Sleepless and frustrated. (AKA Connor, WHY?)

[Marvel_ous]

Connor sleeps in my room, as many of you guys know. Me and my family would prefer it to stay that way, but recently he's been testing my limits, and I'm considering booting him to downstairs. Why? EVERY SINGLE NIGHT he paces and whines for AT LEAST an hour after I finish reading. He pants like a steam engine, too, and is always shoving at the door when I go over to open it.
He only does this at night, in my room. He's not hungry, he's not thirsty, doesn't need to go out, he has me right there, and yet he still paces, whines, and pants worse than he does any other part of the day. I've been trying to ignore it, but it just gets worse every night. He's perfectly healthy, a vet confirmed that soon before he started this. He has a touch of separation anxiety, but he's right near me, albeit not on my bed. I'm losing sleep and confused. Anyone have any idea what's causing this?

Oh, great. He just added jumping up and scratching my bedroom door to the mix. HELP! I'm willing to move him downstairs, but only as a last option. He still does it downstairs, we just can't hear him then.

 

[Shezbug]

Sounds very much like he does not want to be locked in your room to me. My dog has separation anxiety and he will behave like that if he is locked in a room he does not want to be in.
Have you tried opening the door and seeing what it is he is trying to tell you?

 

[Marvel_ous]

I haven't! However, he's not allowed full range of the house yet, due to him having a tendency to destroy the most random things, but maybe if I gate off the stairs and close the doors to my sisters' rooms... He finally fell asleep, I'll try it tomorrow night! Gonna grab some sleep now, see everyone tomorrow.

 

[finchly]

My dog does that. From dinner to bedtime she whines, paces, adn beats on things. Sorry! I have no idea how to help.

 

[taxidermynerd]

If I shut my dog in my room she'll pace and cry until I let her out of my room, back into the rest of the house. That could be it?

 

[melissasparrots]

Take him for a mile long jog before you go to bed (preferably before you feed him a big meal to avoid bloat). You could also give his brain something to work on. Drag a toy around in the back yard and hide it some place. Give him a chance to track it. Do some obedience training. Mental and physical energy do wonders to fix behavior problems. It could also just be that he wants the door open to check on where everyone in the family is. Perhaps don't close your door until you are actually ready to sleep, so he can get some pacing out of the way and be satisfied that he knows where his whole family is for the night.

 

[hrafn]

I used to have a great big mutt with extreme anxiety, and he hated being locked in a room, even if I was in there with him. Oftentimes if I opened the door, he'd stay in the room with me anyway. The closed door itself was the trigger for his panic.

Maybe if you put the gate in your open doorway, he'd be okay? He can see through the gate, and it's less like being trapped.

 

[Marvel_ous]

Thanks for all your advice! I’ll try the gate tactic, and letting him see where the family is! If that doesn’t resolve the issues, I’ll try wearing him out.