I find Wallee growls and barks way more as it get dark. He actually started as the winter came on and it started to get dark on our walks. He would walk fine in the morning and growl and bark in the same walk at dusk. At night and in the morning, I have to make sure that when he is up, the room is lit or he will growl and bark at everything. He's the same way outside in the wind. I just assumed he was fearful.

How is her vision and hearing?

Our house is haunted. Jasmin will growl and bark for no reason. when we watch tv she will stand on top of couch to stare in the kitchen. One time,jasmin and I were home while DH was outside. She kept growling and growling at something in the hallway. I got scared. Anyways our house is weird. We hear noises. One time we heard soft music from basement, knocks on back door at 2 in the morning. I saw shadow in hallway once and thought it was DH. We hear jasmin's toys when we are showering and she is in there with us with no toys.

Mia barks at nothing too. Sometimes growls but mostly barks. Last night my boyfriend brought a new coat home and hung it on the chair. Well Mia barked at it many times then would run to a different room, then run out and bark at it again! I reassured her that it was ok and she chilled out. Then when we were going to bed she kept stairing at the alarm clock and would bark when it would change! Oh puppies!

Theme music from a horror movie....It could be practice barking, or maybe she heard some sound you can't hear or sees some thing you can't see, feels something you can't feel or some faraway smell you can't smell. This behavior is pretty common in young pups. I would stay calm and after 3 warning barks give a cue word for her to be quiet (we use Enough). If you become nervous she will sense this too. Now that I gave you sensible advice, I can stop typing and rub my goose bumps !

I was so thinking spirits too. My cats watch them all the time. Oh by the way yes my house has spirits. It is built in 1784. And it has been continually occupied since then.:cool:

Long ago when I was in my early twenties I lived in a place that had weird sounds and movement of various objects. It is real. It was one of the few times in my life that I did not have an animal so I don't really know how they react to such places.

I have enough with Gracie barking at real things like cats and her toys! I'm glad she hasn't found any invisible beings to bark at!

Oh man, you guys are scaring me lol. I got some sage and will be burning it to try and clear the house of spirits.

LOL. Not spirits. People and critters all grow tenser and more alert and watchful after dark out of instinct. In the wild, canines and humans must preserve self and pack after dark when mountain lions, coyotes, fox and other predators hunt.

Terriers were bred to catch vermin and other nocturnal critters and they must therefore be more alert after dark when those animals are active. Our dogs sense our tenseness when we hear an unusual sound after dark -one not nearly so ominous when it happens during the day - and after this happens a couple of times, it becomes a patten of tension the dog picks up on and learns. He responds and becomes tenser. He begins to subtly connect that this usually happens after darkness. All canines tend to be more unsure after dark, when shadows loom and their vision isn't quite as sure and they tend to go more on what they smell and movement that they can see. They have far more light receptor rods which pick up motion/movement and larger pupils that let in more light so they see better than we do but even their vision isn't quite as good after dark. So they are necessarily more alert when one of their senses is a bit diminished. And if the dog is suffering any loss of vision at all with age or illness, night will increase that problem. And you get a tenser dog - a dog ready to growl and alert.

So take their canine instincts to be alert after dark on top of the tension they sense from us at night, terrier heritage to hunt nocturnal critters, slightly diminished eyesight and you get protective and guarding type behavior.

During the day my Tibbe hardly ever has any reaction to subtle things going on outside. After dark, he will alert to people coming and going near our property, neighborhood cats out and about and even wind, house-creaking, etc. He's a far different dog after dark and it is that instinct that makes a good watchdog.