Perplexing Bedtime Behavior

[JMFS]

So, first - I've been working with her on her bow.  She was getting doggy about it and offering a quick slap of her paws on the floor before popping up to receive her treat.  I've been slowly lengthening the amount of time she'll bow.  She still tries to get away with the paw slaps or even lying down (cheater!), but I persist.  I'm limiting it to about 3 seconds because I'm unsure whether it feels like a good stretch or an awkward position.  She loves waving, and tries to use that as payment for her treat.  She gets to do puppy push ups when she simply won't focus.  That tends to get her to act right and focus.  😆

 

So 2 weeks ago, and then again last night and the night before, my Gertie Gerts has had these episodes of refusing to settle at night. She's fully knocked out when we're upstairs in my office, when we're watching tv, when I'm showering, and most nights at bedtime, but in these situations she paces and just won't relax when we go to the bedroom.  This lasted about 3 days the first time, and last night was day 2 of the new event.  It's as though she's trying to get our attention because she'll sit there, staring at me.  When I don't acknowledge (I have headphones on for guided meditations), she goes to the husband's side to give him a stare down.  She goes outside for the bathroom right before we go to bed, and she eats about 3 - 4 hours before bedtime.

When it happened a couple weeks ago she kept going under our bed, so I slid her bed underneath and she finally went to sleep. This week I tried that again, but that wasn't acceptable. I tried to put her bed in the bathroom with the door open so she could see us (it's about 6 ft away from her normal position), turned it to the side and slid it halfway under the bed so she could choose under or out, covered her with her blanket, and still no dice.  In the bathroom she did try to get back under the blanket after shaking it off, but couldn't quite manage.

I noticed when I put my tablet flashlight on her she calmed, so I took one of my LED tealights and put it under my nightstand and moved her bed back to the usual spot. She zonked out - exhausted after an hour of refusing to sit still. This is such bizarre behavior for her. She's our furry Valium puppy who never misses a chance to couch potato.  Her preference is to lounge about all day - even outside she'll pick a sunny spot to snooze in.  The room temperature hasn't changed and we haven't made any other adjustments in the room.  Blinds are in the same position, furniture hasn't moved, she's had this bed for 3 years, the blanket is the same.  I can't place my finger on any human-detectable environmental changes that would cause the behavior.

 

She had a vet visit in December, clean bill of health. No arthritis or clicking in the joints, no stiffness. Vision is good with mild formation of cataracts - she runs around at night with no issues. She's only 7, perfect weight, and active (when she's not couch potatoing). I had to call her in the other day because she was chasing the crows and they were beginning to amass into a murder, lol.  I didn't want to have to go crow hunting because I'm Trying to befriend them!  I have one I "gadawk gadawk gadawk" with each day (we repeat each other).  I asked my husband if maybe she's detecting a dang sinkhole, being that this is Florida. He, of course, brushed it aside. The only common denominator I can think of is that both times this behavior surfaced it was cold outside.  But . . . not inside.  🤔

 

I'm so stumped by this! The confounding part is that Esther, Miss super sensitive, ultra champion forget-those-Bloodhounds nose, scared of her own shadow was completely nonplussed. She was wagging energetically because Gertie was up and moving (Esther stays crated because of the bladder issues - which have Much improved - and won't leave Gertie alone), but not showing any signs of her usual anxiety or fear.  For Gertie to be nervous and Esther to be happy and chill is strange.  I've exhausted all the potential causes I can think of, so here I am!

 

It better Not be a sinkhole or as we're being swallowed up the husband is going to hear, "I told yoooooooou . . ." and I'm not sure if it will come from Gertrude or me!  Maybe both.

[JMFS]

Figured it out and chased the zebras away with the horse I found!  Now to fix it . . ..

The last two hurricanes that tried to hit us, but missed, managed to knock out our power.  Our house is now 14 or so years old and the smoke detectors have begun to malfunction.  When the power goes out, they all go off until the power comes on.  Flipping the breaker does nothing because of the battery back ups, and we can't reach them now that the sir has had a massive stroke and can't climb a ladder (our ceilings are 12 - 20 ft high).  So, for 36 hours those things were going off.  Esther got to go to the boarder's after 12 hours because the husband's angiogram was scheduled for the day after the hurricane - what luck!  Poor Gertie wasn't scheduled, so she stayed home with my kiddo and they suffered together.

There was the Faintest weak beep followed by a hardly detectable click, which is why we didn't catch it before (I sleep with headphones on).  Even after pointing it out to the husband, he couldn't hear it until I turned off the air purifier so that it was dead quiet in the room.  I ended up going to the guest room with Gertie and the poor girl snuggled up on the blanket and conked out right away.  She was snoring in less than a minute.  It's just bizarre that Esther couldn't have cared less about it.  She went through 12 hours of the things screeching, and 5 minutes is enough to give anyone a case of nerves if you ask me.  When they're singing their cacophony Esther is right there with Gertie, freaking out.

We're waiting on our electrician to come replace all the detectors.  We couldn't take the one in our room down.  Even with standing on the top of the ladder (the part you're not supposed to - if I could, I did not trust it) I wouldn't be able to reach with my not quite 5'5" little self. 

To light some fire under my husband (I've been asking since the hurricane to get our electrician over here) I'll sleep in the guest room until they're all replaced, lol.

Esther = Zebras  Gertrude = Horses

I'm relieved to have figured it out because my imagination was going bonkers, and dark.

[Adrienne Farricelli]

I am so glad you figured it out! As I was reading, me start thinking about initial stages of canine Alzheimer's, but then thinking, no maybe not, she's still not that old, but then again, some dogs start early, eek, I hope not!

In any case, good catch! My Petra was sensitive to beeping noises and fire alarms, bit this was quite obvious. A Pomeranian I worked with last year, was acting anxious at times and at the end figured out the fan used when cooking was her trigger. It wasn't super easy to figure out because she still acted anxious when it was off, but predicted I would start cooking when walking in that area.

 It sounds like Esther was fine because perhaps the barely audible beeping did not meet her threshold for concern. 

In any case, congrats on your impressive observational skills and persistence in identifying the source of stress. Others would have overlooked such a subtle trigger.

While replacing the detectors will resolve the immediate issue, consider that Gertie may still retain some anticipatory anxiety around similar sounds.

Yup, such a great example of "think horses, not zebras." What makes this case interesting is that the faint beep was so subtle that it disguised itself as a zebra at first, but then, the solution was ultimately a horse in disguise!