# Dog suddenly waking up in the middle of the night---HELP!



## bellastella227 (Mar 3, 2014)

We have a Havanese that is almost two years old. He has slept in his crate in our dining room since he was a puppy. He has always gone to bed easy and slept good through the night (with rougher nights here or there, but VERY manageable). For the past week, he has been waking up every night. Usually is is around 3 a.m. and he doesn't really bark or cry/whimper. It is more of a faint but high-pitched whistle sound that is intermittent. 

Usually, if he wakes up at night, I think it is for a reason and I take him out and he goes right back to bed. This past week, however, he won't go back to bed. I've started to just not even take him out anymore the last few nights and ignore it when he wakes up, but my husband can't sleep through it and it is causing us stress. We have only slept one full night in the last week.

How should I be handling this? What can I do to get him back to sleeping through the night? He doesn't cry or act sick during the day at all. Nothing has changed in our home situation or schedule (and we keep a tight schedule). The only thing that is different is that it has been VERY cold here in Minnesota, so we are not getting as much daily exercise as we usually do. I normally do a short walk in the morning and a longer walk in the afternoon to get his energy out.

Any ideas??? PLEASE HELP! My husband wants to get rid of him at this point (he has other issues that have greatly improved) but this is a new one. Thank you for any advice you can share!


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## SDRRanger (May 2, 2013)

Two things I would suggest: ear plugs for hubby until it's under control, and extra exercise. If you can't get him out, try playing fetch or something with him indoors to tire him out before bed.


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## bellastella227 (Mar 3, 2014)

Thank you for your suggestions. Hubby has worn the ear plugs and he can STILL hear him a floor down. I can easily sleep through it all but it is greatly affecting my husband's sleep.

I will try and get out walking again (supposed to go about 0 this week!) and play fetch, etc. more when we are stuck inside. Thanks!


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## SDRRanger (May 2, 2013)

Is he a very light sleeper? We also keep a fan on in our room which blocks out a lot of the little noises and keeps the bigger noises from being so startling. 

BF can sleep through anything (including a dog vomiting right beside him *roll eyes*) but I wake up with every sound regardless. Another thing you can look at are food puzzles, etc which will wear his mind down more too


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## goodgirl (Jan 14, 2013)

Could he be hearing something outside? Like another animal or something coming around?


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## bellastella227 (Mar 3, 2014)

In the past few months, our neighbor's daughter (across the street) has started having people coming and going at all hours of the night. I know sometimes the car doors outside, etc. would cause him to wake up. But he usually would go back to sleep pretty quickly and be OK. So I don't think this is a noise factor this time. I haven't noticed any activity outside and it has bee for 6/7 nights. We also live by a train track so noise is not unusual in our home. 

I did think about turning on a fan or getting some white noise to drown out the dog from my husband and/or in case some noise is waking up the dog.


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