Dog growling when told to go to bed at night

[diplodocus]

Ddog is a generally a very gentle, nice-natured little soul. She is a rescue who is very nervous of strangers but around our house is happy and relaxed. In the evening she snoozes on her cushion while we are in the lounge, but when we go to bed she is sent to her bed in the kitchen. In the past she has occasionally growled when we send her to bed, but I've always thought it is maybe if she is woken suddenly, or if she feels we are looming over her a bit unintentionally. Now however she has started growling more frequently even if we are not near her when we tell her. She continues to growl even after she has properly woken up, although will eventually saunter off to her bed. It's at the stage that we certainly wouldn't go near her or touch her when she's like this as we wonder if she would actually snap. She is not at all possessive about anything else e.g. food, toys and has never shown any aggression. I'm wondering how to manage this? I don't want to stop her sitting with us of an evening as she loves it and looks forward to it (gets really excited when we get up from the dinner table and she thinks we are going to sit down in the lounge!). However, I don't want it getting worse, particularly as she gets older, and, presumably, grumpier. Any ideas?

Let sleeping dogs lie? sorry couldn't resist
Can she stay in her cushion? Can you settle her in the kitchen at the start of the evening instead?

Is there something in the kitchen that frightens her maybe a noise like the fridge or when you turn the lights out a shadow or is there a draft from under the door or the cabinets.

If she is so happy in the living room could you maybe leave her be in the night

I'd make a huge fuss of her when she goes to her bed. I used to give my dog a special, coveted bedtime treat, so going to bed was a very exciting thing that happened at the end of the day.

I'd give her her space and be waiting by her bed for her with a treat.

We had this with our dog. He had decided that he no longer wanted to sleep in the kitchen at night and instead wanted to sleep on the sofa. The situation escalated and he was growling and snapping. We solved it by introducing a pre bedtime five minute walk. Immediately the vibe changed. We had a happy dog who was taken straight into the kitchen after the walk and he lays down and goes straight to sleep.

Thanks for the ideas. No - she's happy enough in the kitchen at other times, and always gets a bedtime treat. Might try "upping the value" of the treat (e.g. salami) for a bit. We can't persuade her to go out of a late evening (yes, really..) so not sure a walk would help. Might try bringing her cushion into the kitchen (obviously wait for her to get off it first!) - can't really leave her in the lounge as am pretty sure she would gravitate to the sofa once she knew we were in bed.

We have a puppy who Has started this too. 4 months old and had a great, friendly nature. Sleeps in the kitchen at night and settles well from about half 9.
Lady 2 nights he has growled and snapped at me for going near him before leaving the room.
We also have a 7 year old dog who sleeps upstairs but this has always been the case and never bothered the pup previously. Don't ever remember the older dog displaying behaviour like this..
Sorry for hijacking but would also welcome advice. Had s good walk about an hour before bed. Lhasa apso if relevant and had 6 weeks puppy socialisation with no problems.

We were having exact same issue with our pup (I do believe I started a thread on it!) The advice given was to lure her to her bed in the kitchen with a favourite treat, it works!

If it helps, I had a dog once that grumbled away every time he was sent to bed, I'm not advising this...but we just let him, lol.

He did it, he stopped a few seconds after he lay down and it never escalated in any way, we figured he was just having a wee moan to himself about it not being fair.