Over the past two months, our puppy (almost 11 months) seems to have become anxious right at bed time. He will be sound asleep in our living room or our bedroom, and shortly before or right after lights out, he starts to get worked up and starts digging at the floor in certain areas in our bedroom. I usually take him out of the room so that my husband can sleep and try to settle him down in our living room where I eventually fall asleep on the couch, however before he settles for me, he has picked spots in that room too. It's the weirdest thing. He just gets focused on these spots and digs and digs and digs...or scratches at the moldings. I spoke to his vet about this last week and she said it appears to be anxiety. He doesn't do this every night, but it is starting to become more frequent. She suggested giving him a kong at bedtime to take his mind off of what's bothering him. We did that two nights ago with great success, but last night was a bust. For the record, he is walked twice a day, except on the two days in which he goes to daycare. Has anyone ever experienced anything like this? If so, what helps? Is this common with puppies?

If you let it progress, I mean let him dig for a bit, does he eventually lay down in the exact spot he was digging?

The reason I ask is it reads as if he is trying to den for the night.... My 2nd Chow would do this until it was content and then drop down and pass out. Always in the spot he was digging.

That being said that Chow was a nut.... Never had a dog that would bite it's own nails before him.


Does Qannik have a doggy bed? If he does does he actually use it?
Normally once they have a bed and use it they begin to understand it's purpose and refrain from denning on it except from maybe two or three paw passes before they plop down.


A designated sleep area was the only way we could stop it with the chow; in our case the sofa. If he slept there he didn't do it and it required about a week to get him to understand it was now ok for him to be up there.


If it really is Denning you could also try simulating one for him... They sell doggy beds that have covers to simulate dens, but you could also just make one yourself if you're semi handy. If you don;t want to use his crate for what ever reason; lining an old box with comfortable material that is big enough should pretty much do it, and a cover over I would think could do the trick. People make them out of EVERYTHING.

DIY Dog den



I really don't believe this is a case of too much energy as he is sleeping beside you right before you go to bed.


The ONLY other thing I can think of is he is scared or nervous of the dark.... It sounds funny but they can be... It is a neuroses but it can happen. When lights go out some dogs will act really off. A night light or a light that shines into the room slightly may help?

Service and Search dogs are failed at times because they will not preform as well as they do in Dark rooms as lit ones. Though this is sometimes related to vision, others it is truly because of a neuroses of dark or unlit areas.

Maybe someone else can offer some better information or can see something I missed... I just don't see what else could cause that behavior specifically and only at bed time.

~Chris~

I wasn't sure until I read Chris' reply. Denning sounds possible. The way you describe it sounds just like what my Chi does. He can literally dig for a half hour before he settles down. The only places he doesn't dig are in the soft-sided, mostly covered kennel and in his little "cave" he's made out of the bottom shelf of my desk. I can see how that resembles a desk. The back is the wall, to the side is my dresser and there's usually plenty of stuff piled up in front of it as well. He digs in his crate but it's a wire crate so it doesn't have anything 'closing' it off and making it den like.

I think this definitely makes sense with a husky especially with the weather getting colder. Huskies used to dig out their sleeping spots in the snow. So maybe the weather change is waking up that instinct in him?

Like Chris suggested, I would think about giving him his own sort of 'den.' Even if you don't crate him, it might help to just leave the crate open and get a crate cover or something. I have seen beds with the cover, though I've only seen them for small dogs.

im with Chris, Jack does this every night, he does it on the bed to only jump down and do it to the one dog bed to then move to "his" dog bed and sleep. its like he is prepping our bed for us then over to sierras bed then to his, its really cute. he only does it for a short time each though.

Mya does this too! She goes crazy digging on our bed and then on her bed. It's not every night, but she does it often. Mya does have anxiety, but I'm not sure if the two are connected. She's always dug in her bed, our bed, the couch and then just plops down a few minutes later.

Thanks for all the input. Chris, Qannik does have a bed and he loves it he's been using it since May without any issues. He sleeps on it every night (once he actually settles down that is). We don't let him keep digging because we don't want him to ruin the wood floors, and it's incredibly irritating! Sucks when you are exhausted and just want to sleep. Sometimes he will dig on his bed or on the couch too. I can handle that much more than the noise of him digging on the floor. We wondered the same thing about denning and are thinking of putting his crate back up so that we could cover it and see if he finds the space more comforting for him. I'm also going to try some soothing noises...might buy a sound machine, although our trainer told of us some free apps we could download. There seems to be a slight connection with timing of the start of this behavior and when we took the air conditioner out of the room so I'm wondering if that might help. Thanks again everyone! Love my little Q, but boy is it hard to figure him out some days!

I had an airdale that would do this in his kennel! He would 'dig' at the entrance of the kennel for about 3-5 minutes, then turn around a few times and lay to sleep. He didn't have any anxiety though.

Let us know how the soothing noises work out. Good luck to you! Wood floors are expensive! You can get it refinished/sanded, but I would wait until he is done with the digging.

Biko awakens me several times a week with his night time digging. Some times just a few seconds other time I'd swear he's headed for China.

Mylo use to dig at night. Its just instinct to "fluff" up their bed even if it does change any thing.

Tika wrote:

That being said that Chow was a nut.... Never had a dog that would bite it's own nails before him.

Ezio does that too! IT IS SO WEIRD.