Howling - Confused!

[Pip895]

Saffi who has slept down in the Kitchen since she was 9 weeks with scarcely a peep out of her, has suddenly started howling at night (she is now 13months btw). 
She settles down as normal with a biscuit in her box in the Kitchen, lights off, door shut and all is quiet for a while.  Then, about the time I crawl into bed and turn the light out, this really mournful howling starts.  The first time I heard it I rushed down, thinking something was wrong – to a tremendous greeting, but no apparent problem. 
Its been getting progressively worse. Last night I tried to ignore it, but gave up at about midnight and went down – I got her settled again and went back to bed, but at 3.30am she was howling again.

Any ideas? – could she be feeling unwell? Unsettled – perhaps because of the appearance and then disappearance of the two dogs I was looking after for a couple of weeks, or is she just making a bid for being able to sleep upstairs with us?  

[Eve]

Perhaps she is missing their company. Does she sleep with any soft toys or hot water bottle to snuggle up to?

[rhi167]

There isn't any chance she'd seen something in the garden was there???

I thought my little Minnies recent howling was down to her hormones (due her first season any time now) but I discovered she was having late night howling conversations with a fox she was chatting to through the patio doors!!! 

[Sheepscheeks]

Not a lot of advice but just to say I feel for you! Freddie is an early waker - not as early as your Saffi but since the age of about 3-4 months he has woken any time from 5.30am onwards with quite good Hound of the Baskervilles impersonations a times! He is 1 now. How about a radio on with classical music to mask any potential outside noises? A Dap diffuser just in case she is feeling unsettled? Some skullcap or similar for a few days to see if it will relax her at night a bit? Failing all that - 2 choices; Let her sleep where she wants or buy some good ear plugs!!

[Pip895]

I have a feeling its the separation she doesn't like.  She started howling during the day today when I popped upstairs.  She isn't allowed upstairs as thats the cats territory.  I don't think she is missing the other dogs exactly as she slept in a separate room and I think she was a bit jealous of them tbh, but the whole thing might just of unsettled her.

She sounds so mournful its hard to ignore, it also keeps OH awake, but I guess every time I go down to her I am reinforcing the behaviour.   

I think I might reinstate her crate tonight - we put it away about 3 months ago. I will also try covering it to make it more den like - might stop her seeing things out of the patio windows incase thats part of the problem. 

[Hurtwood Dogs]

Getting the crate out again is a great idea - Normy is fine with the run of the house but both my cockers have preferred being in confined spaces when on their own, so hopefully that will help her a lot. Try and make her feel as safe as poss without going down for the reasons you've already mentioned about reinforcing the behaviour. I'm a real believer in letting puppies,dogs (and kids ) learn to settle themselves and I've never had a problem..

Good luck hope the crate works and you get some more sleep soon!

[bracken]

I know you said she is not allowed upstairs as the cats are there, but could her crate go in your room then carry her upstairs straight into her crate and again straight back down in the morning.

I hope she settles soon  we now have 5 upstairs just to get a good nights sleep, but they are very well behaved straight to bed no nonsence...bless them 

[Pip895]

I know you said she is not allowed upstairs as the cats are there, but could her crate go in your room then carry her upstairs straight into her crate and again straight back down in the morning.

I hope she settles soon  we now have 5 upstairs just to get a good nights sleep, but they are very well behaved straight to bed no nonsence...bless them 

Unfortunately the cat (19 years old) is serious about her territory - last time we tried to introduce them the cat got so stressed/cross that she retaliated by jumping onto our bed in the middle of the night and peeing allover us.   

The memory of that night - hours spent rinsing out the memory foam mattress and Duvet, is too sharp in the mind for me to try that I'm afraid.

[Pip895]

We had her in her covered crate last night to see if that helped - She still howled most of the night.  I'm afraid I just shut the bedroom door and left her to it, poor pup.

We did manage to get some sleep - very solid house and were at the other end of it - her howling isn't particularly high volume so it wont be affecting the neighbours or anything, but it is really upsetting to think she is distressed she seems really tiered today. 

My daughter (11) would love to have her up in her room (in the attic so not part of the cats territory) but I'm reluctant to go down that rout - she might still howl to get to me.  She seems to be a little too attached to me - not sure what to do about it. 

[Sheepscheeks]

My daughter (11) would love to have her up in her room (in the attic so not part of the cats territory) but I'm reluctant to go down that rout - she might still howl to get to me.  She seems to be a little too attached to me - not sure what to do about it. 

Maybe give this a try? Only problem may be that your 11 year old presumably goes to bed before you? My 12 year old would have Freddie in with her but when we tried it he just came straight into my room. As with Saffi, Freddie has decided I am his top hooman or, in my absence, my OH will do. To be honest, I would persevere with the crate and invest in some good ear plugs. You know she is not in physical pain or discomfort and if you can't have her in with you because of the cat, you have maybe just got to bite the bullet, as they say. I would like to let Freddie decide where he wants to sleep because the early mornings (OH and I take it in turns to get up) are a bit tortuous but OH is quite reluctant. Hope someone else may have some better advice for you. 

[Hurtwood Dogs]

If it was me, I'd persist with what you're doing and see how she is in a few days.. in my experience things like this have always petered out when they don't get the attention in the night and you are a bit 'hard'  about it.. If she's not sounding seriously distressed then I think she just has to get into a routine and learn it's all alright at night and that she sees you in the morning.. I hate the phrase 'rod for your own back', but I think they do have to learn to self settle otherwise you just get more and more problems long term

[Pip895]

Right - I'm going to invest in 3 pairs of ear plugs.  Hopfully, as Ive just taken her on a really long run she should be tiered enough to sleep through. 

Anyway I hope she stops soon - she sounds so mornfull its heartbreaking.

[JeffandAnnie]

We had the exact same problem with Annie when she hit 13 months. It was really easy to remedy  She now sleeps on our bed every night 

[Hurtwood Dogs]

We had the exact same problem with Annie when she hit 13 months. It was really easy to remedy  She now sleeps on our bed every night 

 

[Sheepscheeks]

We had the exact same problem with Annie when she hit 13 months. It was really easy to remedy  She now sleeps on our bed every night 

One thing that puts me off having Freddie upstairs is what he would do when there is "nocturnal activity" in our bed (iykwim ). How do others manage? If they don't mind answering such a personal question, that is!