Anxiety?

Really worried about our 2 and a half year old.

He has always slept on the landing and we are in our bedroom with the door shut.
At night on rare occasions he would sometimes start barking and jumping at our door and growling. At first we thought he just wanted to get in our bed. So we would ignore him and he would eventually stop.

On a couple of occasions recently he has started growling then we can hear him heavy panting, running downstairs and working himself into a bit of a stress.
So we let him in the bedroom to calm down which he did after a while.

But the last 2 nights he has done it and when we let him in our room he won’t settle. Keeps pacing around on our bed, panting, whimpering. Then he will curl up and sleep for 5-10mins then just get up and repeat the above.

We can’t work out what’s causing it. It’s quite distressing as we feel so sorry for him and can’t help him!

Could a change of diet cause anything? He is allergic to lots of things as they bring him out in a rash, but mainly grass seed.
We have tried slowly introducing chicken back into his diet to test if it brings him out in a rash. Could this cause it?
Also we are using scented candles a lot to make the house smell nice. Would that affect him?
He sleeps a lot in the evening before bed, might that make him less tired at night?

Just after some help please!
Thanks

Poor you and poor Bolo, anxiety in the middle of sleepless nights isn't nice.

I would say allergies are a definite possibility. As well as outward manifestations, they can cause unseen discomforts such as tummy ache and overall stress. If this anxiety started at the same time as you have started trying chicken again, there's a distinct chance they could be related.

Scented candles could also affect him, as could other fragrances such as in washing powders. The best with these very allergic dogs is to opt for minimal fragrance options.

I would strip out all the fragrances and eliminate the chicken again and see he if settles, bearing in mind that it might take a few days for his body to calm down and there might also be an element of learned behaviour - you can get stressed expecting something that's no longer there. If he doesn't settle down, maybe see if he is happier with your door open unless there's a significant reason not to have him in with you.

Fingers crossed!

All fab advice from Liz ,,,, also maybe something could have scared him, a noise, firework or such like,,, even gales have done this to my boy and some things we dont always hear as they do. I hope he settles soon xx

Completely agree with the posts above, however, if none of the suggestions make a difference pop him along to the vet just in case there is something medical which is making him uncomfortable

Thanks for the replies, all helpful.

Last night was a lot better. We played a few games of find before bed to tire him a bit more mentally and take his mind off it being bedtime.

We followed the usual routine so as not to confuse him, and put him to bed but left our door open.
He came in straight away, we left the light on for a bit and he settled down.

I turned the light off and he did start to pant a tiny bit, but settled really quickly and slept all night apart from at 4am when he jumped as he heard something, but again settled down quickly again.

Will try the same again tonight, I can see the next topic being how to get bolo out of sleeping on our bed!!!

Jgoodwin81 wrote:
Will try the same again tonight, I can see the next topic being how to get bolo out of sleeping on our bed!!!

Ah, now that might not be so simple....

I know!!! Tried it a few times and he just came straight back into our bed!
We tried shutting the door but he just seems to get all anxious and stressed straight away.

It’s so strange how he has just changed like this and doesn’t like to be shut off from us at night.

Is it possible this is all a ploy just to get in our bed all along!??

Have you thought about getting him a dog bed & putting it in your room?

He'll probably want YOU to sleep in it & he'll still have your bed, but worth a try!

He just comes off his dog duvet straight onto ours every time!
Might try and treat him when he gets on his bed and see if he starts to get it!