Please can anyone help before I go mad. My dog is a spaniel cross lab, 12 years old and very affectionate and most of the time is quite obiediant. For most of her life it was just me and her. In the last few years things have changed massively. I married and now have a 6 month old child. She will interact with the child upon invitation and observes the child in a very non jealous way (have no concerns re their relationship)my child is also very interested in the dog and will stroke the dog rather that pull its fur (as she does with my hair!). It all sounds great doesn't it - and it is until we go to bed.
My problem is that the dog hears my child stirring throughout the night (but not waking) and sits at the bottom of the stairs and whines (she is not allowed upstairs). At first I thought that as the dog is older she needed to go out during the night, but this has made no difference. One night DH and I sat up and listened and it does seem completely child related and thought that this would subside as baby grew but 6 months on and child sleeps 10-12 hours a night and the dog wakes us every night whining in the small hours. Downstairs is open plan so cannot put the dog in the kitchen etc.
I am getting to the point of feeling very rotten about it all - I'm very tired and snappy because of the dog waking me at night. I feel like a crappy dog owner because I tend to shout at her to shut up. The lack of sleep is not helping me look after the child during the day and am staring to feel like someone is always crying for me from the moment I wake up until I go to sleep and then some.
Does anyone please have any suggestions, re homing the dog is not an option.