Sudden anxiety in the middle of the night, terrified of crate

[cfbs2691]

How old is she?

[Garfunkle524]

Originally Posted by cfbs2691

How old is she?

She is about to turn 6.

[slay6454]

Hi Garfunkle,
I am a dog breeder and a retired nurse turned Holistic. All this means nothing I'm just throwing it out there.

Dogs are very habit prone by nature once they get in the habit of a negative behavior it can be really tough. The important thing is to not give up. I read thru all the posts and did agree with posters Pass without a trace and wfurn.
The causes could be Barimetric pressure, earthquakes, fireworks or construction blasting. If its construction blasting that could going on for a couple of months easily. It might be worth checking to see if anything like that is going on within a 5 mile radius of your house.

Regardless of what caused it now the habit has to be broken. I assume you checked for spiders in the crate or bedding as well as tree branches scraping windows?

Did you know that dogs can also be afraid of the dark? So whatever is going on could be exacerbated by the fact that the dog can't see whatever is scaring him at night.

I feel that crates are a very good thing as long as they are not used as a punishment. My breed Rhodesian Ridgebacks are Den animals they use their crates to get away from things and get peace or as a hiding place so they don't have to share that special bone.

Here are a couple of things to try: Like the one poster said take down the crate block off certain areas and start fresh in a month. OR
Put the crate in a room that is in the center of the house with no windows if possible. (your trying to muffle noise) A bathroom with a ceiling fan would probably work best because then you have "white noise". Place a thick comforter under the crate so it does not have direct contact with the floor ie: vibrations.

Get some Rescue Remedy give that to him as late in the evening as possible. Preferrably keeping the dog awake till then also.
Get some Lavender Essential Oil. Pour a little in your hands rubbing it between your hands then massaging it into his coat. Put a little on his bed or blanket as well. Lavender oil is very soothing it helps dogs and people relax its used in Aroma Therapy. DO NOT USE ROSEMARY. Rosemary has been known to cause Seizures in epileptic and Seizure prone dogs.

I would put the dog in that room with his Crate left open. With one bed/blanket in the crate and one outside the crate. Close the door to the room or enclose it or block it off so the dog is kept in this area over night. *Leave the lights on.

You've now changed the location of the dog. The noise surrounding the dog. The dog is not in the dark. Also, the dog has a soothing aroma to smell with the Rescue Remedy helping to calm.
Hope this helps

[Garfunkle524]

Originally Posted by slay6454

Get some Rescue Remedy give that to him as late in the evening as possible. Preferrably keeping the dog awake till then also.
Get some Lavender Essential Oil. Pour a little in your hands rubbing it between your hands then massaging it into his coat. Put a little on his bed or blanket as well. Lavender oil is very soothing it helps dogs and people relax its used in Aroma Therapy. DO NOT USE ROSEMARY. Rosemary has been known to cause Seizures in epileptic and Seizure prone dogs.

I would put the dog in that room with his Crate left open. With one bed/blanket in the crate and one outside the crate. Close the door to the room or enclose it or block it off so the dog is kept in this area over night. *Leave the lights on.

Thanks for your response Slay. I've left her out of her crate the past few nights but she always ends up back in there by choice. She enjoys sleeping in her crate until 3:40am. When she's not locked in her crate she still panics til almost 5, but at least she doesn't tear the crate apart. I have tried rescue remedy-like products, as well as calming tablets, benadryl, insulating her crate from the ground and outside noise, changing rooms etc.

I have talked to my neighbors. None of them are up that early on a consistent basis and I'm unable to hear them anyway. My next option I think is a Thundershirt, but since calming tablets and benadryl literally had no effect then I'm not particularly optimistic. The last option is prescription tranquilizers which I really don't want to have to do. She's still freaking out occasionally during the day as well so I see that as only a band-aid fix that doesn't address the root cause.

I seriously worry that we will have to re-home her. She's miserable at home and I haven't slept in two months. She has hurt herself several times trying to escape and even lost a tooth. It's not worth mine or my girlfriend's sanity trying to deal with this anxiety issue if it's unfixable. Unfortunately we both work so I've been extremely reliant on the fact that my dog can be left alone for a few hours without worrying about her. Between the two of us we don't have the bandwidth to be with her 24/7.

Sorry, I know that doesn't go over well on this forum. It doesn't go over well with me either. I volunteered at an animal shelter for years, which makes not being able to solve this problem that much harder. The signs keep pointing to something environmental as the root cause, which means it could be entirely out of my control.

[slay6454]

Sorry it took so long for me to see this reply. I am still getting used to this forum and thought I would get the responses sent directly to my email and that was not the case.
It sounds to me like you have tried everything under the sun the moon and the stars. If infact the cause is environmental your only kind option would be to rehome her. I had a very nervous parrot once that just plain was not happy with us or our other parrot and I; like you tried everything. We rehomed her and it was like someone flicked a switch she was a transformed bird. Start the interviews with other people now to try and rehome before she is inconsolable

[Robz707]

This same thing started happening to my nine yr old Aussie. For no reason. She is very healthy and gets a ton of exercise. During the day she is great. But at night she freaks out and runs around the house scared. It's so sad to see her like this. Please let me know what I can do.

[Hopes]

I'm surprised nobody in this thread suggested taking the dog to the vet for an exam.

[HDL]

Any chance there was a "happy" ending to this story?????

[Garfunkle524]

Originally Posted by HDL

Any chance there was a "happy" ending to this story?????

This behavior lasted about 6 months. I was lucky if she slept through the night once a week. She always woke up at 3:40am ON THE DOT.

Then one day she stopped freaking out. Simple as that.

She's still a handful when there's thunder. Last summer there was a ton of thunderstorms for this area so it was pretty rough on her, especially when we were both stuck at work.

[HDL]

I've done a lot of work with dogs and it's always nice to hear when folks are able to work through "issues". I thought some of the recommendations were good - take the dog to the Vet, rescue remedy, take out of the crate at night, etc. I was even thinking that you'd be a good 'case' for Cesar Millan's show "Cesar 911" formerly Dog Whisperer.

My friend had the same type of issue that he was trying to work through with his very strong boxer mix. Unfortunately the dog mysteriously disappeared 10 yrs ago on April 1st 2004 and to this day we don't know if his dog somehow got out of his home or was stolen (possibly by a neighbor's teenager who was into all kinds of trouble). We were never able to see if all his work with his dog paid off unfortunately .

Anyways, my dogs had some anxiety issues also with vacuums and guns firing and storms. I just knew that on the 4th of July or New Years' eve, they would hide somewhere in the house to mitigate the noise. I can only imagine that being in a cage would not necessarily allow my dogs to go to their most comfortable spot in the house, which may very well indeed cause additional anxiety for them.

Best wishes and thank you for letting us know! Maybe another person with the same issue will not give up too soon because of what you shared !

Originally Posted by Garfunkle524

This behavior lasted about 6 months. I was lucky if she slept through the night once a week. She always woke up at 3:40am ON THE DOT.

Then one day she stopped freaking out. Simple as that.

She's still a handful when there's thunder. Last summer there was a ton of thunderstorms for this area so it was pretty rough on her, especially when we were both stuck at work.