I have a 6 year old Shih Poo; she sleeps in with me and is usually settled and sleeps all night in her basket. She returned from boarding 6 days ago, she boards regularly and is usually fine adjusting back home .
The first night home, she settled well and there were no issues. On night two, she was constantly asking to be out of the bedroom and wanted to sleep on the sofa. Around 1am, I gave up and slept downstairs with her.
On the third night home, she would not settle upstairs at all. She was constantly crying and whimpering to be out of the room. I gave her access to our landing but she constantly wanted to be downstairs. I took her down multiple times to see if she needed a wee, she did not.
The crying and the whimpering and the upstairs and downstairs went on all night long and has done since for the last three nights. When she goes downstairs, she plonks herself on the sofa like Lady Muck.
I have averaged around 2 hours of undisturbed sleep in 6 days. I’ve had enough and my patience is wearing very thin.
I cannot let her sleep downstairs alone as she barks at the slightest noise (but she does not do this upstairs); we have had a previous complaint from a neighbour when she spotted a shadow at 3am and went beserk, crashing in to things . I’m therefore very wary of letting her get in to this habit of sleeping downstairs.
I have today installed a pet gate on our top floor landing to extend her access beyond my bedroom, I’ve bought her a cosy new bed and a cooling bed to lie on and placed those on the landing.
What else can I do? I can’t take much more of this.
She’s not in pain, she’s not poorly, she’s not hungry , she’s not thirsty. She’s fine and her happy normal self during the day, she is just like this at night time.
Any tips for what I should do when she starts with the whining and crying and demands to go downstairs?