Early rising dog

deadpickle · 10-23-2007, 01:38 PM

Our 1 year old Pom has the habit of waking up and whining at around 5:00 am. We get up and take care of him at 7:30 am or so. We have been on that schedule for about a week and a half and the time he starts whining is getting earlier and earlier.

At first I thought he wanted out. But after a few tries where he went out and walked around for 20 minutes before doing his biz I have started to believe that he wants attention or something to do instead. He seems to want attention since when we let him out in the morning to move about he is very hyper and wants to play. Unfortunately we are zombies in the morning and are trying to get ready for the day. Then I put his favorite chew in the crate with him. I thought that would keep him busy when he got bored, I was wrong. He pretty much ignores it and continues to whine. We use to keep him in the bedroom with use but now since he whines so early in the morning we are forced to keep him in the living room.

I have tried to keep him up later at night so that he will sleep longer. He is ready to crash around 8:30 pm. I have tried getting him to play but eventually he zones out and wants to sleep. His and my bedtime is 11:00 pm.

I'm looking for advice on how to handle this? Any ideas?

ar3151 · 10-23-2007, 01:56 PM

one of my younger ones does that, he hears the alarm go off and he whines until we get up, let him out and feed him. no snoozing here! we try to snooze, but he whines to much cause the poor guy is hungry! so my girl friend who gets up earlier, gets up, puts food down, opens back door and we go rest for 10-15mins more. ha ha

might be cause he is hungry?

RonE · 10-23-2007, 01:59 PM

You get to sleep in until 5 a.m.?

deadpickle · 10-23-2007, 02:02 PM

I thought that may be the case as well but when we go to feed him in the morning, he will eat some but then wants to play. It may take hime over a half an hour to finish his food meaning, since we have to go to work, that he only gets 2/3 of his food ate before we have to let him out and run to work.

MayaTheLab · 10-23-2007, 07:28 PM

yes- move him far enough away you can't hear him

battlemonkey · 10-24-2007, 12:47 PM

Do you put him out before YOU go to bed or do you simply put him out before it's his bedtime? My dog wakes me up very early as well (especially on my days off when it's my time to sleep in), and we've started to put her out before we head to bed, even if she just went a few hours ago, and it seems to help. Mind you, she still wakes us up at about 7am, but that's because she's accustomed to having her breakfast at this time so it's tough bananas for me...lol...

Hope this helps!

dcmidnight · 10-24-2007, 01:05 PM

Do you have anything like a coffee maker that turns on at 5 am? This same thing happened to us the first few nights and I figured it was just him getting used to being in a new home. But then I was up one day when my coffee maker turned on (which is before we normally get up) and sure enough it turned out to be what woke him up. My neighbor had the same thing happen only with his Tivo - it turned on at 5am to tape some show he watched and that was waking the dog up since it was right near the crate. Anyway, just something to check.

deadpickle · 10-24-2007, 01:07 PM

Yes he goes out at 11:00 pm, right when I go to bed. I think I'm just going to live with it and maybe he will get use to it (and so will I). Right now he is out in the Living room at night. If he wails I can still hear him but the little whimpers I cant, I'm a light sleeper and anything wakes me.

ar3151 · 10-24-2007, 01:18 PM

i bet in time your dog will grow out of it.

my dog melody used to get up early, and man staying up late with some friends made it hard and i wondered if she would ever sleep in. now she is last one to get out of bed, haha. sometimes i have to drag her out of bed to eat and potty so we can go to work.

dcmidnight · 10-24-2007, 01:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ar3151

i bet in time your dog will grow out of it.

my dog melody used to get up early, and man staying up late with some friends made it hard and i wondered if she would ever sleep in. now she is last one to get out of bed, haha. sometimes i have to drag her out of bed to eat and potty so we can go to work.

Same thing happened to us

It took Max a couple of weeks but finally he was sleeping through the night - @ 10 pm - 530 am when we get up for work. But we have to drag him out of his crate most of the time he is so tired and on weekends he is the last one up!

ar3151 · 10-24-2007, 03:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dcmidnight

Same thing happened to us

It took Max a couple of weeks but finally he was sleeping through the night - @ 10 pm - 530 am when we get up for work. But we have to drag him out of his crate most of the time he is so tired and on weekends he is the last one up!

haha almost the same schedule as us, in bed at 10, up at 5:30. when it goes off my girlfriend gets up, molly(pit im baby sitting), mickey and ceaser are hyped to get up and eat and play, while melody my wildest sleeps in with me haha for 15 mins.