Dogs Waking Light Sleepers

[Aggie_Ama]

My parents keep our dogs Jens and Heidi when we travel, my parents also have a miniature schnauzer that is a year old like Jens. When they are together my parents found kenneling Jens and their little guy Harley together at night keeps them from whining. The problem is they don't sleep all night. Jens kennels at home, no problems and sleeps/stays quiet a good 8 hours until he asks to potty. We think though based on his napping he gets up to move into a new position fairly regularly, he does not stay in one place long! My parents dog Harley sleeps through the night as well.

When they are together they don't make it 3 hours. Jens does have a bit of an OCD habit of trotting in circles but he never otherwise acts overly anxious. What we think happens is Jens gets up to move and then Harley barks (he is a barker and this is what he does to Jens when they're awake). My father is a super light sleeper and wakes up almost immediately and will not go back to sleep. My mother and I discussed giving both Jens and Harley something calming at night. Anyone have something they find works? I don't really want to give them tranquilizers, I was thinking when I need to relax I used lavender lotion or drink a calming tea, isn't there a similar plan for dogs?

[OakLeaf]

I've had reasonably good luck with the calming pheromone. http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produc...fm?pcatid=8907

Honestly I'm convinced it works on people too, and that half of the effect was that it chilled ME out so the dogs being stressed out didn't freak me out so badly. That could work in your parents' case too.