I totally know what you are talking about. My girl does this every now and then. I took her to the vet cause I just don't like to take chances and had all kinds of things done $$$$ and the vet said she wasn't sure but that she saw a small narrowing in the trachea. Anyways she gave me steroids to try and open up that slight narrowing. I know for a fact its not tracheal collapse. She still does it out of the blue every now and then.