Dog

heartofarebel

Hi, can any body offer a little advice on my dog. She is 5 years old, never had a problem with her sleeping at night but for the last few weeks she has been crying and scratching the door to get up to us. She sleeps in the kitchen with our other dog, she's no problem. Even got her a new bed in case that wasn't comfortable. It satrted out around once a week but now it's starting every night.

Cork24

could be something spooked here some night and she gets scared down in the kitchen,

My dog was like that for about a month banging off the Bathroom door. their was 3 of them in the bathroom.

it lasted about a month but he stops after a while, just don't give in she will more then likely stop doing it.

heartofarebel

It may well have been that something did scare her. At least I have hope that it will stop.

Cork24

she should be alright, if she doesn't, maybe it will help taken her on maybe a second walk a day or even a third one if you walk her twice a day. and do it right before bed time.

heartofarebel

We bring her out 3 times a day. I would bring her out at night but she doesn't like going out in the dark believe it or not.

Cork24

heartofarebel wrote: »

We bring her out 3 times a day. I would bring her out at night but she doesn't like going out in the dark believe it or not.

it could be something as simple as she is scared of the dark, or that she thinks she's going blind and gets stressed out.

DBB

When she started doing this, how did you deal with it?
Also, is she in the dark in the kitchen?
Has anything changed that might coincide with her scratching? Visitors? Fireworks going off? Workmen in the house? New pet? Anything different at all?

heartofarebel

Nothing has changed. We did ignore it the first couple of times but after that we went down and tried to settle her. She is in the dark but she always was. Maybe we could try a night light. Not too sure if a new dog or some kind of animal in the area nearby disturbered her the first couple of times. I thought I heard something when I went out the back.

DBB

Certainly try a night light, and also a radio on in the background to hide little night-time noises.
Unfortunately, by going down to her, especially if you did this a few times, you've probably made her that bit worse, as she'll have learned that scratching at the door, whining etc is a pretty effective way to make you appear.
So, once you're absolutely sure there's nothing upsetting her (are you sure there hasn't been anything going on between her and the other dog at night? No bullying, bed stealing etc? A webcam might be a good plan. Also make sure she has toileted before bed, which you probably do anyway), then you may have to brace yourselves to ignore her over a number of nights.

heartofarebel

Thanks for that. The two dogs get on like wildfire. We'll try a few things. Thanks again.

aonb

my elderly dog goes through a phase every now and then of scratching the kitchen door to get to us. 99% of the time, hes fine, but sometimes I guess he just needs a bit of human company - bad dreams or not feeling great (hes 15) - who knows... anyway going to see what was up was a fatal mistake - he has to have a treat to go back to bed with of course :rolleyes: so we put a 'gate' up so he cant scratch at the door/wake the house. He has "dementia-days" so unfortunately now if he 'calls', we feel we have to check him, but hes usually conked out all night.

(I never leave my dogs in the pitch dark, and if Im out/away I'll leave the radio on)