This is Star our 13 year old collie. Stars a wonderful loving dog and she's still relatively in good health. Recently we've seen a slight change in her behaviour and just wanted to see if anyone had been through something similar.
About 3-4 months ago star strated to bark very early in the morning. I work shifts and on my early shift I leave the house at 6.15am and will be up at 5.30 am.
It would start before I got up for work or around the same time. She's always let us know when she needs the toilet, so initially I would go down and let her out. Then I realised she'd mostly stand at the door and not go for a wee.
We'd also noticed when walking her she wasn't as quick to respond so thought her hearing might be going a little.
She did sleep downstairs with Milly our other dog. We decided to let Star come upstairs so she will sleep on the side of the bed. She also gets on the bed at times if I go to the loo during the night. She seems to find comfort that she's closer to us but sometimes my sleep will get disrupted.
She's definitely happier upstairs and doesn't bark now. I felt she maybe can't hear us and that might make her anxious but just guessing.
It's not really a massive problem and we're planning on getting the vet to check her over but wondered if any of my fellow dog lovers had experienced anything similar with their lovely companions. I'd be interested in anyone sharing their thoughts.