Question:
A few nights ago, I took his leash and secured it to a pipe in the
living room, so he could sleep on the couch. No dice. He knocked
over every piece of furniture he could and eventually pushed the couch
away from the wall, into the center of the room.
When I finally came down and let him go, he ran to the front of the
house, and peed on the floor. I gave up and let him sleep with me.
After about an hour or so, he stopped panting and went to sleep.
Here's the funny thing: If we are out late and come home at 1-2 AM,
he's sitting on the couch, pleased as punch and calm. However, when
we go to bed, he starts getting agitated and busts into my room.
Then, around sixish, I let him out and he goes downstairs and is fine
for the rest of the day.
Has anyone ever heard of such a thing? Is there any clues on what is
wrong with him?
Angus was at the vet about 2 months ago for his regular check-up and
got a clean bill of health. Frankly, I am stumped.
Answer:
Something similar happened with us. We very recently rescued a border collie
mix from a pound. This dog is a young adult (about 2 years), and seems
to have had a bit of a hard life; there are some residual orthopedic
problems from trauma, such as an arthritic knee and imperfectly healed
fractures.
The dog is friendly, affectionate, etc. and has been much more sedate
than I had been warned of when friends heard I had a border collie. He
is not destructive around the house, is housebroken, does well with children,
etc.
The first night we were at home, we tried to keep the dog in the
first floor by putting up a child-fence on the stairway. We heard a
lot of whining early in the night, and then a crash around midnight.
The dog suddenly appeared at the foot of the bed, plopped down,
and fell asleep. He had managed to partially break down the barrier,
and had climbed over the remains. All of our attempts to keep the dog
away from us at night were met with resistence, ranging from whining to
harming furniture trying to get around or through barriers.
Since this was the *only* time the dog was a problem, we decided
not to fight it. We let the dog sleep on a blanket on the floor
in the bedroom.
It's natural for dogs to want to sleep with the rest of their pack.
Unfortunetly he's training you to let him up eveytime you give in. Probably
too late now.
How come your dogs aren't allowed upstairs? If it's for allergy reasons I'd
suggest you get a small room air filter for your bedroom. Works great for me.
Could it be that something is going on in the neighborhood. Something that
is causing a noise that only your dog can hear? A noise he associates with
"bad things coming"?
MY dog has very sensitive hearing, She has trouble dealing with buses, ice
cream trucks , garbage day is pretty much a write off. I can't bring her to
my husbands work as in the back of the building there is machinery that
bothers her. She doesn't even like to walk at night, she gets nervous (I
think she hears too much then) Yet, I can vacuum up to her feet and it
doesn't bother her. Just not the same pitch.
