Dementia?

[frostedviolets]

Feel a bit sick writing this.

The past few nights DDog has been acting a little odd.
One off, higher pitch startle/excitement barks at apparently nothing.
Maybe one or two in the night then nothing.

She’s just had dinner, gone to toilet and gone to settle down.
Nothing unusual there.

Then she started doing very short, low pitch, growl barks.
The sort she usually does if she sees another dog at the vet, so when she’s highly, highly stressed.

After the first one she walked over to me, I looked at her confused and concerned which seemed to upset her more, she continued with these short, low barks, walking with lowered fearful stance and tried to wedge herself under DHs legs.

When I looked over at her honestly I felt a bit scared.
She was really tense and ‘hard’ looking and though I can’t be sure I think I saw the beginning of what was going to be a lip curl then she stopped herself.

I gently called her over and stroked her which did seem to calm her down a lot and she’s laid now by me.
She’s no longer barking but she still looks tense to me.

What on earth could this be?
Is it possibly the beginning of dementia?
She’s coming up 7 years old.

Where do I go from here?
I am conscious that I have 3 young children here, one is only three and she’s a fairly large dog.

[AriettyHomily]

What breed? You say she's not small?

Ears / eyes / in pain?

So many possibilities, dementia really wouldn't be my first assumption.

[frostedviolets]

She’s a Border collie so not huge but she’s past my knee standing and 15kg so not tiny.

I don’t know what to think.

She’s literally been fine all day, and all days previous.
The odd behaviour is strictly late evening, 9/10pm onwards

[frostedviolets]

Seems to be short lived as well.
It’s literally the bark at nothing like the last few days or the 10 minutes or so tonight then apparently back to normal.

She’s out of it asleep now for the night.