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If your dog is pacing and cannot lie down at all — stands, tries, gets straight back up — and also has a swollen or hard belly, is retching without producing anything, is drooling heavily, or is breathing fast, go to an emergency vet now. A dog who physically cannot settle is different from one who will not, and bloat is the reason that distinction matters.
The short answer: a dog pacing at night is a dog who cannot get comfortable, cannot settle, or cannot work out where they are — and which of the three it is depends mostly on their age and on the shape of the pacing. In a young or adult dog it is usually anxiety, a need to go out, or not enough to do. In a dog over seven it is far more often pain (the most missed cause), cognitive change (sundowning), or anxiety that grows with failing senses. The fastest way to tell them apart is to watch where the pacing goes: a loop, a door, a bed they circle but never lie in, or you. This page walks through all of it, what to do tonight, and — because we make hemp for dogs — exactly where it does and does not belong.
Written by Marc Brannigan, Co-Founder & CEO of HempMy Pet. Last updated 13 October 2026.
Won't Lie Down or Can't Lie Down? The First Question
It sounds like a word game. It is the single most useful distinction on this page.
Lowers themselves, stops halfway, stands back up. Or lies down for seconds and is up again with a grunt. That is pain or a physical problem — joints, back, belly, chest. Tonight, check the belly; this week, see a vet.
Moves normally, could settle, keeps walking. That is the mind, not the body — anxiety, confusion, needing something, or boredom. The pacing shape below tells you which.
Common in old dogs. A dog with aching hips who is also disoriented in the dark paces for both reasons, and the hips are the part you can fix first. Treat the body, then re-assess the mind.
The Shape of the Pacing
Owners describe pacing as one thing. It is at least five, and they point in different directions.
| What the pacing looks like | What it usually means | The tell |
|---|---|---|
| The same loop, over and over — hallway, kitchen, back, repeat, at a steady walk | Cognitive change (sundowning) in a senior dog | Stares at walls, gets stuck in corners or behind doors, seems not to know you briefly. Peaks after dark. See sundowners in dogs. |
| To the door and back, or standing at a door | Needs to go out — bladder, bowel, or a urinary infection | Ends the moment they are let out. If it is every night and the urine is small and frequent, that is a vet visit. |
| Circling the bed, lying down, getting up, re-settling | Pain — most often joints, sometimes back or belly | Worst on rising; stiff first steps; slow to lower themselves. The most commonly missed cause in dogs over seven. |
| Following you, pacing when you move, settling when you do | Anxiety — a trigger, separation, or the rising night-time unease of a dog whose senses are fading | Tucked tail, flat ears, panting, trembling, drooling. Often a storm, fireworks, a new house, a change in the family. |
| Purposeful, energetic, looking for something to do | Boredom and under-exercise — a young or working-breed dog | Normal body language, not distressed. Collies, terriers and spaniels especially. Fixed by the day, not the night. |
A sixth to rule out: medication. Pacing that reliably begins 45 to 60 minutes after an evening dose of prednisone, trazodone or a pain drug is a timing or side-effect conversation with your vet, not a behaviour problem.
Pacing that ends at the door is the bladder. Pacing that ends when they finally lie down is the joints. Pacing that never ends and looks lost is the brain.
Why Senior Dogs Pace at Night
If your dog is over seven and the pacing is new, three causes account for most of it, and they stack.
Pain. Osteoarthritis affects a large majority of senior dogs, and dental disease is close behind. Dogs hide pain well by day because there is a lot to distract them; at night there is nothing, and a dog who cannot get comfortable walks instead. The tell is the rise — joint discomfort is worst in the first thirty seconds on their feet and eases as they move. Our guide to the early signs and five stages of arthritis covers what the consensus guideline recommends at each stage, and the first two stages are silent — which is exactly why night pacing is often the first thing owners notice.
Cognitive change. Canine cognitive dysfunction — the dog version of dementia — damages the brain's sleep–wake cycle, so the dog sleeps hard all day and is up after dark. Add fading eyesight and a dark house and you get the classic loop-pacing, wall-staring, stuck-in-corners picture. It is common and badly under-diagnosed: one survey put prevalence at 14.2% and the veterinary diagnosis rate at 1.9%. Cornell's Riney Canine Health Center has the clinical overview; the 2023 AAHA Senior Care Guidelines are explicit that it is a diagnosis of exclusion — pain, bladder and vision get ruled out first.
Anxiety. New phobias are common in older dogs, who feel more vulnerable as hearing and sight decline. A storm they slept through at six wakes them at twelve. And a dog who has started shadowing you at night may be telling you the house no longer feels safe in the dark. The AAHA guideline makes a point worth repeating: chronic pain contributes to anxiety, so the two get treated together.
The Eight Night-Time Causes in Old Dogs →
What to Do Tonight
In the order worth trying, once the emergency signs above are ruled out.
- Let them out. Even if they went an hour ago. If the pacing stops, you are done.
- Watch them lie down. Can they, or can't they? That one observation decides whether this is a vet problem or a comfort problem.
