He never did it before then.. Now he does it whenever you pay him attention or he moves around. It sounds like he is trying to cough something up but there is nothing there? Should we take him in or wait a little longer. Today is day 2 1/2. He was the new guy even though he was older when we rescued him only like 3 months ago. We already had 2 females when he got here so this is just really confusing me and I am afraid of him really being sick and infected my other girls...

Where did you rescue him from? You need to take him to the vet. I rescued a dog from the pound that did the same thing. Had to put her down because she had distemper.

That is so scary :( Now I am afraid for my other 2 girls that I have had here first :( I am going to take him in and have separated him. The crazy thing is it stops for hours and he is eating and drinking and loves outside still and doesn't do it at all out there. Only inside. How contagious is distemper?

Please understand that I am not diagnosing this as distemper. It could be something as simple as kennel cough or an allergy of sorts.

Before you panic, get him to the vet for a proper diagnosis.

Coughing is a symptom of a few different things, distemper being one, but as long as he was up to date with vaccines it shouldn't be the cause. I would lean towards kennel cough, but even a heart murmur will cause dogs to cough.

Your best bet would be for your vet to to take a look and see what's going on.