Panting heavily at bedtime.

[summergirl]

Hello folks,
We have a 17 week old female rottie. Something strange started happening at bedtime. She sleeps in a crate in our room at night. She has been very good at night and would usually whine and sqirm around if she had to go out. However, for about a week now when we put her in her cage at night she begins to pant heavily and seems to be very "anxious". It seems she has alot of energy all of the sudden and wants to play at 2 3 4 am. We are trying to gradually put her to bed by playing with her in the bedroom and not closing her cage door letting her roam freely in our bedroom (while we're there). It seems now that she is panting heavily when we get to our bedroom. We have a larger crate in the basement which we use when we leave for the day and she appears to be calm in the basement cage. I try to take her for long walk after dinner. We also recently change her food from IAMS to Innova. I should also mention that she seems alot thirstier at night. To describe it better you know how your dog looks when its in the car with the panting and such, thats how it is at bedtime.

[spidey]

How often do you feed her? It may be that her stomach is empty and she's feeling a bit nauseous because of it.

Is she okay in the smaller crate at other times of the day? Dogs do get claustrophobia, so it could also be stress-related panting. I might try bringing the bigger crate up and seeing if that helps.

[summergirl]

We feed her twice a day once between 3am and 5am and then between 5pm and 7pm. Usually 1 1/2 cups at both feedings. During the 2nd feeding we usually get some obed. training in and use the Innova snacks for that purpose up until bedtime 10pm. She is getting a little big for the bedroom cage. Shes about 45-50 lbs now. Thanks for the advise. Will move the bigger crate upstairs.