I wonder if anyone has come across this behavior before.
Jill is an eleven yr old (just) Cocker Spaniel bitch, a working dog (part time), who recently retired. She had a season 2 months ago. She is very fit but a bit of arthritis is setting in on her left shoulder. Jill has taken to being nocturnal, she acts as usual during the day, still goes for walks (3-4 miles twice a day), eats her meals etc etc, but as soon as I go to bed she starts pacing about, breathing heavily, she will run up & down the stairs continuously, jump on & off my bed, collect shoes, towels, infact anything not tied down and pile them all on the bedroom floor. If I get up and sit with her she will go to sleep in a minute or two!!! she is obviously very tired, as soon as I get up she will have her breakfast then sleep soundly!!! I have tried everything, leaving the television on, leaving lights on, turned the heating off, turned the heating up, put the air conditioning on flat out so its cold, I have other dogs who sleep normally, she even does it if I take her to our weekend cottage!!! She has been checked by the vet who can find nothing, She's had, antibiotics, HRT, even Valium (which she fights) but to no avail. Any ideas would be greatly received.
Thanks
Chris

I'd imagine this has already been checked out, but - if her season was 2 months ago,  could it be a false pregnancy?  Has your vet suggested spaying her at all?  Our old ESS bitch had to be spayed at 11 years of age due to increasingly erratic behaviour.

I agree with  Benny..it does sound like a False Pregnancy..you don't say when the behaviour started? Try expressing her teats to see if she has milk..this can be an indication of FP . She sounds as if she is getting very anxious and 'nesting' and 'puppy hunting' classic signs of FP.  Many bitches seem to whelp at night..natures way I guess.. so this may fit in with the 'night' thing. You say the vet has checked her recently and given hormones? If  it is FP  and there is nothing else wrong I would try to ignore ithe behaviour and  it should be over soon, but a word of caution..one of my dogs frequently had FP, she had one aged nine and this was followed shortly after by pyometra which I spotted in time  so be on your guard. If it was me I would talk to the vet again and think of  having her speyed. :-)