So this summer my dog has started having trouble sleeping through the night. He sleeps in an open crate in our bedroom. He gets fidgety and whines like he needs out, but when one of us gets up to let him out he kind of walks from one room to another and then goes to bed.
My wife thought that since he’s getting older, maybe he doesn’t find his crate comfortable anymore, so we brought his memory foam bed up from the living room and put it near his crate. If he started sleeping in it, then we’d buy another bed for him. He never slept in the bed, but he also coincidentally (we thought) stopped whining. Since he didn’t sleep in the foam bed we put it back in the living room.
But here’s the thing: he started whining again. He doesn’t sleep in the bed, he just liked having it in the bedroom with him. So now, every night I have to carry the bed up with us and then remember to carry it back down again. Link to dog and bed in question.
It’s about $500, which would make sense if he actually slept in it, but not for him just to gaze upon when he goes to sleep. Also, there’s not a lot of floor space with the crate and the bed in the room (we originally planned to swap the bed for the crate).
But maybe he’s sleeping in the bed while we’re asleep you say? Nope, I set up one of my trail cameras in our room a couple of nights.
He already has a stuffed squirrel he only gets at bed time. He’s always been a hoarder, it’s not unusual for him to gather up all his toys and lay next to them guarding them from the cat and invisible hobbits.
My dog has always had major major anxiety. A couple years ago (when he was about 9) he started waking me up in the middle of the night, scared, seemingly for no reason. I was able to start him on Prozac. He is still 100% anxious all of the time but he does sleep through the night again.
It is very nice that you are bringing his “comfort bed” with you every night.
That is the problem right there. This summer has had multiple 100+ degree days (today is 103). And we just can’t wear him out enough because it’s too hot. We do morning walks before it gets too hot and evening walks.
When it’s this hot, we try to do puzzles and smelling games, but if he doesn’t get about 3 miles of walking he just won’t settle down and we can’t walk him that much in this heat.
Not to be overly dramatic, but one of our prior dogs started having trouble sleeping thru the night where there was no issue before. She was getting older. We found out much later that she was in pain and could not get comfortable and would wander around the house at night looking for a place to be comfortable and sleep. It was cancer.
Kizzy is our high energy dog. If it is too hot outside she takes him to the obedience training club where we are members. The building is air conditioned and huge. Depending on what classes are in session, she gets to work with her a bit. For example if the intro to agility class is running, she will demonstrate with Kizzy running the course. If there are no classes she will set up for agility practice runs.
At home she puts Simi through his nosework paces. Not much running, but mentally challenging.
Maybe he thinks he’s not allowed to sleep outside of his crate at night. (Dogs are weird - our rescue thought he wasn’t allowed to cross the patio threshold.). Can you remove the crate from the equation?
My lab (<---- his pic) just turned 13. About a year ago, he started getting a bit anxious and active at bedtime. I began to suspect Canine Cognitive Dysfunction. The vet agreed.
And we were fortunate to be in a position to buy a couple more dog beds for other parts of the house. He’ll use any and all of them these days.
I’ve also become (reluctantly) very disciplined about getting him out not much after sunrise, in order to keep up his exercise even during the hot summer months.
I had a dog many years ago who no longer really “needed” her crate, so I collapsed it and put it in my attic. The dog freaked out. I had to reassemble the crate and put it back in place to make her happy.
Our current geriatric dog Loki has sleeping problems if there is thunder. I give her a 300 mg gabapentin and she is the happiest dog in the world and sleeps soundly.
He sleeps wherever he wants, in the winter he gets up with us and manages to hog a king sized bed.
I wasn’t looking for advice, more just sharing a mundane thing about Bartleby, it will pass when the weather breaks.
He’s a nutty dog, in the morning he’s picked up on key words when we’re talking about where we will take him for his walk and freak out so we end up talking like we’ve swallowed thesauruses, “would you be prepared to stroll with our canine? I think the large body of water might be nice, or would you prefer the green space where there be fields for the playing of sports?”
Bayliss has bed anxiety.
He has his canoodle, round puffy thing. He drags it where he wants it several times a day. Usually it’s either right by my bed where I gotta step over him and the bed to get up. Or it next to my chair.
I realize he wants to be near me and wants his bed as well.
He gets all persnickety if the Chihuahuas get anywhere near it.
The Cats wouldn’t dare lay around where dog cooties are.
At night he sleeps in my closet(go figure🤔).
He drags the bed in there, fiddles and gets it just right. Spins and spins til it’s time, and curls up.
If some thing requires him to get up, we go thru the routine again.
We have several pets beds in the house. Bayliss uses only the one.
There’s a standing order, no pets on furniture or human beds.
I started when they were all young and it’s usually not problem. There’s an old recliner in the Living room that is supposed to be Mr. Wrekkers. I’ve caught all the dogs in it on occasion. I don’t know why.
Yes, who ever said it, “tired dog, happy dog” is very true.
Find an inside place to excercise.
They opened an old closed up Walmart building for an indoor walking track near me. Mainly for people. But dogs are allowed on-leash.
I initially took that to mean that he goes to sleep in a different room, but I don’t think that’s what you meant. My dog used to do that. He had two places where he always slept, in a sort of little cubby-hole between my desk and the wall in my bedroom, and in my son’s bedroom right beside his bed. He’d always go to sleep in the little cubby-hole when I went to bed, but sometime in the middle of the night he’d shift to the other place. He continued doing this long after my son had left home and it was just an empty room.
My only thought about what could be prompting you dog’s affection for a foam bed that he never sleeps in might be some lingering scent or something else that he finds comforting to be near. Did he ever sleep in it as a puppy? If something like this is the explanation, a second brand new foam bed might not work. Incidentally, my dog had many places he could have slept, including a small couch in the family room that he had commandeered for his own use, but that was just his daytime hangout. He much preferred to sleep on a hardwood floor – go figure!
Very cute dog, BTW. If the proximity of the foam bed makes him feel good, I’d just go with it and wouldn’t question it.
No, he whines, wakes us up and then when one of us gets up, he goes into the next room to check on his stuff in there, a dog bowl, whatever toys, etc. then he goes back to his crate and sleeps. It’s definitely related to not getting enough exercise, but it’s more pronounced now that he’s older. He was the runt of the litter and before we got him as a puppy, he had already had four different owners, so he has weird issues that he’ll never fully get over.
Starting tomorrow, we’re watching our friend’s dog for the next week or so, those two get along great so that will be a nice diversion.
