Expert: Lee Charles Kelley - 4/18/2008

Question
QUESTION: This is new behavior in the past three to four weeks.  Dog is 14, lab/sharpei mix, very good physical health.  She wakes me in the middle of the night whining or throwing her dish (pottery) around her crate.  This can happen once or more during the night.  Weekends are really bad.  Wakes me at regular time 5:45 a.m., which is fine.  When I want to go back to bed, she starts with the noise.  I get up, go to living room and she falls asleep (snoring) in living rm.  I sneak back to bed.  She gets up from sleep, comes and wakes me up.  I get up again.  She goes into my bedroom and falls sound asleep (snoring again).  I sneak into bed.  She gets up and wakes me up again.  I'm going nuts and am exhausted and have no idea what's going on.

Background: Very intelligent.  Not interested in playing with toys, other dogs, etc.  Very demanding and always has been.  Wants something every waking moment.  Has what I would call moderate to severe separation anxiety and always has had.  By this I mean she won't tolerate me out of her sight for more than 5 or 6 seconds; at that point she has to come see where I am.  Sometimes she can't even stop following me around the house constantly.

ANSWER: Hi, Brenda,

Have you spoken to the vet about this? I know you said that your dog is in very good physical shape, but at 14 things can change pretty quickly. If I were you I'd give the vet a call.

An alternate possibility is that it's behavioral, and if the vet rules out a medical problem the behavior is may be due to some recent change (within the last 3 mos.) in the dog's underlying structural dynamic: a recent move, a divorce, a new member of the household, even a change in furniture, or a change in her (or your) daily schedule.

Let me know if I'm on the right track about any of this, and we'll go from there.

LCK

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi,
Thank you for your prompt response.  I had called the vet (who is also a behaviorist) but they'd not gotten back to me and I really needed to run this by someone.  Yesterday she called back and we talked for quite a while.  We already know about the separation anxiety but vet thinks some of this is mild dementia.  It would explain a lot.  Also, she does have mild kidney disease and I started crating her at night which I'd never done.  This was a big change for her and I'd really not looked at it that way.  Vet suggested putting down some absorbent pads and getting an all-natural herbal relaxant called Composure, which I will try this weekend, and letting her have run of the house at night as usual.  I'll try it.  It wasn't successful last night but I'm still going to try.  If you have any more thoughts I'm open to suggestions.  Thanks for your help.  -Brenda

Answer
Hi again.

Since your dog has separation anxiety, I'd suggest that you get her to play tug-of-war with you outdoors. However, if she's not into playing tug at her age, it won't be easy to get her to start playing now. But from a behavioral point of view, her lack of interest in playing with toys or other dogs is indicative of a lack of emotional flexibility, which is getting much worse and is possibly behind this new behavior.

Does she like treats? Do you have an enclosed back yard? If so would you be able to tease her with a treat and then get her to chase you around the yard for about 15 seconds or so at a time? Believe it or not, just getting her to chase you to get a treat can awaken playful feelings in most dogs. I'm not sure how successful this will be with her, but you could give it a shot. It would also help if you could hand feed her all her meals outdoors using a pushing exercise described fully in the link below.

Here are some links:

http://tinyurl.com/3balu6 (pushing exercise, a la Neil Sattin)

http://www.tiny.cc/SwimUpstream description (why pushing works)
         
http://www.tiny.cc/jumpstart (ways to jump start a dog's desire to play)

http://www.tiny.cc/playbenefits (why play is so important)

If you need any further help or clarification let me know.

LCK