Help! My Puppy Woke Up From A Nap And Was Very Aggressive And Afraid!?
Filed under Care & Training Q&As
I have a 13 week old cockapoo puppy who woke up from a nap late last night and totally panicked. I was standing about 6 feet away from him when he woke up with a start, and ran to the corner of our bedroom alternating between blood curtailing screams and growls directed at me. He also smeared a bit of poop over the pillows as he ran. It took him about 20 seconds to calm down, and then it was like a light went on in his head. He abruptly stopped screaming, and came running towards me shaking. He then hid under my legs for about 10 minutes. I tried to go to sleep about half an hour later, but he refused to lie down. It was as if he was on guard. We were up for at least 3 hours trying to get him to relax. Before last night we had never had a problem with him going to sleep.
He is the sweetest puppy normally, but last night I was truly afraid he was going to bite me. This happened once before, but to a much lesser extent. He woke up from a nap and screamed, but it only took a few seconds for him to calm down and come cuddle me. I don’t normally have a problem waking him up from naps. I call his name and he opens his eyes, tail wagging, and wants to snuggle. I have only used positive reinforcement to train him, and he is very cuddly with me normally, so I know he isn’t actually afraid of me. It seems like he forgets who I am…
Has anyone had any experience with this type of behaviour? Is it possible he is just having really bad dreams and he will grow out of it? I am at a total loss as to what my next step should be and could really use some advice!
Thanks so much, BP
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it could be that he had a bad dream…or was not fully awake when he was running around like a crazy dog..I would tho watch him..he has spanial in him and they do have sometimes some phycolagical problems at times. If he continues this I would suggest to take him to a vet. I mean if he starts doing this every other time or so. He could also be having some sort of seizure…but do not panick yet…give him a chance to grow up.
Good Luck
He probably had a nightmare. Maybe the pet store where you got him from treated him very badly so he has recurring nightmares. Probably the longer you keep him and show him that you love him, the less likely he’ll have these nightmares.
A nightmare, the same thing happened to my dog when she was a puppy. I just went to pick her up b/c she was yelping and she snapped at me, after that she was ok though, she was just scared. I’m sure your pup will be fine =)
Probably had a nightmare
Did you get him from a shelter or a pet store? If it was a pet store its likely he came from a puppy mill, which is a scary expierence for everyone!
Obviously, he had a nightmare.
I recommend having him sleep next to you.
Atleast if he wakes up, your next to him and he wont freak.
Or hopefully he wont use your face as a pilllow…
too long, didn’t read.
he probably had a nightmare though
At first I thought he might have had a nightmare, but instead i am thinking that something that only he could see and hear scared him and work him up. It could have been his own guardian angel or it could have been something not of this world. It has been proven that dogs and cats can see entities. And maybe he wasn’t growling directly at you but at something that he thought my hurt you that was very close to you and that is why it looked like he was growling at you to scare it away. But when he started acting more like himself again could have been when whatever it was went away. I think that he was afraid that whatever it was that he might have scared off was going to come back that is why he was so skiddish and why it took so long for you to get him to calm down enough to actually go to sleep. As far as I know dogs don’t grow out if seeing things that we humans can’t but I would get some holy water and say that only good and loving thoughts are allowed in the room and ask for Archangel Micheal to protect your and your puppy and not to let anything evil into you space and ask for the white like to glow on you. Good luck.