“Wake up before your dog, it’ll help them sleep in longer” yeah thanks now he wakes up at 4:45am

[libra111]

I’m so tired of being tired. My dog is 14 months old and he has never made it past 6am, ever. His activity levels and bed time the day before have zero bearing on when he wakes up. We’ve gone on 5+ mile hikes and then stayed up at a friend’s place until 3:30am and he was up for the day at 5:30. He acts like I’m a soldier returning from war every morning and is so excited to see me.

For the past 4 months, I’ve stopped taking him on a walk first thing. He’d wake up, I’d take him pee for 5 or so minutes, then I’m back laying down silently. Instead of relaxing, he’d use the time to jog circles around whatever room he’s in and throw his toys up in the air. If I lock him in my bedroom, he jogs circles around my bedroom and paws the door every lap to let me know he wants out. The longest I’ve let this go was an hour and half before I lost my mind and had to let him out.

I tried the crate in the mornings for 3.5 weeks. He wailed daily, even though he never does any other time he uses his crate. He cried for anywhere between 45 minutes and an hour 15, depending on when I got too tired of hearing it.

Someone on here suggested a silent alarm 15 minutes before he wakes up for a few weeks, to teach him that he has to wait for me to wake up. I did that, with a 5am alarm, for 3 weeks. By the end of it, he’d transitioned his sleep schedule and he now wakes up at 4:45, and has done so for 2 weeks. It genuinely couldn’t have gone worse.

Looking for other options if you have them.

 

[lizam]

@libra111 I sleep with 3 pups next to my bed. For a long time (months) they would wake up before me, wake up the rest of the pack and try to wake me up. I made them ly down, put a pillow over my head and stayed in bed until my alarm went off. They learned to wake with the alarm. Then I started snoozing the alarm and they learned to wait until I get up to start moving. Note my pups are Mastiffs and although they have a lot of energy in the morning, they are happy to be at rest much of the time. I don't know how that factors in.

 

[nottoosure]

@lizam This is what I do. My little Peanut used to wake up at 4 am as a hangry little demon.

I take everyone to go potty and then it's straight back to bed. No breakfast because it isn't breakfast time. I give them a drink when they come back in and then it's straight to bed. If she insists, I always turned my back to her after that.

She still insists on play time for a bit afterwards but she's learned that she can do that on her own. She plays for about 10 minutes and then crawls in bed like everyone else.

She's up and ready just before 6 am now. She's learned she has to wait for mom's alarm before getting food. She's no longer a hangry demon in the morning. It has been a long process and it's important not to give in.

 

[olorin92000]

@nottoosure This is exactly what I do and it works well. She wakes me up like clock work to potty. She tries to be active, I ignore like you do and she will eventually settle and go back to sleep.

 

[lablight222]

@lizam Yeah this is a bit like what I did once my dog moved into the bedroom with us and kept trying to wake us. He'd made the connection of waking up = breakfast food + walkies, so was super keen to get up and would pester us ridiculously early.

Think the issue was responding to it at all - after a couple of days of just straight up ignoring him no matter how hard he tried (turn your back on him, etc), he realised that the trigger for us getting up and feeding him etc was our alarm going off. So now even if he wakes up early, he just sits and stares at us until the alarm goes off lol.

I imagine a lot of dogs make a connection of "the human gets up when I want to" at first because often they're bugging you because they've got to pee in the night so you respond to it, and they learn that you'll respond to it. Once they're old enough that you know they can hold it, you can just ignore them and they'll get the message. At least, you can with my dog.

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@libra111 You aren’t alone OP … and I don’t know what to do, I read stories where people get back in bed with their dog and that isn’t happening with us. She’s up and ready to party by 5:30 AM at the latest, that’s usually after coaxing her to go back to sleep @ around 4:00 AM.

14 months is still puppy phase, I dream it will get better.

Good luck!

 

[peggylynn]

@imagebeastmarkbeast It will. A baby gate or a crate can really help with this, too. Teaches them to self soothe. Once they've been to the bathroom, they go in the crate or behind the baby gate til you are done sleeping. Noise canceling headphones help if they whine. It took about 3 days for my mastiff to get it, we sleep until 7:30 now (even if we pee at 5) and it is glorious.

 

[sharonmilliman]

@peggylynn Then 2 years later, they act like you're the one bugging them and don't want to get out of bed at 8:00AM. Crate is a game changer and my dog loves it.

It does get better OP. I would read these posts and not believe it but eventually, they start to match their sleep with the season. My pup is 2 now and he starts to wind down around 7pm and is pretty much excusing himself to bed by 9pm.

 

[notsparedtherod]

@sharonmilliman I've got a corgi who just turned 8 in December and... well he is absolutely NOT like this. The great news about him is that since he stopped being a puppy, he has basically let us sleep until whatever time we want. But once we are up, he will go ALL DAY (insert Schmidt's "All Day" gif). My husband and I will sometimes be up until 1 or 2 in the morning playing board games, and Blanco is right next to us with his ball ready to play fetch.

 

[poppylavender]

@notsparedtherod That’s funny – my corgi is almost two and the only reason she’s up at 8am is that she needs meds at that time. Otherwise by 7:30, 9pm at the latest she’s conked out upside down on the couch.

By 10:30pm she’s trotting her fluffy butt over to her crate and so I can give her the bedtime treat and shut the door

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@peggylynn Mine unfortunately goes absolutely mental, we tried to let her cry it out, but it only escalated and since we live in an apartment, we can’t have 5:30 AM screaming sessions.

 

[namakula]

@imagebeastmarkbeast Im not a morning person at all. My puppy is an alarm clock for 6:50am every day so I guess I should be thankful its not earlier lol

 

[rduke]

@libra111 We had that with our GSP when he was a baby. By 5 months, the latest he'd ever wake up was 5 am. We'd pee him, feed him, take him for a short walk, then he'd happily snooze for a while.
Then daylight savings time change day came.
5 am was now 4 am. 2 exhausted puppy parents said enough, no more! We started covering his kennel with a blanket (he always slept in a his kennel overnight, just outside our bedroom) and got a sound machine for white noise.
The glorious feeling of him sleeping through to 8 am for the first time ever is indescribable.
So yeah, that's what worked for us. He also loves his kennel though, so if he does for whatever reason whine early (upset stomach once, drank a ton of water befits need) we can let him out to do his business and pop him back in the kennel with no fuss.

 

[2ndlight]

@rduke Oh we also use a kennel cover and bathroom fan to indicate it’s sleep time. Maybe that will help OP.

 

[sharonmilliman]

@rduke I've lurked on here for 2 years and hardly ever posted. Wanted to say I can relate and the crate cover on Amazon that matched our crate was a game changer along with the dohm sound machine.

 

[christianauger]

@rduke I had two game changers, covered kennel and a later (around 9pm, he goes to bed at 11) half feed. My 5 month old will sleep until someone gets up, anywhere from 7-9 am.

 

[_lizziee]

@libra111 Put him in his crate to sleep and cover it with a sheet. Ignore him when he cries.. it will be sad, but it’s the only way!

 

[qktreasures]

@_lizziee Yup having our pup sleep in the crate has been wonderful. We don’t get her out as soon as we wake up and we vary the times as well. Typically she may let out a couple of small barks but only is she really needs to go out. If it’s not time to wake up yet then we just put her right back in.

 

[accelerator]

@libra111 Oh man… I can’t really give you any useful advice….

If I wake up before 9 AM - my dog will give me an annoyed death stare, sigh, and go to another room to continue sleeping

 

[abrother]

@accelerator Lol same here. I think it can be breed related...