Since last Sunday, Porky has been waking up at 4 am every night. Normally, I wouldn't be concerned, but we can hear him start whimpering in his kennel. He has slept in his kennel since we got him and never had any problems waking up in the night. We have to get up and open his kennel door and hold him for an hour and then he will finally go back to sleep.
Any idea what is going on? Or has he just learned to whimper for attention at night? We have tried ignoring it, but his cries just get louder and he gets really upset. If we let him go for 5 minutes, he is shaking and crying like crazy when we get him out. I'm totally lost on why he is doing this. :dontknow: We are all tired from lack of sleep this week, :crazyeyes: so any suggestions would be great!!!
Porky had a traumatic experience with the moth cake. He may yet be experiencing symptoms that disturb his sleep. I'd give it a couple of weeks. I know having them wake up and demand attend is a pain, but you may have to live with it for a while.
I was thinking the same thing. It probably has something to do with everything that happened with the poisoning. Could be that his sleep cycle is shorter at night or that he just gets scared when he wakes up. Hopefully he will calm down soon and things will get back to normal.
Good it sounds like you were both thinking what I was too. I was just trying to figure out if he wakes up and thinks he's at the vet, or if he is having a weird nightmare about the whole ordeal. I know it has something to do with the poisoning, but I'm not sure what.
I did call the vet in case it was some neurological problem because of the poisioning. She was kinda puzzled about it too. She told me just to watch him close, but she is pretty sure he's just insecure right now because of all the trauma. I am glad she confirmed what I had been thinking.
I just hate to see him so upset, but I guess all we can do is comfort him. We tried putting him in bed with us last night. He slept in my arms. The same thing still happenend until he opened up his eyes and saw me. So, I guess we'll just have to work on getting him feeling secure again. Any ideas??
Hi, our pair nor any for that matter sleep with us in the bed. Partly as its a high bed and secondly they need a place of their own, but it sits right next to my side of the bed so all I have to do is put a arm down to check if they are OK or needing covered. Somethimes a sweat shirt of yours in with them helps as they have a smell of you, perhaps a new bed as it may have smells that remind him of the fear.
try not to worry as they can pick up on your vibs.
Roberta
You all are not going to like my input but sometimes if you comfort them to much it makes the fear worse like you are rewarding him for waking up at 4:00 am what about sticking the crate next to the bed and when he wakes up sticking your fingers in the crate door and just talking to him for a few minutes and telling him it is OK to go back to sleep.???I'm sure you do not wish this behavior to get ingrained to the point of it being a every night occurrence. May find some information about fear in dogs on the internet they also have something like a plug in air freshener but it has calming scents for a dog read about it in Dog Fancy. might be able to find it on the Internet by typing in Calming Scents for dogs. you might also ask the vet about it ???.Hope I do not offend anyone.
Patches Mom
Patches mom,
Thanks for your input. You did not offend me at all, so dont worry about it. I was worried about reinforcing the waking in the middle of the night by coforting him also. THe only problem is if I don't and just talk to him, he gets more and more upset for some reason and gets shaky and sweaty because he is so upset. That's the only reason we are holding him.
Thankfully, he has been sleeping better now. The vet checked him yesterday and said she thinks he could be waking for two reasons. His allergies have been really bad so he may start his wheezing and panic when he finds it hard to breathe. Also, he may still be suffering the horrible headaches from the poison he ate Believe me, those headaches hurt bad!! My husband and I both got one. So.. I am trying the benedryl thing and we'll see how it works.
I appreciate you sharing your ideas. I think I will try the air freshner thing. Another thing I have been doing is turning on soothing music.
Also just remember about the Tellington Touch its a massage for dogs it helps with all kinds of problems type in Telling Touch for Dogs in your search engine should explain it better than I can. I have the vsh tape,flash cards & booklet very interesting information for any dog with all kinds of problems also it is a great way to bond more closely with any dog its not hard to do at all.The way I look at it try anything once and its not a drug.
Papbouv