For the last few weeks now, my pup who has been sleeping soundly in his crate at night is now waking me up with whining and barking around midnight every night. When the whining starts, I get up to let him out to potty and he used to be pretty good about going right back into his crate and going back to bed. Lately though, he’s been needing some coaxing back into the crate and wants to stay outside and play. When I finally do get him back in his crate and get back in my bed, he’ll start whining a bit. I’ve tried waiting to see if the whining stops, but after a few seconds of whining, he’ll bark. Folks on here have said to not let him bark it out so I’ve gotten up each time to go to him and comfort him with a soothing voice and let him know it’s ok while he’s still in the crate. I’ll go back to my bed once he’s settled but it’ll happen a few times again and I’ll repeat the steps above until he settles and stops barking so I can sleep. At this point, I’m wide awake and I’ll wake up in the morning a zombie. Every night I go to bed dreading the midnight wake up. Any help to figure out why this is happening all of a sudden and how I can prevent it from happening?