Something has spooked him

For the last hour I've been trying to calm Hank down, he started barking for the first time ever at night, so I came downstairs and he was pacing the kitchen and growling and looking in one corner of the room he then went to the door asif he wanted to go out so I let him out and he started barking and growling outside so obviously with it being late I was trying to get him back in but took some time, got him
In then he was pacing again and growling again, finally got him to get up on the sofa with me to try settle him and get him over, he's finally over and asleep now but what could this have been? I'm really baffled, has this happened to anyone else?

It could have been a Fox or animal in the garden. Misty has done this before, when we let her out she has a bark and tears around the garden sniffing for something. I'm sure he will be fine.

Yeah possibly, he was looking for something between both the kitchen and living room so you could be right, never seen him like that before the washing machine was on so I turned that off thinking it was that but he still cried

More often than not its the smell of something like a fox rather than seeing something that spooks them. Hopefully he's all settled tonight.

emma it could have been a shadow or a noise you may not have heard sounds like he was definitely spooked by something . he couldn't pinpoint the sound hence the reason he was sniffing to locate it. i believe things like washing machines etc shoud be part of things your dog hears everyday otherwise they get scared so easily. staffies are good at picking up things in general we wouldn't normally be aware of.

He was fine last night so all is good, I've only ever seen a fox where I live when I was younger so never put that in thought they could be wandering here haha, but when I was trying to settle him he kept sitting in front of me as to guard me the jump down and look about then come back over look at me then go back as to see if I was okay, so I think you could all be right as he is very protective of me.

There's been a couple of times where boxes and random items on the kitchen top have freaked him out and there was one there on the night but he wasn't looking at that.