My female GSD has always reacted to my husband's sneezes. If I am sleeping, she will jump on the bed and straddle me, even sit on me if he has sneezed. When I am awake, she will try and climb on my lap, or at the least, on the couch where I'm sitting. If I am not sitting, no matter where I am in the house, she will come and get me.
It took me a long time when she was a pup to realize there was a connection between his sneezes and her straddling me. When I finally did pick up on the connection, I figured that she was trying to 'protect' me. But I don't know about that idea any more. She also has a reaction if he sniffs - not as extreme but if I am sleeping, she will certainly wake me up.
And in the last six months she has taken to waking me up when my husband gets up (usually around 4am) to use the bathroom. When he is gone, no problem. But when he returns to bed, she starts whining in my ear, pawing at me, and sticking her nose under the blanket to whack me awake. This is without any sniffs, groans, sneezes or anything else adding to the situation.
Since I'm I am dead to the world, there is no possible vibe for her to pick up on.
She also can't stand the sight of his bare feet. When he stretches his legs out on the ottoman, she will visibly shudder, turn her head so she doesn't have to see them, and climb on the couch.
I can sneeze, visitiors and strangers can sneeze, everyone in the whole darned world can sniff or sneeze or show their feet, and it is no problem.
Ignoring her doesn't work. She will whack me with her nose under the blanket or on the couch until I physically get up. Ignoring her beyond that point results only in her going to my husband's side of the bed and doing the same thing to him. That doesn't work, so she comes back to me and repeats. I've tried waiting her out but after an hour of that....
There is no problem at all if my husband goes to bed first, and then I go to bed. The problem (minus the sneezing issue) occurs only if I am already in bed and my husband gets up and then returns to bed. One thought I've had is that if I go to bed when he is already in it, she assumes I know he is there and therefore she doesn't see a threat.
But if he gets up and I'm sleeping, is she trying to tell me that someone I am not aware of, due to sleep, is climbing into my bed with me? If I then get up, however briefly, and lie back down, no problem.
I am getting really tired of being woken in the middle of my best sleeps by a cold German shepherd nose in the middle of my back
, especially since I already suffer from insomnia.
She is otherwise a very obedient and well-mannered dog who will lie down if I tell her to lie down, obey all the basic commands, etc. Maybe some of this late night whacking has to do with her growing older? Could she be getting insecure in the way that elderly human people will sometimes get insecure? She will be 9 years old later this year and I am all my dogs' primary person.
And what is up with her issue with my husband's sneezing? His sneezes sound no different than anyone else's sneezes and she's had the sneeze thing and the feet thing with him since she was a 3 month old puppy. It is the waking me in the middle of the night thing that's new.
Has anyone ever heard of a dog behaving in a similar way?
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