Strange change in bedtime behavior
I'm hoping someone can offer me some insight into what might be going through Jack's furry little head.
Jack is, as I've mentioned, perhaps an overzealous alert-barker. He believes it's his duty to notify me of anything different within his line of sight or hearing. One thing that makes him very angry is stray or wild critters wandering across his yard.
Well, about two weeks ago, we had thunderstorms in the middle of the night two nights in a row. Jack alert-barks at storms (something I posted about earlier), and so I was awake for awhile on work nights. On the third night, there were no storms but Jack woke me up twice barking out the back door at critters that I could not see.
The first time I went down and looked out and turned on some lights and then told him "enough!" The second time, I was so tired I went down and did something I rarely do to my dogs: I yelled at him. Just briefly. I told him to cut that out (in a loud, stern voice) and pointed to send him back to the living room, where he normally sleeps on the couch.
For some reason he ran upstairs instead. Our bedroom and the spare are baby-gated off to give the cat peaceful places to go, but our office is at the top of the steps and the dogs have access. He went in there, I let him go, and was very surprised to find him still there in the morning. No big deal, I thought.
Until the next night at bedtime, when instead of going into the living room, he ran upstairs and spent all night sleeping on the floor in the office. And the next night, and the one after that, and so on.
We boarded them for a couple nights for a weekend getaway last week, and I thought that would break the habit, but it did not.
I have three issues with this: one is the room has no air conditioning and will get hot in the summer. Two is that I like to leave the second-floor windows (those that are not accessible from the outside deck) open at night for cooling and fresh air, and he is likely to bark at the slightest sound (we usually leave fans or a/c on downstairs to drown out the quieter sounds, like dogs barking a half-mile away or possums snuffling in the yard). And three is he is prone to huffing at the slightest provocation (he's a very opinionated dog, who likes to share his thoughts on everything) and I can't hear his quieter noises when he's downstairs, but I sure can when he's upstairs.
There's no way to baby-gate off the stairs, and anyway he'd bark if he really wanted up. So to get him back downstairs at night I really need to figure out what is going through his head that prompted this sudden change in a five-year-old dog. I know what triggered it, but why did he come up when he got scolded? I've tried sending him back down at night and he'll go, but at some point he just comes right back upstairs. And of course monkey-see-monkey-do Maddie follows him up at bedtime but then goes down to the comfort of the sofa, so I get to hear her nails clattering up and down our hardwood stairs too. This has been leaving me with less-than-restful sleep and it's starting to wear.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jennifer Markley on
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You know, I wish many days I was a dog psychologist. I spend so much of my time trying to figure out what is going through Seanna's head. I have no good ideas for you. I wouldn't worry about him being too hot- he'll move where it's cooler when it gets too much. Can you sleep with earplugs in? I use them so I don't hear my husband snoring, and it just happens to give me a good night's sleep with the dogs too.
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Permalink Reply by Beth on
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What's that old saying? Most people who say that they like really smart dogs have never owned one. Jack is always trying to figure out the pattern, and I'm afraid that I inadvertently signaled to him that the rules had changed that night I yelled at him. He's a confident dog but a sensitive one and I believe for some reason he now thinks either that he's supposed to be upstairs, or that he somehow figures that to keep from upsetting me by barking out the door, he needs to stay as far away from it at night as he can possibly get. Who knows? I've never tried sleeping with ear plugs. I may give it a go. I never used to be a light sleeper, but I've become one as I get older.
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Permalink Reply by Marcie on
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I have a white noise machine in my bedroom for at night. It is near the door and seems to help drown out the noise Becca hears at night as well. Her crate is right outside the door. I got it to drown out noise from the apartment above. Becca was reacting when they got up with their baby at night. Moving it closer to the door and her crate helped.
Is there a downstairs room you can gate him into at night?
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Only the kitchen and I hate to make him sleep in there on the hard floor. Our other doorways are all too big.
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Permalink Reply by Natalie, Lance &Tucker on
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how about giving him a comfy blanket or dog bed in there to lay on?
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Permalink Reply by Laura Rochette on
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Following our thunder-lightning storm last Wednesday night--through which Lucy whined all the way --she too has been overly anxious now whenever I leave the room. When she is anxious, she barks--a lot. And she is, as Beth puts it, an overzealous protector of "her domain." She no longer will go into her pen willingly (this where she was during the thunderstorm). I keep her in the pen at night in the living room because 1. she chews on things (no matter how much exercise she gets) and 2. she and my 2 cats have territorial battles all the time. Both of these things would mean no sleep should Lucy be free at night.
Beth--while I have no solutions (sorry!), I can completely empathize. I am hoping her reaction will calm down in hte next few days or until the next thunderstorm! Last summer, when she was a young puppy, thunderstorms didn't faze her at all!
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Permalink Reply by Bev Levy on
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Ha ha, I am glad to see I am not the only one that thought white noise machine instead of trying to train the dog! I guess that is why my Sparty is so spoiled...still say white noise, I doubt I could sleep without it.
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Permalink Reply by Melissa and Franklin! on
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Any way to start crating him down there at night for a couple days to try to re-establish the routine of sleeping downstairs? It sounds like for some reason his safe zone has become the upstairs office so maybe by moving his crate down there he can use it as his safe place instead?
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I have thought of it but honestly he has not been crated overnight since he was about six months old; we've always used an x-pen since then. I'm not sure of a "safe zone"; Jack is the type that when he hears a strange noise, he runs around the house til he finds it so he can intercede. But I think he has decided he's SUPPOSED to be upstairs, and he's a dog who follows The Rules almost obsessively.
My husband and I have been spending tons of time in the office because we've been scanning in all my parents' old slides (about a thousand) and he's joined us up here while we do that, so that might be a part of it too.
If nothing else works I may try using the x-pen to block off the big doorway to the living room, and a baby gate at the other end, so they only have the living room and dining room and he might stay down there then. Only downside is they'd have no access to water.
I just worry about upsetting him more. He is, as I've said, very concerned with routine and it troubles him when the routine changes.
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Permalink Reply by Jane Christensen on
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Tough one Beth. Wynn is like Jack but if I yell at him he completely ignores me for days:( Is the floor in the kichen too hard? Mine love thee hardwood floors when it's hot. Maybe a fan in the office? I really think if he gets to hot he will move...Luckily where we live they only little huffs at night unless it's something they are really bothered by and that I don't see.
Good luck and keep us updated.
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