Why has he started to do this?

[revelsandrose]

Hi I'm not a very experienced dog owner, this is my first dog, had him since a pup, he's 5 now.
He's a bichon mix, he always stays downstairs with the run of the house at night. My DH leaves early for work, let's him out for a pee then the dog just usually waits downstairs until me and dc's are ready and come downstairs.
Lately he has started barking (high pitched like a frightened bark) and scratching at the lounge door until we let him upstairs.
I don't want him upstairs while we get ready as he raids bins, steals socks etc and generally distracts the dc.
Any suggestions please?

Something unexpected may have scared him when he was alone. Perhaps a bird at the window or similar.

I'd try to limit him to one room instead of the run of the house and see if that helps.

Mine went crazy at 1am running about, growling and barking because he heard foxes outside.

Even if it isn't happening now, something may have spooked him previously and now he doesn't want to be alone.

Have you thought about leaving the radio on low or a white noise machine to drown out any noises outside in case it is that.

My dog suddenly started frantically barking at the front door the other night. I have no idea why, but assume that it was either a cat or fox that had spooked her. Normally she doesn't go near the front door so it was a bit odd.

Remember your dog can smell and hear things you have no idea are there. It's almost as if they can sense something outside even if they can't see it.

I would guess something outside scared him and now he doesn't want to be downstairs by himself.

It’s almost certainly something he’s seen/heard in the garden. We normally don’t get a peep out of our dog overnight but one morning last summer at about 4:30 I got woken up by him barking and barking. I went downstairs to find a big dog fox with its nose pressed against the patio door staring at my dog who was understandably going frantic. Since then he’s not wanted to sleep downstairs by himself and we kept on finding him curled up at the bottom of the stairs outside our bedroom door... he’s very chilled in the house so that’s fine with us and we got him a second bed which fits there

I can only sympathise, our mini Schnauzer has started doing the same. Waking at 5.30 and barking to be allowed upstairs, where she will happily go back to sleep on our bed
I think it’s the lighter mornings.

Thanks all, keeping him in one room doesn't help as he will force a pee out in defiance at being contained! I think I'll have to get a stair gate (need one soon for baby anyway) and let him on the stairs so near us but not distracting us.
We've been burgled before early in a morning so maybe somebody has been sniffing about and he's disturbed them?
Flipping annoying when the baby falls asleep and the dog starts barking!

If he's prevented a burglary you should be pleased with him.

A stair gate sounds like a good idea as he'll be able to see you and will probably feel reassured by that.