Where my 5 A.M. puppy owners at?

[theseagullwithoneleg]

@roboryan SOLUTION TO YOUR PROBLEM I OWE MY SANITY TO THIS :
Disclaimer I’m very dyslexic so apologies for the grammar:
okay so the first two weeks of this will be rough but you need to start setting a loud generic alarm BEFORE you know the pup will wake up. If you do this enough the dog will associate the alarm as time to get up. Once they’ve learnt this they will eventually start to wait for the noise of the alarm instead of wining! Then SLOWLY you can start pushing the alarm back by 15 mins every few days slowly!! so you get more sleep!
Unfortunately the key to this to make sure the alarm makes noise before they do- this meant we had to wake up at 4 for two weeks. But now our 5 month old lab mix will wait for the alarm- granted we normally get him out at 7, and let him then snooze in our bed if we all want a lie in. But it means from 8:30pm-7am he knows he’s in his crate.
Good luck!!!!

Edit -
-we only set ours to 4am as our boy was waking up anywhere between 4-5, if your dog has a normal time they wake up you don’t need to be as drastic.
- Also, if we think he needs the toilet, when we get him we don’t turn any lights on, unless it’s actual wake up time. we’ll use the torch on our phone to take him out. We also don’t interact with him in this case , we have his lead ready before we open the crate he immediately gets clipped on - no interaction or talking or strokes - take him to do his business and then put him straight back in the crate and close the door without interacting in anyway. This is important because puppies will need the loo through the night every now and then so it’s important to make it as uninteresting to them as possible so they don’t cry in hopes of interaction.
- Also to emphasise how well this works he has slept in his crate until 9am before using this method.
We would only do this if he had a big tiring day before so he doesn’t get bored and because he goes to bed early - but it is possible!!

 

[lucymarie]

@theseagullwithoneleg This! A slight difference is if our pup woke before our getup time I would just move the alarm to go off in a few minutes and ignored him until it did. He got the idea and we were soon delaying the alarm by 15 mins every few days. Now we can sleep in until 7am (our usual getup) and its great!

 

[theseagullwithoneleg]

@lucymarie Sooo happy for you!! The way my puppy blues disappeared after being able to get more sleep

 

[michaelw20]

@roboryan I’m part of the 5am wake-up crew. The suck thing is that I also have 2 adult dogs who gladly sleep in and understand the idea of “not time yet”—they usually get up around 7:30, and now we are ALL up in the predawn, having breakfast. The big dogs go back to bed. The puppy screws around and then crashes out again around 6:30. But then she takes short little naps for like 30 minutes at a time, which is somehow worse. My adult dogs are OVER it.

I’ve never seen so many sunrises in a row. I’m so tired.

 

[libra111]

@roboryan 15 months at 6am here. I’ve tried many different things. I give him little to no attention, just let him out and back in and then sit back down. It’s made no impact. I’ve just resigned myself to being tired and unhappy every morning.

 

[roboryan]

@libra111 I feel this on a spiritual level

 

[dx70]

@roboryan This is me being grateful that the one time Mouse is lazy is in the morning.

 

[wenz213]

@roboryan Yep around 4:30 -5:30 but it’s just because he needs the bathroom, so I just take him out let him do his business with as little other stimulation as possible and put him back in the crate, he seems to understand the routine now and just falls asleep, it’s not ideal but I’m sure as the bladder control gets better the wake up time will get better, the way I see it I’d rather get woken up and let him out than have to clean up after a pup who couldn’t hold it

 

[shtuchka]

@roboryan Mine did this until he was like 6 months old or so, and a little bit of a roller coaster. some weeks he’d wait til the sun came up, then some weeks 5am.

I don’t really have any secrets lol. Tried black out curtains and didn’t fill his water bowl a ton (he’d chug a lot when he was little lol). Didn’t seem to change anything

He eventually stopped waking me up before I did. I go into the office twice a week and wake up at 5 am, and he gives me a pissed off “really? It’s too early” look nowadays in his bed. Mixed with a sad look because he knows he’s gonna be alone that day. Otherwise he will usually sleep in until I get up around 7-8 pm

 

[roboryan]

@shtuchka 6 months seems to be a sweet spot lol. Fingers crossed.

 

[joyfulmommy006]

@roboryan I wake my puppy up at 5am to go potty before u leave for work, he yawns while going potty then goes back to sleep after he is done.

 

[funtimedude]

@roboryan Mine is used to my alarm going off at 4:30 a.m. every day, including the weekends. He associates 4:30 with potty and feeding time and wants to be up for a while afterwards. If I need a weekend morning nap, I have to put him in my room with the door closed and use my mom’s king size bed to get rest… it’s exhausting, but you just gotta love them.