Need help /ideas ,dog driving me mad

[Chocolatesnowman2]

7 year old pug cross/ chi
Has always slept in hallway,goes mental barking for hours and poos and wees everywhere if shut in kitchen over night .
Stair gate at bottom of stairs
For the last few months she's started doing a high pitched wine at 5.50every morning and she keeps it up untill I get up and feed her .
It's fine on a week day ,Im up at 6.30.
But I want a lie in on a week end .
She has 24hour access to garden via a pet flap .
I feed her breakfast at 7am.
Any ideas ..I'm feeling quite frustrated by it

Sounds like severely extreme separation anxiety - really normal with those breeds. She wants to be with you.

Yes .that is what I thought actually.
I can't have her upstairs, for a host of reasons

You can get tablets from the vet, but ultimately they don’t actually help the underlying issue…I’d recommend a behaviourist but also upping exercise and mental stimulation so she is more likely to just want to sleep rather than pining.

It’s not a fool proof approach - and it’s a luxury one because spending that much time and resource in tiring a dog out is definitely not something everyone can do - but it worked for one of my foster dogs (took about a month before I could revert to not exhausting him in order for him to sleep properly downstairs without screaming for me).

I’m sorry though, it sounds so rough on both you and her.

As this is a new behaviour, I would look at what's changed in her life in that time. I would also get her checked over by a vet to make sure there's nothing physical that's bothering her.

If she was fine up until recently I wouldn't necessarily go straight to anxiety as a reason - everything else needs to be ruled out first.