Anxious Golden

Question
We have a 3 year old golden and we recently moved from a one story apartment to a two story home. Every night for the last few nights the dog begins whining around 2am on. We've woken up, taken him outside thinking he has an upset stomach, but nothing seems to be working. Is he simply anxious? What should we do?

Answer
Hey, Megan,

It sounds like your dog is having trouble adjusting to his new surroundings. When dogs get ready for bed they like to kind of know where everything is before nodding off. That's why they sometimes circle around a few times before lying down; it's an instinct designed to get a good sense of where everything is.
My feeling is that if you play with him a bit more, particularly outdoors, and particularly if you can get him to pay tug-of-war, let him win, and praise him for winning, he'll be more flexible emotionally, and as a result he'll have less trouble adjusting to his new surroundings. Play requires that a dog be emotionally flexible, it creates brain growth factors, and is simply the best means for not only tiring a dog out but also making him feel that he's using his natural predatory energy toward a group purpose, which is the basic reason wolves evolved a pack instinct in the first place--to enable them to hunt by working in harmony.
I'd also start feeding him all his meals outdoors, using the pushing exercise. Here are a couple of links that might help you guys move past this rough patch for your doggie: http://tinyurl.com/3balu6 (pushing exercise) http://www.tiny.cc/tug
One other thing I'd probably do, if he were my dog, is play games inside the house, particularly where he gets to chase me up and down the stairs. My feeling is that if you've moved to a space that now requires him to go up and down the stairs, where he didn't have to before, it might be helpful to turn it into a game.

I hope this helps!

LCK