Nightmares And Sleep Aggression

[Guest threegreysinva]

We've recently adopted Bear, our third grey currently. He was fostered in a home with Salukis who were quite invasive of his space (jumping over him, stepping on him, sleeping on him). He was not identified as sleep aggressive in the kennel when he was originally put up for adoption -- we can only assume that this is perhaps due to the Salukis. Since joining our family he's awakened multiple times during bad nightmares. He's prone to growling, barking, and whimpering in his sleep. He is aggressive if touched while asleep, so we're trying to condition him out of that habit. The thing we're concerned of at the moment is the fact that he can wake up suddenly, barking and snapping at our other greys without them coming near him. He's bitten our little female (not terribly..just a nick) and has several times woken up and been quite aggressive to our human family members. We've had sleep aggressive greyhounds before, and have managed with it. The nightmares are new and worrisome. Thus far we're trying to keep him isolated while he sleeps..in his crate or nestled in a corner so he can't be approached while sleeping. If anyone has any experience with their hounds having nightmares and being aggressive, we'd certainly appreciate any tips for how we can help Bear.

 

Thanks!

[Sambuca]

I think you're on the right track crating while sleeping. Also using an ex pen if you don't want a crate everywhere can be helpful as well. Good luck.

[greysmom]

The big things are to train yourself to remember never to physically be close enough to touch him before he's clearly awake. Crating and xpens were really helpful. He also may get better as he settles in, especially if the salukis were part of the problem. Give him time and space and patience as you help him work through this.

 

Some people have had success with sleep aggressive dogs by throwing lightweight things at them repeatedly and waking them up - balled up socks or the like. In this case, I think he just needs to settle in and know that he won't be disturbed while he's sleeping.

 

Good luck! And Welcome!

[Guest threegreysinva]

Thank you so much to both of you, hopefully he'll have sweet dreams tonight. Our other two are being pretty tolerant of him thankfully. I was thinking he may just need to settle in as well, so I'm happy to have that backed up a bit. Thanks again!

[GeorgeofNE]

George was sleep aggressive when I brought him home (I personally doubt that his foster home had anything to do with this--unless he was there for a LONG time!), and is much, much better now.

 

I think TIME is what he needs, and since you have other hounds to consider, he needs a safe space so that he isn't disturbed, and he doesn't accidentally hurt someone.

 

George also sleeps (sometimes--less and less often now) with eyes open--so I made sure to NEVER touch him when he isn't actually wide awake. I had to emphasize this over and over to my father who has Alzheimer's. I just told him "never touch him when he's laying down."

 

Clapping my hands and saying his name is enough to wake him up!

 

As to "nightmares," I don't know that George's loud and vigorous dreams are BAD dreams, or just exciting ones! I often wonder, but it seems to me as if he's reliving his prior life, races and all! He makes 10x more noise asleep than when awake!

[45MPHK9]

We live with a dog who had very severe sleep aggression. Murray was five and on his third home with us. Our adoption group was very upfront with us about his previous bite history. We adopted him knowing what we were getting ourselves into. Murray also hated to be crated, adding another big issue to the sleep aggression. (He had three of his canines pulled at his last dental as they were broken and cracked to the roots from previous years of crate chewing.) I can tell you that time has really made all the difference in the world for Murray. I typed this post about a year and a half ago:

 

murray had terrible sleep/space aggression when we adopted him. he was 5 when we brought him home. he was returned to our adoption group twice for biting while asleep. we were told that one of those times he was sleeping in a hallway at night and someone in the family tried to step over him and was bitten. we were both were bitten by murray in the first few weeks we had him. both times we did exactly what were knew we should not do....petting him on his bed as he was falling asleep. we knew that it would be important to define a place for him to sleep in the house. as his third home we felt a lot of self imposed pressure to make this work for murray. who would want to adopt a dog that bit in three homes in a row? we did not want to return him. we committed ourselves to working with him. here's what worked for us.

