Hi All,

I have a chocolate lab, Gracie. She is 8 years old and has a very sweet personality. She is well trained. She's my baby. I don't work, so I am home with her almost all of the time. She tags around, where I go she goes.

The last 5 nights or so she has been waking me up 5-6 times a night or more. I let her out to potty, double check her dish for water. Most of the time she doesn't go potty, but goes outside and just sits and appears to be star gazing or property watching or something. I'm not sure.

I bring her back in the house and attempt to go back to bed. Within 15 minutes to 30 minutes she is back poking me in the face with her nose. This goes on until about 4 am.

She acts rather nervous or urgent that she needs me right now! One night I went and slept on the sofa so she could sleep close to me. It worked for a little while, but then she was back to her nervous, urgent ways.

This is so unlike her. She normally gets me up once a night to go potty, but never anything like this.

The only thing I have done in the last week is give her her heartworm medication and her frontline. We live in the country. I have not seen anyone or anything outside of our home and when there is she always barks.

During the day if there is a strange animal she would chase it, not go sit in the yard. About 3to4 weeks ago she appeared to have gotten in a fight with something when my husband let her out. She had a couple of wounds. I took her to the vet. He looked her over and gave her some antibiotics. Her shots are all current. About a week and a half ago she had dragged a fiesty woodchuck into our garage. She bit it, but we could not find anywhere that she had been bit back. This all happened during the daytime.

After these night time adventures, in the morning she is tired and so am I. Then she sleeps.

Is this something I should talk to my vet about?
Could some sort of illness or parasite cause her to act this way. She seems just fine in the daytime, it's just when we try to go to bed that she gets weird.

I'm not sure what to do to make her feel comfortable at night.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you, Maggie

How much excersise does she get each day? Labs need about 40 min of excersise at least. if she isnt getting enoough excersise and she is sleeping alot in the day she could be antsy at night. try and keep her awake most of the day and see if this helps. call your vet and ask for advice if this doesnt work.
Good Luck!

Hi Jade,

My kids usually take her outside and play with her during the day. Frisbee, a walk, ball and such. Though she has arthritis so it is becoming harder for her to do as much as she used to. When she gets worked too hard she has a hard time getting up and walking after she has taken a short nap. Her playtime itself really hasn't changed much except for her to tire out more quickly.

She is on a good diet. I feed her Canidae. She is about 2 pounds over her ideal weight. She has lost about 6 since winter as she is more active now than when it was cold outside.

It appears to be a more nervous thing to me. Like an urgent need to wake me for something. The only other time she has ever acted this way is when there is a storm. She is very scared of storms. But we haven't had rain or storms in over a week or so. I'm really baffled.

Thank you for your response.

Maggie

This message has been edited. Last edited by: maggiemay85,

Sorry that i wasnt much help. try calling your vet for advice. also some ppl belive that animals have a sixth sence. it might be a possiblity that your dog senced a change in the atmoshphere and is predicting an upcoming storm or something odd like that.... im not saying i belive in all that stuff but it could be a possiblity.

Hi Jade,

I was wondering about pressures as well. Last night we had a cool front come in. Though I have never seen her act like this when fronts have come through our area without precipitation. Maybe due to her arthritis she is more sensitive to weather fronts. I'm grasping for explanations I guess. If she keeps this up I will have to take her for a check up with her vet. Maybe he can explain what may be going on at her age and how we can help her.

Thank you for your help!

I would guess that it's an animal she's hearing. This time of year there are all kinds of critters roaming around at night. She may hear coyotes in the distance. My dog hardly ever wakes me up to go out at night, but there have been a few times recently that she has wanted to go out. When I let her out she just sits on the porch and watches out into the yard. I live in the country as well and I will often hear deer crunching through the woods behind my house. We have invisible fencing, so my dog knows she can't go get them, so she just waits and hopes they will come into her territory.

Can she possibly be too hot at night and she enjoys being out in the cool night air? Maybe you could see how she does if you left her out all night.

Hi Shaiya,

Thank you for the advice. It could be she hears coyotes. I do hear them howling often near by.

I don't think it is the heat. When it gets warm we put on the air conditioning right away.

Normally she would bark at wildlife, but if she can't see it, that could be her problem.

Thank you for those thoughts. I'll have to listen outside harder.

Maggie