Sleepless in Cedarburg

by Rod G
(Cedarburg, WI)

Our 8-year-old mini, Heidi Rose, has slept in bed with us since she was about 6 months old and always slept completely through the night. But lately she has developed an annoying behavior that really has us stumped and sleepless. Almost like clockwork she will wake up at around 2 a.m., jump off the bed and paw at either the bedroom door, dresser or the side of the bed itself. We assume she wants to go outside and do her business. But when I open the bedroom door she will either just stand there or take a few minutes and then leave the room. Sometimes she will go outside and pee or poop but when we return to bed the pawing begins again. We've tried crating her but she will paw at the crate door and also bark. We got a new mini puppy, Molly Blue, last December but this behavior began before Molly's arrival. When Molly arrived, the two got along immediately and play constantly either gentle roughhousing, playing tug-of-war with a rope toy or just running after each other in the house or yard. Molly, now 6 months old, defers to her as the alpha. Heidi just had her annual checkup five days ago and our vet of 16 years reported that she is in excellent shape. I have found that if I can coax her to another room she'll still be restless for about a half hour but them go to sleep. If I take her to bed right then she will sleep the rest of the night. Has anybody run into something like this that isn't diabetes related?