Weird dog sleep behavior

[HSmomof2]

We have a 6-year-old pug. We've had her since she was 10 weeks old. At night, she sleeps in her crate in our laundry room. She has always done this, bs with no problems.

 

However, the last 4 nights I've woken up between 4-5 am to her whining, yelping and very upset in her crate. At first I thought maybe she needed to go to the bathroom. Took her out, and she just sniffs around. As soon as I let her out of the laundry room or back in from outside, she runs straight up the stairs into our room and wants to sleep in our closet. She curls up on the floor and goes right back to sleep. I don't know what's going on with her. She's behaving normally in the daytime---eating, drinking, playing, even goes into her crate at bedtime perfectly fine. Any ideas what's causing this??

 

ETA: having her sleep in our closet is not ideal because being a pug, she snores quite a lot which keeps me awake. :)

[lil' maids in a row]

Could there be a critter (mouse, squirrel, cat, raccoon etc) making its rounds within earshot of her?

[HSmomof2]

I'm not sure....we have two cats, so she's used to them. We've had raccoons go through our yard in the past, but I haven't heard or seen anything. There are no windows in the laundry room, and it's between the family room and garage, so pretty well insulated from the outside.

 

The other main problem with her night waking is that then I haven't been able to go back to sleep....I really don't want to be up for the day at 4 am.

[songsparrow]

Maybe move her crate to your bedroom and use some sort of white noise (e.g., fan) to drown out the sound of her snoring?  

[HSmomof2]

We've had a lot if change recently....dc have gone to school, so it's just the dog and me home during the day. We are also moving in about three weeks. Our new house has the laundry room upstairs next to our room. Maybe she'll like that better. Maybe she's sensing the upcoming change with all the boxes, furniture moving around, kids not home as much, etc? I'm not sure this would affect a dog's sleep though??

[lil' maids in a row]

Maybe a nice long walk or play session in the evening would help her sleep better.

 

Also they make "calming" supplements for dogs OTC. Maybe it would help get her out of the cycle. My older dog used to wake me up every night. Not getting enough sleep STINKS!

[Pawz4me]

My guess is something is bothering her -- maybe a wild animal moving around outside, or a distant noise she can hear but you can't.  When older, well-trained pets start acting weird I always give them the benefit of the doubt and assume something's up.  I'd have a different opinion if we were discussing a young dog.

[HSmomof2]

I'm going to try her in her usual bedtime location in the laundry room in her crate tonight. I dug out the old white noise machine we used when dd was a baby. I'm going to have that running in the laundry room tonight and see if that helps.....I know her hearing is much better than mine, but it may be enough to at least let her not notice whatever it is she may be hearing.