sometimes she doesn't give up - we are worried we will disturb our neighbours so we have to relent often (we have a kitchen with lots of glass windows and there can be quite an echo with loud sounds). We do not fuss or pet her when we get up and keep talking to a minimum so as to try not to reward her, but are at a loss as to what to try now. It is having an adverse effect on our health/mood/stress levels now as we are not getting enough sleep! We have checked our cupboards to see if there are any mice which might be disturbing her, although we live in the country so it is quite likely that she has heard something - then again, she has always lived here and should be used to the sounds of the house (with or without the mice?) . We live in a very quiet area at a dead end by a field and so there isn't noise from traffic or passers by to disturb her. I think she is probably just playing us - she has regular check ups at the vets and is healthy. If anyone has any tips or suggestions, we'd be eternally grateful. Many thanks!
It's difficult to say why she's doing it. What I would be tempted to do is set up a video which captures her body language before and during the barking. You can do this with a mobile phone if you don't have a different system already - the free app Alfred allows you to use one phone as a camera and another as the viewer.
Mice are a good thought. Our old dog Belle went through a period of night whining which turned out to be due to mice. She slept in the spare bedroom, not sure where she was hearing the mouse, but we eventually caught it in the wardrobe in our bedroom. It was probably inside the wall when she heard it. Only realised that's what was causing it when she went back to sleeping through once the mouse had gone.
Maybe she really is just calling you and wants your company. I just read a post on how sleeping habits change and she may have decided she wants to sleep nearer to you now.