- Turn a light on. A low lamp or nightlight where they sleep and along the route to the water bowl. For a dog with fading eyesight, the dark is half the problem.
- Make the space smaller. A gated room or a pen, not a whole house to wander. Many confused or anxious dogs settle faster in a smaller area — but only if they are already comfortable with it. Do not introduce a crate for the first time to a dog in distress.
- Be boring. Low voice, normal behaviour. Anxious reassurance tells an anxious dog there is something to be anxious about.
- A small snack. An old dog on an early dinner can be hungry by 2 a.m.; if a biscuit ends it, move dinner later.
- Write it down. Time it started, the shape of the pacing, what ended it, how long. Three nights of that is worth more to your vet than any description.
Fixing It Beyond Tonight
The night plan is cheap and works for most of the non-medical causes. The medical ones need a vet, and it is worth knowing what they can actually do.
- Earn the sleep by day. Sunlight, a sniffy walk, gentle play, a puzzle feeder, an easy training refresher. A dog who has slept sixteen hours by day has no sleep drive left at night — and this is the entire fix for the bored young dog.
- Make the evening identical. Same dinner time, same calm walk, same last trip out, same bed. Dogs with cognitive change find predictability deeply reassuring.
- Lights on before dusk, on a timer, so there is no abrupt change to set an old dog off.
- Keep the furniture where it is and put runner rugs on hard floors. A rearranged room is a new maze; a slippery floor makes an old dog afraid to walk at night.
- Pain control, properly. If the pacing is the can't-lie-down kind, a vet pain plan often quiets the nights more than anything else on this list. Our gabapentin and carprofen guides cover the two most common prescriptions.
- Cognitive support. Selegiline is the only drug licensed for canine cognitive dysfunction and the AAHA guideline reports it effective in up to 70% of dogs; antioxidant and MCT-rich diets have the best nutritional evidence, especially combined with enrichment. Both are vet decisions.
- Anxiety support. The AAHA task force prefers trazodone and alprazolam for anxiety in these dogs because they act fast and clear fast; we wrote up trazodone's side-effect profile so the conversation is an informed one. Melatonin is widely used for the flipped sleep cycle — vet dose, xylitol-free product.
Where Hemp Fits — and Where It Doesn't
We sell hemp for dogs. Of the causes above, it belongs in two, and we would rather say which than imply it helps with all of them.
Joint discomfort is where the canine evidence actually sits: all five published trials in the 2023 systematic review were osteoarthritis trials, four of five positive, including our own 90-day university study. If your dog circles the bed and struggles to get comfortable, a joint-comfort plan is worth discussing with your vet, and full-spectrum hemp is a reasonable part of one.
Storm nights, fireworks, a house move. The canine evidence for stress is thinner than the industry implies — we say so in hemp and CBD for dog anxiety — but it is one legitimate tool among several, given 30 to 60 minutes ahead of a predictable trigger rather than once the pacing has started.
There is no published canine trial showing CBD improves cognitive dysfunction. Colorado State University is running a two-year randomized trial (TRAC) comparing CBD, trazodone and rapamycin for exactly this; no results are published and HempMy Pet has no involvement. Until that changes, the night plan and your vet's options are where the help is for loop-pacing.
If you do use it: serving works from body weight — the serving guide has the chart — and if your dog takes any medication, read what the canine research shows about combining them and talk to your vet first.
If it turns out to be the joints, this is where owners start
250mg Hemp Seed Oil
Up to about 40 lbs
$49
1,000mg Hemp Seed Oil
40 lbs and up
$99
Large Dog Hemp Treats
5mg each · pre-measured
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Grown on our own Colorado farm, third-party tested every batch, and the same full-spectrum extract used in our 90-day university trial. Serving by weight →
Side effects are mostly mild — drowsiness, loose stool, and a liver-enzyme change seen in three of the five published trials. Every published finding is in hemp and CBD side effects in dogs.
When to Call the Vet
Go now if:
- They cannot lie down at all and the belly is swollen or hard, or they are retching without producing anything
- Breathing is fast or laboured, or the gums are pale, blue or brick red
- The confusion arrived over hours, not weeks
- Collapse, severe weakness, or sudden blindness
Book an appointment this week if:
- The pacing has repeated for more than a few nights — bring the log
- It is the can't-lie-down kind, or they are stiff on rising and hesitant on stairs
- They are drinking or urinating more, or passing small amounts often
- They are getting stuck in corners, staring at walls, or not recognising you briefly
- It started after a new or changed medication
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is my senior dog pacing and won't lie down at night?
First check whether they can't or won't. A dog who tries to lie down and gets straight back up is in pain — joints most often, sometimes back or belly — and needs a vet this week, or tonight if the belly is swollen. A dog who could settle but keeps walking is anxious, confused, needs to go out, or is hungry. In a senior dog the three big causes are joint pain, cognitive change (sundowning) and anxiety that grows as sight and hearing fade, and they often overlap. Sort the pain first; it is the one you can fix fastest.
What does sundowning in dogs look like?
