Wakes me up in the night

[smithy]

We settle at about 10/11pm. He goes down to bed and all is good. Then once or twice during the night until about 8am he will get up, walk around, shake (kind of shake his head so his ears flap about, like a dog coming inside from the rain - he always does that). It's super loud and always wakes me up, and after a few weeks it's getting annoying. I think there's probably nothing I can do to solve this, but I thought I'd check to see.

[BatterseaBrindl]

Is he cold? Hot?

Does he have to go potty?

Perhaps a noise outside woke him up? 

I don’t think this is excessive if this is only happening once or twice during a very long —- 10 pm to 8am = 10 hours. —- night. 

[macoduck]

How long have you had him?

[Jerilyn]

Do you sleep soundly all night in one position? No, can't expect the dog to either. This is normal. If two ear flaps during the night is annoying, I wonder how you will handle the real issues of having a dog. 

[ShebasMom]

Sheba does this too. Just changing positions like we do then back to sleep. The shaking is totally normal. I just go with the flow because that's the way it is.

[FiveRoooooers]

3 hours ago, Jerilyn said:

Do you sleep soundly all night in one position? No, can't expect the dog to either. This is normal. If two ear flaps during the night is annoying, I wonder how you will handle the real issues of having a dog. 

This is what I was thinking.

Ear flapping is annoying? Let’s not mention the shedding and barking, both of which our hounds actually do, contrary to the myths  Helping with gardening, uncovering the couch covers, nesting, oh it’s a strange breed we love lol. We’d have it no other way 

Edited June 29, 2021 by FiveRoooooers

[zimsmom]

Sounds normal to me.  Zim used to nest like crazy a few times per night.  Maya used to moan loudly whenever she got up or laid down.  Used to make me laugh. 

[Houndtime]

Wear ear plugs.  If you are like me, an extremely light sleeper, invest in Bose.  They make a sound machine with ear plugs that uses an ap on your phone.  I don't even hear thunderstorms, or my husband snoring.  PS.  Dog noise never bothered me.

[MerseyGrey]

4 hours ago, FiveRoooooers said:

This is what I was thinking.

Ear flapping is annoying? Let’s not mention the shedding and barking, both of which our hounds actually do, contrary to the myths  Helping with gardening, uncovering the couch covers, nesting, oh it’s a strange breed we love lol. We’d have it no other way 

 

5 hours ago, Jerilyn said:

Do you sleep soundly all night in one position? No, can't expect the dog to either. This is normal. If two ear flaps during the night is annoying, I wonder how you will handle the real issues of having a dog. 

Smithy probably meets up with his greyhound buddies and says ‘you’ll never believe the noises that come out of this guy during the night…’. Our dog doesn’t sleep in our room with us but we can still hear the midnight flapattack, but it’s one of the many endearing things he does. Sorry it’s not much help to you, but there’s no way I’d ever want to stop him from flapping!

[HeyRunDog]

19 hours ago, smithy said:

We settle at about 10/11pm. He goes down to bed and all is good. Then once or twice during the night until about 8am he will get up, walk around, shake (kind of shake his head so his ears flap about, like a dog coming inside from the rain - he always does that). It's super loud and always wakes me up, and after a few weeks it's getting annoying. I think there's probably nothing I can do to solve this, but I thought I'd check to see.

I think he's just having a stretch and changing position and unfortunately there is nothing you can do about it apart to learn to love this bit of his behaviour. Failing that will he sleep either downstairs or in another room?

Grace sleeps downstairs which she is probably glad to as I have to change position frequently, put the light on to read at various times in the night, go for a pee (I'm at that age )and if my rheumatoid arthritis is really playing up, get a glass of water and take some painkillers. She would be complaining about me on Human Talk.

[smithy]

Thanks for all the replies! I was trying to not make it not sound too bad but it's multiple times during the night - last night it was 1am, 3am, 3.30am, and again at 6am. I know there's worse problems to have, and I even said there's likely nothing I can do about it, but I wanted to see if there was something I was maybe doing wrong. In terms of handling the real issues, we've overcome a huge amount and at the moment we're battling an immense prey drive and a fear of other dogs. The sleep issue is tricky because it wakes me up every single night multiple times and it seems like that's just how it is.

[FiveRoooooers]

Does the head shaking also happen during the day? Have you carefully checked his ears for any debris? He may also have something lodged further down in the ear canal. 

[LBass]

Since his behavior seems pretty normal, but disturbs your sleep, I'd second the notion of investing in some comfortable earplugs.  Sleep is important, so sure.  

[mansbestfriend]

Ditto. 

Maybe ask a vet to check your dog for some irritation. Is the bedding free of mites, fleas, whatever, mosquitoes, bugs, and clean?