Dog waking up snarling

[Cairneyes]

My beautiful 12 month old pup has begun waking up sharply snarling and snapping, usually chasing his tail around in circles. He seems to be dazed and confused by the incident. It doesn’t happen every time he wakes up but is distressing when it doesn’t happen. I speak quietly to him but have to stay away as I fear he will snap at me without realising what is happening. Anyone have a dog with similar behaviour

Sorry about your pup. I'd be inclined to have him checked for epilepsy.

Oh dear, didn’t think of that. Will make an appointment with the vet😟

Yes agree with first response. Pain, neurological issues or epilepsy are all possible causes and vet should be sought. Fingers crossed for you op

Get a recording of it happening if you can a d show it to the vet.

My first thoughts were neurological I'm afraid (but I'm not a vet!).

My dog did this just once when a pup. At the time I thought he had woken suddenly from a deep (and possibly dreaming) sleep and reacted fearfully to the sight of my laptop power cable, which was very close. I thought it was some instinctive reaction to a snake. (Sounds implausible now that I write it down.)

I don't know if it is reassuring for you to hear that this happened and nothing came of it. Perhaps it isn't relevant to your case, where it is happening multiple times.

I suppose my instinct would be to make even more sure that everyone in the household knows to leave him alone when he is sleeping, and to raise it with the vet at the dog's next visit.

Just to add, I don't think there is an easy check for epilepsy. My dog also started to have a couple of mild fits much later (about four years later so not connected, I think). They ran a couple of blood tests for possible illnesses that might cause fitting, but beyond then, the only diagnotic option was an MRI, which they thought unnecessary because his fits were so mild that medication wasn't indicated and there was no benefit in subjecting him to the trauma of investigation.

So his fits are currently recorded as 'idiopathic'.

Thanks all, vets appointment booked for Friday, I will try to get a video of him doing it but he doesn’t do it all the time and he’s quick!
Picture to show how beautiful he is!