A senior dog who is mostly fine by day and unravels after dark: pacing the same loop, panting with no heat to explain it, whining or barking at nothing, staring at walls, getting stuck in corners or behind furniture, sleeping hard all day and wide awake at 2 a.m. It is the night-time face of canine cognitive dysfunction, it builds slowly over months, and it is a diagnosis of exclusion — pain, bladder problems and failing eyesight look almost identical after dark and get ruled out first.
Why is my dog pacing and not lying down?
Watch the attempt. If they lower themselves and stop, or lie for seconds and are up again, that is physical — pain in the joints or back, or something in the abdomen or chest that makes lying flat uncomfortable. If they move normally and simply keep walking, it is the mind: a need to go out, anxiety with a trigger, confusion in an older dog, or not enough to do in a younger one. The shape of the pacing — a loop, a door, the bed, or you — usually says which.
Why is my dog acting weird and restless at night?
"Weird" at night in an older dog is usually confusion — standing on the wrong side of a door, staring, not recognising you briefly — and that is sundowning until proven otherwise. In a younger dog it is more often anxiety with a trigger you have not spotted (a storm hours away, a new sound, a change in the house) or a bladder infection, which can make dogs restless and odd. If the strangeness appeared over hours rather than weeks, or comes with wobbliness, dilated pupils or drooling, treat it as a toxin or an emergency and go to a vet now.
Should I ignore my dog pacing at night?
No. Pacing is one of the most reliable signs that a dog is struggling with something — pain, fear, confusion, or a need — and it is also one of the most common early signs of cognitive change, which is badly under-diagnosed precisely because owners chalk it up to age. You do not need to fuss over the dog; you do need to work out the cause. Let them out, watch them lie down, keep a three-night log, and bring it to your vet if it continues.
Does CBD help a dog that paces at night?
It depends on why they are pacing. Hemp has canine evidence for joint discomfort — the can't-lie-down, circle-the-bed kind — and, more cautiously, for stress with an identifiable trigger. It has no published canine evidence for cognitive dysfunction, the loop-pacing kind; Colorado State University's TRAC trial is testing exactly that and has not reported. Work out the cause first, and if it is the joints, it is reasonable to add hemp and see whether the nights improve over a few weeks.
Can a dog pace at night from boredom?
Yes, and in a young or working-breed dog it is one of the most common causes. The pacing looks purposeful rather than distressed — a dog looking for something to do, with normal body language. The fix is the day, not the night: more exercise, a sniffy walk rather than a fast one, a puzzle feeder, a short training session. A tired dog sleeps.
How do I calm a dog pacing at night?
Let them out, turn a low light on, make the space smaller if they are already comfortable with that, and be boring — low voice, normal behaviour, no anxious reassurance. If it is a predictable trigger like a storm, any calming aid goes in ahead of time. If it is a confused senior dog, lights on before dusk, an identical evening routine, and more daytime activity do most of the work. If it is the can't-lie-down kind, nothing you do at 2 a.m. will fix it; that is a pain conversation with your vet this week.
The Short Version
A dog pacing at night cannot get comfortable, cannot settle, or cannot work out where they are. Ask first whether they can't lie down (pain — vet) or won't (mind — the night plan). Then read the shape: a loop is the brain, the door is the bladder, circling the bed is the joints, following you is fear, purposeful wandering is a bored young dog. Let them out, turn on a light, watch them lie down, write it down.
Hemp belongs in two of those — the joints, where the evidence is strongest, and trigger-based fear, where it is thinner — and not in the loop, until the trial that is testing it reports.
Hemp for Hip & Joint Mobility → Shop Calming Support
Old Dog Restless at Night · Sundowners in Dogs · Dog Panting at Night · Arthritis in Dogs · Serving by Weight
Marc co-founded HempMy Pet in 2016 with his wife Natalie, the company's COO. HempMy Pet breeds its own hemp genetics, grows them on its certified-organic Colorado farm, and formulates every batch in-house under human-grade standards — seed to sale, nothing sourced overseas. Every batch is third-party tested and the certificates of analysis are published. More about us.
HempMy Pet ran its own 90-day study of 37 dogs with chronic joint discomfort. Of the 32 that completed it, 30 (93%) showed a benefit, and 94% of owners reported their dog's quality of life had improved. It was overseen by Dr. Robin Downing, DVM, MS of the Downing Center for Animal Pain Management, with Lori Kogan, Ph.D. and Peter W. Hellyer, DVM of Colorado State University's College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, and published in the Journal of the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association. Read the methodology.
Why Dr. Downing: in 2005 she became only the third veterinarian in the world credentialed as a Diplomate of the American Academy of Pain Management. She founded the International Veterinary Academy of Pain Management, is a Diplomate of the ACVSMR, a Certified Veterinary Pain Practitioner and a Certified Canine Rehabilitation Practitioner, and was the AVMA's 2020 Bustad Companion Animal Veterinarian of the Year. Chronic joint pain is her life's work. Read the published paper (PDF).
This article is general information for dog owners, not veterinary advice. It is reviewed and updated as new peer-reviewed evidence is published, and where the evidence is thin or negative we say so.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. This article is general information, not veterinary advice. If your dog is unwell, contact your veterinarian.
