Choya generally sleeps through the night fine, in her 45-minute cycles. She doesn’t usually bother us even when she wakes. But a dog will have phases for everything. And of late, she can't sleep or rest through the night anymore because she's anxious.
For a normally independent Shiba-ken, this girl has been strangely sticky to me this year, after she recovered from her ripped belly. 'Miss 黏黏', I call her. It's great for recall and such, but it doesn't help with much else. Choya doesn't have separation anxiety, thankfully. She has noise and storm phobia. The past few weeks of thunderstorms have conditioned her to panic at the slightest low rumble, thinking that thunder is going to roll soon. In the day, she manages fine. She seeks out her safe spots and hides. (Place training.) In the nights, she looks to me for comfort.
When I realized that she was in full panic mode after being triggered by loud and amplified sounds in the night that don't cause her anxiety in the day, I knew I needed to desensitize her again. I can't have her panicking each time the upstairs neighbors drop a dumbbell, a book or whatever, slams a door or closes a cupboard too fast and it slams hard. How each owner does this conditioning and desensitization, is entirely their choice. You'd have to know your dog; and do what works for you and your floof.
The problem with Choya — when she panics in the night, she jumps up onto our bed and stomps on our faces. She can't rest if we're asleep. It's almost as if she's telling us to wake up because 'The end of the world is nigh!' Well, it is, but not just yet. It's impossible to sleep unless I take her out to the living room where she calms down, and I sleep out there with her. It isn't sufficient that I sleep on the floor in the bedroom. She continues stomping on the man. We’ll have to both wake up then.
Dogs are polyphasic sleepers. Humans are not. The man has a touch of insomnia. Once woken up, it's virtually impossible for him to fall back asleep. I love my sleep. But I can be woken up if the dog needs me, and I can fall back asleep fairly quickly. So I took the duty of comforting the dog if she's scared in the nights. I just hate to be be woken up five times a night. That is no sleep at all. And I refuse to be trained by the dog to go sleep in the living room every night. That's bollocks.
Turned on the music, one AC unit and a fan for her. She was indignant and whined for two minutes. But because her music room safe spot was open, as well as access to the wider space, she was quiet for hours. She seemed fine. No extended whining, no pawing at the door, no scratching on the floor till her nails bleed, no nothing. (I dunno; I don't have dog-cams installed, and I don't intend to do so unless there's a very good reason.)
That was the best night of sleep I've had in a week. A good long stretch till 5.15am when the storm rolled in. Then the dog really panicked, whined and pawed the door. In my haze, I thought I heard 'Momma! Please come out!' I woke up, and went out to comfort her. This would be when she really needed me, and while I'll be damn sian, I never begrudge her for that. I put on her ThunderShirt, shifted the armchair into a flat bed, and slept with her resting underneath the chair.
I'm trying to train her to not jump on the bed to stomp on us. Tapping me awake is okay, coming up to sit with us while we sleep is okay, so is walking around. She is not to scratch our eyes out or stomp on us. NO. So now, the strategy is, if she panics from everything else but the thunderstorm, she gets thrown out of the bedroom. And I wouldn't go outside to sleep just to be with her for 'nothing'. She'll learn to manage. And she has. So we'll repeat this training again and again and again for as long as she needs it. Consistency is key. She needs to understand that there isn't a follow-up to some sounds. I can't teach her to sleep. I can only provide her with safe spaces and teach her how to manage her fears.
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