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Hello. I have a three-year old unfettered male collie named Winston. He suffers from separation anxiety issues in general (when the family is away from home). We have made some progress in this area with crating, but still have a long way to go. However, an issue that has become a crisis for us is at night time. Winston used to sleep on the floor in our bedroom quite comfortably. However, about a month ago he began waking up in the night, around 2-3am, pacing and panting heavily. Sometimes he paws at our bed and tries to get on the bed (we never permit that, though our children permit him on their beds). If he gets on the children's beds in this state, he is not content merely to sleep on the bed, but he has to lay on top of them. The only thing that will calm him down is if one of us gets up and goes to a sofa with him. Then he calms down quickly and sleeps peacefully. This is nearly an every night phenomena and it is causing much stress and sleepless nights for us. We have a good trainer who has advised us to crate him overnight. However, when we do that he does not settle down, but stands the entire time panting and pawing at the crate pan and biting, bending the wire bars. He is so incredibly anxious and stressed. It doesn't seem like "terrors," but simply great anxiety. We really don't know what to do. Please, any thoughts or suggestions are most appreciated.