 

we tried crating murray in the first few days that we had him. (not sure why we felt we had to crate him when we were gone....it just seemed like this is what people did when they newly adopted a greyhound.)he broke out on the first day. he tried to bite burke on the second day as burke tried to get him in there. clearly this dog wanted nothing to do with a crate. he was not at all destructive when we went to work so there was no reason to crate him during the day. we abandoned that plan. we still needed to set some sleeping boundaries with him. we felt that he needed to go to his crate when sleeping/falling asleep. we really wanted him out in the living room with us in the evening but murray continued to growl at us as we walked around him in our home.

 

our main challenge was getting murray to use his crate for sleeping. we set the crate up in our bedroom, covered it with a sheet to make it denlike, and took the door off. that one thing, removing the door, made all the difference for us. the crate was not a place where he would be locked in. he could come and go. early on, as murray would fall alseep in the living room we sent him to his bed in the crate. we would wake him up by calling his name and send him to the crate. sometimes, after a power nap, he would reemerge with us in the living room. some nights he stayed in his safe place for most of the night. anytime he growled we gave him a stern BAH sound. this would wake him. then he was sent to bed. gradually he learned to trust us. he spent more and more time with us in the living room. sometimes he would put himself to bed when he was tired. it was funny to watch him get up, say goodnight, and go into the crate (something we never thought he would do!).

 

we have had murray for almost two years. we continue to be aware of his tendency for sleep aggression but having that safe defined space for sleeping in our house seems to have worked for us and for murray. in the living room we can sit on murray's bed with him and pet him. bee wiseman (who came home seven months after murray) can lay near murray on the dogs beds. (bee has her own crate in the bedroom so that both dogs have a safe, designated sleeping area in the house.) in the living room murray does not react at all as she walks near him or if she moves on her bed next to his. he does not seem to care if she is near him.

 

inside our house the world feels safe to murray. now he spends most of his time out in the living room with us when we are home. we are able to step over or step on his bed when he is on it. we haven't had any growling in over a year. murray is, and will always be, a fearful dog. i'm sure with time your problem will ease as he settles in to the routine in your home. it's amazing how far murray has come in his time with us.

 

 

Almost a year and a half has passed since I wrote that post. As of this writing, Murray no longer sleeps in his crate. We wanted to try and see if Murray could sleep safely and soundly outside of the crate. He and Bee sleep on separate sides of our bedroom on their dog beds. More ofen than not, though, Bee sleeps out in the living room on the couch. She knows not to disturb Murray on his bed. She has never jumped over him, stepped on him, or crawled onto a dog bed next to him while he was sleeping. She keeps her distance. She seems to just know this now. There are times lately, though, when I do find the on the couch together, sleeping close. I find them on our bed this way sometimes, too. They have grown to trust each other, I guess. We've had no growling incidents from Murray in the six months without the crate. I can't tell you how much it means to us to see this kind of progress from a terribly fearful dog who bit us. We often wondered if Murray would have ever been adopted out again with a three home bite history. Stick with it. Three years later, we are so glad we did. Good luck with Bear.

[krissy]

As to "nightmares," I don't know that George's loud and vigorous dreams are BAD dreams, or just exciting ones! I often wonder, but it seems to me as if he's reliving his prior life, races and all! He makes 10x more noise asleep than when awake!

 

We've been fortunate that Summit has never had sleep aggression while we've had him. But he was off the track for 2 years in a home before we got him, so maybe he worked it out. He does have LOTS of noisy dreams though. He twitches and runs in his sleep and he makes muffled barking sounds as well. He is definitely louder asleep than awake. He almost never makes a sound during his waking hours, but when he naps or at night when he sleeps he usually has one episode of running and barking.

 

I would agree with crating him at night and just not touching him when he's asleep while he settles in. He may very well improve, and if he doesn't then that may be the time to start thinking about desensitization.

[Guest greymaroon]

Maybe we could pick up this topic again?

 

Our pup (she's only 2 yrs old, actually) isn't sleep aggressive in general. She doesn't mind being touched while she is sleeping (I'm always petting her head, neck, chest, and belly while she sleeps), but she *definitely* minds being moved! I think, in fact, she wakes up with a growl/snap behavior when you touch and/or gently press her spine area, trying to get her to scoot over. It's really a pity, because we'd like to have her on our bed longer, but since we have to wake her fully before asking her to scoot over, we just have her sleep on her bed whenever it's our bedtime.

