Sleep Patterns Changing

[Puppybella]

Hi All, (massive post, apologies, but you need the full story)

My 9 month old pup is crate trained and sleeps through most nights until whenever the household stirs. Occasionally if she really needs to go whe will wake us up with frantic whining so I know something is up and I'll take her out. In the last week, however, she's started playing funny buggers, and I don't want her to get into the habit so I was wondering if you have any ideas on why she's acting this way, and then how I can manage it.

Summary: (started last thursday)

Thursday night: Playful, singular enquiring bark which to me just said come and play, I don't want to be in here, it wasn't her usual frantic whine. Nevertheless I took her out to pee/poo, nothing. I was up and down about 5 times from about midnight, it went on for ages until I cracked it and slept on the couch (she was still crated but stayed quiet), I got sleep until about 430 when she barked again, so I let her out and she slept in her basket until normal wakeup time.

Friday night:Not wanting her to learn that just because she barks she gets attention, decided to ignore her unless I heard the usual whine for toilet. Same singular bark from about 2 am, ignored for half an hour, stopped. Woken up by slightly more barking (but not real whine) at 5 am, and she'd had diarrhoea all through her crate. Joy. Thoroughly cleaned crate and pup, slept on couch for remainder with her in her basket.

Sat night: slept through, yay!

Sun night: slept through, yay! (thought we were over it)

Mon night: barks shortly after being put down. Taken outside, sits down on grass with no indication of needing to go urgently. Back into crate, barks. Another family member took her outside and said she pooped and peed after ages and then was quiet.

Last night: barks shortly after being put down, I took her out, stayed out for aaaaages incase I wasn't giving her enough time, but not a skerrick. Was quiet after that.

So, ????? What's going on? What do I do tonight? Take her out? Ignore? Even when she's quiet I'm not getting good sleep because I'm waiting for that moment of disbelief that she's just barked again. I don't want her to learn she can wake us up just because she feels like it, but I don't want to ignore her so she poops her crate full. I was surprised because she never gave her typical 'I need to poop' whine.

As far as I can tell, nothing has changed in the routine. She gets walked most days, she plays and sleeps during the day (someone is home most of the time). She almost died from anaphylactic shock on a walk 2 weeks ago, so on vet's instruction we were a little less active so she could recover, but other than that I can't think of anything. She still gets taken out before bed as normal, or during the evening if she lets us know. Maybe the warmer weather? Full moon on thursday? Is she sick?

I suppose my ultimate question is, do sleep patterns change, and do they go through phases? (i.e. will we be back to normal sleeping soon!!)

Thanks heaps!

[ktig]

Has her diet changed at all? Maybe an upset tummy?

[CavsRcute]

My girl went through this at the same age.

She was becoming a "teenager" and was testing the boundaries

[Jasslyn]

My girl went through this at the same age.

She was becoming a "teenager" and was testing the boundaries

I was going to say something similar. My dogs both went through this stage. However, I thought it was "toddler" behaviour in that toddlers try to extend bed time with requests for one more drink, one more story, one more toilet trip, etc. Both my boys knew the one thing guaranteed to get them outside for a run in the middle of the night was a need to go to the toilet. For the first few nights I'd give them the benefit of the doubt and take them out even though I was sure I was being conned. Then I had to take my chances.

Did your dog have loose BMs on the other nights she woke you up? Could be the diarrhea one night was unrelated and the other nights were attention seeking behaviour. But also could be that she has a health issue and might need to be checked by a vet. I've never owned a bitch so don't know if this is a possibility but could she have a bladder infection that is making her legitimately need to toilet more frequently?

[Puppybella]

Hi people, thanks for your responses!

I think it is just the toddler/teenager stage starting. I do think the night of diarrhoea was unrelated to the other attention-seeking barking. I'm pretty sure she doesn't have a UTI or anything, since when I do take her out she just faffs around and chews things or has a leisurely sit down, she doesn't actually pee/poo more.

Diet also hasn't changed in any significant way, it's like it always is.

Last night she started barking very quickly after putting her to bed (hadn't even finished brushing my teeth) so I went down but didn't turn any lights on and told her to be quiet, which worked for a while. I did it again about 20 mins later. All in all she carried on intermittently for over an hour. In the end I took her out on the lead and stood in one spot and eventually she did both a pee and poo, but now she looks a little constipated if anything. I don't think she was barking because she had to poo (since she did one in the evening already), because it's still not her really whiny commotion. I think she's just awake so long that when I do decide to take her out she is able to go again.

Anyway, should I keep ignoring her for as long as possible? Does this stage pass? How long until we get good sleep again?!

Cheers!