phantom growling carin terrier

Question
Hello, I recently purchased a carin terrier from a pet store. He is 4 months old. During the day he exhibits what I know as normal puppy behavior, he is hyper but I understand that to be normal terrier behavior and with exercise he calms down. My problem is that for whatever reason during the night he has started shadow growling where he becomes incredibly defensize and scared at nothing. He will go on shorts bursts of this behavior all throughout the night as if he was in a trance. He bit my girlfriend during one of his fits last night and we are very concerned about what to do? Some background information that confuses me on the subject it that the first week that we had him he did not have this problem. we would crate him during the night where he would bark then calm down and be fine and we would wake every few hours to take him to the bathroom. I don't know if we let him spend too much time out of his crate and he has a phobia to it? One other side note is that it seemed like this started when a bone fell out of his reach in the crate and he was growling at the bone possibly. Alright I apologize for the long explanation but I am desperate and want to explain the problem well. Help!

Thank you

Answer
Cameron -

I want to give you my best advice on the current problem, and then give you some information for the future.  I do not, however, think I can be sure what's happening without seeing it happen in person (This factor makes helping people online really hard)

I suspect he would feel safer in his crate at night. So many dogs like their crate as their own personal space - Think of it as a den.

On the other hand, I would ask that you have his sight checked by your vet right away.  He is clearly acting out of fear, and we need to rule out any health problems.

I suspect that this may be a health issue, but I also suspect that he would feel safer in his crate. He's still a little baby and the world is a darned big and scarey place for him.

Now for the bad news.  As a pet store puppy, odds are 1,000 to 1 that he is a puppymill dog no matter what the store told you.  These dogs are essentially bred in factory dog farms, with very very little or no concern for quality of breeding, avoiding congenital problems or screening for health problems in the puppies (let alone any vet care for the adult dogs).

I strongly recommend routine vet care with your vet keeping an eye out for relatively common health problems - Though they show up in their adult lives.

1.   Skin and coat problems (this can usually be avoided by feeding dry kibble that has no corn, no wheat and no soy in it).

2.  Patella problems (knee caps in the hind legs that float out of place)

3. OM - Occular melanosis. This disease has a symptom of dark coloring in the white of the dog's eye and results in gradual blindness.

4.  Dry eye.  This can usually be managed with drops, but is very painful and can cause blindness.

I also strongly recommend an obedience class as soon as he is old enough. Cairns can be a challenging breed, so training can make everyone's life easier.  Please read the following as well:

http://www.cairnrescue.com/general/index.htm#toto

I sure hope you can figure out what's going on with the little bugger. I'm truly sorry I didn't have any definitive answers for you.  

-Beth