Sudden unexplained behaviour change?

[Slave2Magic]

I am at a loss to understand my JRT bitch's sudden night time behaviour. She is 3 years old and has always slept in a large crate on a night with our other JRT. All has been well until last week. She has started whining and scratching for ages every night. We make sure she goes out before bed so it isn't toilet related. She happily goes and lies in there of her own accord during the day. So far we have been ignoring the noise as I don't want her to think that she makes a noise and gets let out. We can't leave them loose as there is nowhere to shut them in and they would scratch our bedroom door all night. I don't have them in the bedroom. She is the boss of the 2 and he never makes a sound. Any ideas please?

 

[s4sugar]

Mice? external noises? sensor light outside?

Try a blackout blind. Also take up water two hours before bedtime.

 

[Slave2Magic]

No mice as she would be looking for them when she isn't in the crate. She's a good hunter Crate is in kitchen so no security light can be seen. I've had her at the vets this morning for boosters and the vet didn't know either. Just said to ignore and it would hopefully stop as soon as it started.

 

[Superhot]

It's the time of year for harvest mites, could these be distressing her? Have you changed her diet at all? How does the other dog react when this is happening? Is she spayed?

 

[Slave2Magic]

She isn't distressed at all during the day and I haven't seen her scratching at all. Feed wise, she's on Nature Diet and has been for 2 years. Yes she is spayed. I can't hear the other dog at all while this is going on and I haven't gone downstairs to see because I didn't want her to think that she would be let out for whining. I might see if I can hide for a while tonight and see exactly is going on.

 

[satinbaze]

Try covering the crate so the den is dark. This worked for my pup

 

[ladyt25]

There's no odd noises or anything outside? You say you don't go down so I assume she does stop after a period of time?

Our older dog started acting strangely at night several years ago. I lived at my parent's then and the dogs were shut in the kitchen over night (always had been). Suddenly the older dog started getting very distressed at night and I would hear all sorts of noises from the kitchen. When I went in he was clearly distressed, panting and wanting out of the kitchen. On the worst occasions he would actually (somehow get on the kitchen surfaces and things were all over the floor, glasses smashed etc). He was relatively old at this point (somewhere near 10 yo) and the kitchen surfaces are pretty high so god knows how he did it.

We made the decision to let the dogs have the downstairs of the house and the behaviour stopped. We have no idea what caused it (I did have some thoughts about ghostly goings on) but as soon as he could sleep outside of the kitchen he was fine.