Separation Anxiety (or any other type of anxiety)
Many dogs are overly attached to their owners and start whining when they get separated, hence the term separation anxiety.
You are not letting your pup sleep in the same bed with you? Whining starts.
Separation anxiety is a common problem and instead of opting for medications, you should start training right away if you notice symptoms.
Separation isn’t the only reason for late-night whimpering, but also any other trigger (ex. storms) that makes your pet anxious and afraid.
Dogs can keep on whining and whimpering during the night throughout their whole lives if they haven’t been trained to stop.
Most dogs stop as they get older, but some don’t. Enrolling whimpery dogs in behavioral classes early on can put an end to the problem.
Other types of anxiety could also be the cause for why it seems like your dog’s whining at night for no reason. For example, if your dog is afraid of storms, she is likely to whine during storms and may also hide or become aggressive during this time as well.
If your dog is an adult and has just started whining a lot more than she used to, be sure to schedule a vet visit for the near future just to rule out potential health problems. There’s a chance she’s in pain, so take the time to find out for sure whether or not this is true of your dog before moving on to other possibilities.
This may be a problem your veterinarian can help you with as well, so schedule an appointment if you think stomach pain and digestive trouble may be the problem.
Sometimes, dogs become bloated or have upset stomachs due to eating food that doesn’t work for them, which could be the reason why it seems as though your dog whines at night for no reason. Feeding dogs low-quality food or ingredients that they are intolerant to or allergic to might cause this issue. Dogs who eat too quickly may also develop bloating and can become very sick with other ailments related to digestion as well.
You may want to enroll your dog in a behavioral class so the two of you can work together on this issue. You might also consider hiring a dog trainer to focus solely on the whining problem and work one-on-one to solve the problem instead. Either way, more training may be the solution.
What is Dog Whining?
Before you can understand why dogs whine at night, you must first understand what dog whining is.
Dog whining is a dog’s distinct attempt to communicate with its owner. This could be about an unmet need or something that makes them restless. It is a repetitive, high-pitched nasal sound that they release with their mouths closed.
Sick or injured dogs will exaggerate this sound to a yelp or whimper, but dogs who are simply trying to convey something will do it just loud and persistently enough to catch your attention as though they are trying to speak with you but in a foreign language.
Before you can deal with them, you have to understand what they need entirely. You might be asking, “why does my dog whine at night?”. While most dogs whine at the silliest things, there are several other reasons why they do that. Here are some of them:
14 Signs Your Dog Doesn’t Love You (Even if You Think They Do)
Pet parents are usually the first to admit that the canine members of the family act a lot like the human ones. “Talking” during sleep is one common characteristic dogs share with humans. If you hear your dog crying or making other noises in his sleep, youve likely caught him dreaming about something that happened earlier that day or about things dogs typically do.
Theres a saying that goes, “Let sleeping dogs lie.” Chaucer was the first to use this phrase, all the way back in the year 1380. Even then, people realized that a dog could be unpredictable when they are suddenly disturbed or awakened. A dog that is deep in slumber enough to be crying or whimpering in her sleep is very deeply asleep. Interrupting your dog when she is sleeping this deeply could startle her so much that she might unintentionally bite you.
Dogs need a lot of sleep. Its not unusual for a dog to spend half the day sleeping. Puppies and older dogs will sleep even more than this. The phases of dog sleep cycles are very similar to the sleep cycles humans experience, and that includes the rapid eye movement cycle, or REM sleep, when dreaming occurs.
Dogs experience two phases of sleep in a complete cycle: the slow-wave phase and the REM phase. The slow-wave cycle begins as soon as your dog falls asleep and lasts for 10 to 20 minutes. This is followed by the REM cycle. If your dog cries or whimpers while sleeping, it is likely during the REM cycle, when your dog is most deeply asleep.
The length of this complete REM cycle can last 30 to 45 minutes and depends on the dogs size and how old he is. Larger dogs typically dream for approximately five minutes every 45 minutes while smaller dogs only dream for a minute or less every 10 minutes. During peak brain activity during the dream cycle, your dog may cry, whimper, or growl in his sleep.
If you notice that your dog cries while sleeping, dont worry too much that its a nightmare you need to rescue your dog from. While we cant know for sure what dogs dream about, its likely that they dream about doggy things and not necessarily the scary dreams that humans have. That said, according to the AKC, its best to “let sleeping dogs lie” in this case.
All animals need uninterrupted sleep for healthy mental activity, and if your dog is having a scary dream, waking them could result in an unintended bite, or at the least, stress that your dog doesnt need. The AKC suggests gently calling your dogs name, until she wakes up on her own. If she wants to go back to sleep, give her a few pets to soothe her.
During the REM phase, you might notice your dog whimper, cry, or make other noises. You might see their eyes moving behind their eyelids or their whiskers twitching. Other common signs your dog is dreaming is irregular breathing or their legs trembling and moving. Sometimes, a few of these things will happen at the same time.
A dog having a seizure is different than a dreaming dog. According to the AKC, movements during dreams may look uncontrolled, but a seizure may appear even more uncontrolled. A grand mal seizure appears as thrashing or tremors over a dogs entire body. Petit mal seizures may affect just a portion of the body.
Most dogs have a seizure while awake or shortly after waking up but this can happen while a dog is asleep. Normal movement during dreaming may be twitching, kicking, or paddling their legs. These movements typically only last about 30 seconds or less. Movements of a dog having a seizure will be more severe and last longer.
A rare disorder called REM Sleep Behavior Disorder could be responsible for you asking yourself, “Why does my dog cry while sleeping?” This disorder causes a dog to think of its dreams as reality. So when your dog dreams of chasing a rabbit. or squirrel and starts to move her legs, her body typically is in a sleep state so the muscles dont react as if she is actually running.
With this disorder, however, this sleep state that keeps your dogs movements under control doesnt happen. REM Sleep Behavior Disorder leaves them literally acting out what theyre experiencing in their dreams. Your dog may behave almost as if she is awake, and move suddenly, bump into things, bark or cry.