Dog howling in the night

[missyB1]

So our mini Schnauzer has started playing up in the night. She’s nearly 18 months now and has always slept in the kitchen in her basket. The last week she has started howling and barking, usually starting about 1am. I let her out but she doesn’t really want that, she makes it quite clear that what she wants is to be with us! She tries to come upstairs and howls like mad when we don’t let her. Last night it went on for 2 hours - bloody exhausting and upsetting

We wondered if she’s cold? She has a soft bed with a blanket but our kitchen does get cold at night. Or is it separation anxiety? She’s never had that before though.

Any ideas?

[missbattenburg]

Set a video recorder up and record her. That way you can see if something is triggering her. If she's cold, for example, you should see her shiver or try to hunker down to stay warm. if it's a noise outside you will either capture it on the recording or will see her suddenly prick up in response. If it's something else, such as a mouse that has started to visit the kitchen every night (not suggesting your house has mice!!) then you will see that too.

It's possible something triggered her the first night but since then she has learned that she gets a response from you if she howls so
if it's nothing then I would be inclined to ignore her and wait it out. Tough - but not as tough as giving in and having her sleep with you forever if that's not what you want.

[missyB1]

Ahh yes I suspected toughing it out was what we have to do But the camera is a good idea to help find out what is actually going on.

[blueskyinmarch]

Our lab went through a phase of this and had obviously learned the more noise she made the quicker we would go down to see her (which i guess is what she wanted). We eventually decided to tough it out and ignored her. She doesn't make a peep now.

[missyB1]

I think I might need earplugs

[Skrowten]

I have this every night with my 18 month old at the moment. And it's only when my husband's away. It can go on for hours and I'm exhausted. It's 3.40 am now, I got him asleep on couch and snuck off to bed but I can hear him moving now. At my wits end.

[cheshiremama89]

Our schnauzer did this, it was separation anxiety.

We let her sleep on the bed the following night...

4 years later she still sleeps on the bed but I adore it! X

[namechange2222]

Let her sleep upstairs? Even if you don't choose to have her on your bed maybe put her bed just outside your room. When I was first a dog owner I had many strict rules, dogs downstairs only, never in bedrooms and certainly never on furniture. It caused quite a bit of anxiety looking back. My current dogs have the run of the house. It's quite interesting that, although they usually choose to be near me ( in the bed!) they will sometimes just choose to sleep downstairs and even though they often want to be on the sofa with me they will sometimes choose to lie in front of the fire. It's a much simpler way to live alongside them