 

Any advice/experience to share?

 

Hey ma, I got the good spot!

[Guest Greyt_dog_lover]

Two things, first, new hounds (less than 6 months or so) do not get bed privileges. Secondly, if you are in Chicago, I guess you adopted from Greyhounds Only, if you did, call your foster parent, or adoption rep. If you dont feel comfortable with either, call the number that you should have programed into your phone for greyhound emergencies. The group is very proactive and supportive of all its adoptees. If you dont feel comfortable with any of those options, feel free to call me Six Three Zero, Seven Eight Three, Zero Five Zero Five. I do volunteer for GO so I can get the right person in your area to help. Also, regardless of if you adopted from GO or not, we are having our annual reunion on Saturday November 12 at the DuPage County Fairgrounds, come and bring your hound and have fun and ask questions. My name is Chad, I would love to meet you.

[Mike516]

Maybe we could pick up this topic again?

 

Our pup (she's only 2 yrs old, actually) isn't sleep aggressive in general. She doesn't mind being touched while she is sleeping (I'm always petting her head, neck, chest, and belly while she sleeps), but she *definitely* minds being moved! I think, in fact, she wakes up with a growl/snap behavior when you touch and/or gently press her spine area, trying to get her to scoot over. It's really a pity, because we'd like to have her on our bed longer, but since we have to wake her fully before asking her to scoot over, we just have her sleep on her bed whenever it's our bedtime.

 

Any advice/experience to share?

 

Same exact thing happened to my wife. She was reading in bed, dog next to her, and when she tried to move her over, we think she was sleeping, the dog turned and snapped in her face. She was made to get off the bed (the dog, not the wife) and she's slept on her dog bed on the floor ever since. She hasn't even tried to get back in the people bed. My wife would like her to get back in the bed but I think she's better off on the floor where she's just as happy and safer for everyone. We'll see where she's sleeping a few months from now

[Guest greymaroon]

Wow! With a dog bed like that, I wouldn't mind the floor, either! Lucky for me, my other half couldn't resist snuggling with the dog, either. So now, we've been taking a two-pronged approach: 1) throwing wadded up socks and small fluffy things at her while she's sleeping (and then smiling and laughing when she wakes up - it IS pretty funny), and 2) moving her even more. When we are all on the bed, we snuggle and move her into us, so she gets an even more comfy spot. When she is on the floor, we will go and move her to put a pillow under her head, or tuck a blanket around her, etc. She seems to be responding pretty well. So far so good....

 

Maybe we could pick up this topic again?

 

Our pup (she's only 2 yrs old, actually) isn't sleep aggressive in general. She doesn't mind being touched while she is sleeping (I'm always petting her head, neck, chest, and belly while she sleeps), but she *definitely* minds being moved! I think, in fact, she wakes up with a growl/snap behavior when you touch and/or gently press her spine area, trying to get her to scoot over. It's really a pity, because we'd like to have her on our bed longer, but since we have to wake her fully before asking her to scoot over, we just have her sleep on her bed whenever it's our bedtime.

 

Any advice/experience to share?

 

Same exact thing happened to my wife. She was reading in bed, dog next to her, and when she tried to move her over, we think she was sleeping, the dog turned and snapped in her face. She was made to get off the bed (the dog, not the wife) and she's slept on her dog bed on the floor ever since. She hasn't even tried to get back in the people bed. My wife would like her to get back in the bed but I think she's better off on the floor where she's just as happy and safer for everyone. We'll see where she's sleeping a few months from now

[Guest BrianRke]

Frank would do the same thing if I tried to move him, luckily he goes to the exact same spot on the bed every night and doesnt move. Daytona on the other hand, manages during the night, to position himself in very bad spots. He has never shown any sleep/space aggression. I put both arms under him and move him like a sack of sand and he never even flinches. I swear you could do anything to this dog. He is such a sweetheart.