Dog causing sleepless nights

jackiegibbo

Hi we have a lovely big dog,hes very placid and good company but every night he wakes us up to pop out to the garden for a wee,even though hes out at10/11pm he still has us up.As you can imagine its quite tiring and i was wondering if anyone could offer any input please?.

leed

Don't have a solution - just want to commiserate. We have an 8-9yr old Belgium Sheepdog cross (don't know exact age as she came from a rescue centre) and every night she does her rounds about 4am. She comes to my side of the bed, bops me with her nose and if I ignore her she then paws the bed. All she wants is a used tissue - clean ones are no good - the more used the better!!!! She then goes to lie down and is happy for the rest of the night!
I would also be thankful for some suggestions - and yes she goes out for a walk during the evening and also into the garden before going to bed.

jackiegibbo

leed wrote: »

Don't have a solution - just want to commiserate. We have an 8-9yr old Belgium Sheepdog cross (don't know exact age as she came from a rescue centre) and every night she does her rounds about 4am. She comes to my side of the bed, bops me with her nose and if I ignore her she then paws the bed. All she wants is a used tissue - clean ones are no good - the more used the better!!!! She then goes to lie down and is happy for the rest of the night!
I would also be thankful for some suggestions - and yes she goes out for a walk during the evening and also into the garden before going to bed.

Thanks for your reply funnily enough our dog came from somewhere else when he was 2 and a half i wonder if its an insecurity issue and he wants to make sure we are there for him

leed

We found our dog was very insecure and for some time after getting her she needed to be close to us. Now (6yrs later) she likes to know where we are but will be in a different room to us. She does like sleeping against the front door presumably to stop anyone getting in. We think she was taken to some wood in a car and abandoned as she did not like getting out of a car at the woods and the first few times I took her to our country park for a walk in open fields she kept jumping up and bashing me on my upper arm telling me she wanted to go home. Now she loves it over there and chases rabbits and squirrels - she has also caught (grey) squirrels and insisted on bringing them home to show her 'Mum' - thanks!

mcspanna

Can't offer a solution but want to join the club! Ours wakes us up whining, i have a theory at the moment that because he is going a bit senile he thinks it's time to wake up (he doesn't want to go out) at the moment it's about 4-5am and the birds are starting to sing in the tree outside around that time...he just appears to want to say hello! he's a rescue so possible insecurity issues although he has been rehomed with us for nearly a decade now...

Raksha

Senility can cause sleeping problems, but they can be 'cured' with a relatively low cost drug called Activaite.

For younger dogs, where the behaviour is not new, try setting an alarm clock to go off before the dog gets the chance to wake you and going through the normal routine of letting the dog out. Then, day by day, reset the alarm for 10-15 minutes earlier each night.

laurauk

hello, yes we have the same problem too.
i have a three year old little yorkie boy who is very spoiled, he sleep in between me and my hubby which we dont mind, well when hes not snoring loud, but anyways, he wakes me up twice during the night crying and running down the stairs to go outside.
when i take him out, he just likes to stand and stare at the stars, weird i know, now and then he will do a wee.
he has been doing it for months and i really dont know what to do?
hubby doesnt hear him at all, hes laying there snoring too,
so all good advice is very welcome
thanks laura

leed

laurauk wrote: »

hello, yes we have the same problem too.
i have a three year old little yorkie boy who is very spoiled, he sleep in between me and my hubby which we dont mind, well when hes not snoring loud, but anyways, he wakes me up twice during the night crying and running down the stairs to go outside.
when i take him out, he just likes to stand and stare at the stars, weird i know, now and then he will do a wee.
he has been doing it for months and i really dont know what to do?
hubby doesnt hear him at all, hes laying there snoring too,
so all good advice is very welcome
thanks laura

How about some ear plugs!

laurauk

haha, thats a good idea and thats what im going to do, im lucky with all the snoring and the dog if i average two hours a night, but i seem to do ok so far on it? i used to work nights so i think thats it.
i just wish i could get this naughty dog out of the habit. we also have a indoor kitty and she sleeps all night in the bedroom too, and doesnt move?
i have never heard of a yorkie who likes to star gaze, i dont mind but not all night lol.;)

Spirit_2

For the last year our 10 year old retriever has been getting us up almost every night so he can go out to spend a penny!


We think it is just his age, and we have to get on with it. We both have to get up for work each day, Mr Spirit manages to sleep through the 'special bark' that tells us our dog needs to go out. I however always wake up - and if I feel it is time Mr Spirit took a turn I give him a shove. As Mr Spirit is away quite a bit (like tonight) I know I do my share.

Some friends of ours have a large "dog flap" fitted to their back door as their means of coping with this (they could not deal with 3 small boys waking them up and 3 dogs waking them up and knew that it would be socially unacceptable to have a "small boy flap" installed).

leed

Spirit wrote: »

For the last year our 10 year old retriever has been getting us up almost every night so he can go out to spend a penny!


We think it is just his age, and we have to get on with it. We both have to get up for work each day, Mr Spirit manages to sleep through the 'special bark' that tells us our dog needs to go out. I however always wake up - and if I feel it is time Mr Spirit took a turn I give him a shove. As Mr Spirit is away quite a bit (like tonight) I know I do my share.

Some friends of ours have a large "dog flap" fitted to their back door as their means of coping with this (they could not deal with 3 small boys waking them up and 3 dogs waking them up and knew that it would be socially unacceptable to have a "small boy flap" installed).

We had a cat flap in a previous house for our two cats - one day some teenage burglars tried to remove the cat flap to break into the house. They left a beautiful set of finger prints that the police were able to take and trace them. They caught the kids but didn't find my jewellry.