Dog waking at 1/2am

[Whattodo121]

Our 18mo Border Collie is crate trained and has been excellent at going to bed and staying in bed since about 10 weeks. For the last 10 days or so she’s been waking between 1-3am and barking. I’ve let her out for a wee and then she’s gone back in her crate. I don’t think she actually needs a wee as she runs round the side of the house that I can’t see, and then reappears 20 seconds later…. Should I just leave her to ‘bark it out’? I think she’s playing me!

Does she have enough to do in the day? Borders generally like to work all day long.

I had this with same age dog! Like you I took him for a wee but one night I didn't and just cuddled with him on the sofa until he went back to sleep. He didn't need a wee, that was just me presuming the reason he was waking. He did it Christmas eve night and I heard his stomach rumbling so I upped his wet food in the day, actually doubled it and fingers crossed he's been fine since. I felt awful thinking he was hungry!

Not same breed, I have a lazy Shihtzu who loves to sleep.

Where does he sleep? My dog is much more settled if she sleeps in the same room as me. I do have to leave her alone in the working day ( she has a dog walker) but a dog that sleeps alone and has working owners is spending a huge proportion of its life alone which is quite sad.

Thank you for all your suggestions! We have changed her food, so maybe she is hungry. Will try feeding her a bit more at dinner time and see if that helps.

She has a very varied schedule of activities, at least two walks a day, 2/3 days a week at specialist high energy dog daycare where they do agility, and is rarely left alone at home for more than 2 hours at a time. She is incredibly affectionate and cuddly with us, I think she’d sleep the night through if she was in our bed with us but DH is firm that he doesn’t want that. Will try more dinner and see how she gets on. She has been begging at the table for food more than before so that could definitely be linked.

Well she woke at 2am and then resettled and then again at 3.30, then came in and slept with me until 7am. (DH on night shifts 🤣) I’d be happy for her to be upstairs with us, I cannot cope with such broken sleep - it’s like having a newborn again!

@Whattodo121 it's tiring isn't it , mine is 2 now but wakes between 4 and 5 a lot of the time but will go bank to sleep on our bed til 11 if she was allowed to . Then other times she will sleep til 7 , I joke the kids weren't this bad !

Sounds like she could be hungry. We divide our labrador’s dinner in two, so he gets about 2/3 at 18:00 and then the rest before his last night time wee walk round the block. He then crashes into his bed (food hangover) 🐾🐾🐾🤣

Is one of your neighbours coming home/ leaving at that time? Maybe that’s why she’s running around to the side of the house, to check out what’s going on? Don’t forget, dogs’ hearing is far, far better than ours.

I don’t think it’s the neighbours-they work from home…. Unless they’re creeping about in the night doing something clandestine 🤣 so we’ve decided to move her bed from the living room into our bedroom so that she can trial sleeping either in her crate with the door open or in her bed on our floor (or probably most likely just on our bed leaning on me) we shall see if that avoids the noise!

Maybe it's time to stop the crate, ours likes to move around at night, starts on the floor, then her bed, then our bed, then back to floor. I'd rather she was downstairs but DH won't hear of it.

Ours did a bit of harassing us in the night and she was hungry so we give her her tea later or make sure she's had a biscuit before bed if she's been fed earlier for some reason.

She spent the entire night snuggling my foot and slept the night through! Looks like she was just lonely!