marckymarc Posted October 24, 2007 Share Posted October 24, 2007 Hi all, I am new to this forum and have a question I would like some assitance with... We have a 7mth old German Shorthaired Pointer called Ruby Tuesday. The vet told us to feed her twice a day, so we have been feeding her some dry food in the morning at roughly 6am, then some can food and dry food at night. After we feed her in the morning, we take her (and our 16 yo Blue heeler X) for a walk to the local dog park. Our problem is that in recent weeks, Ruby has been deciding to wake up earlier and ealier. To the stage now that she wakes up at about 5am expecting to be fed and walked. She whines and occasionally barks to get our attention. We have tried ignoring her until we are ready to get up, or putting her outside until we are ready to feed her. The problem with putting her outside until we are ready is that she gets even louder outside which makes me worry about our neighbours at 5am in the morning. She is obviously excited about a) being fed and b) going for her daily run, so it is hard to be angry at her. But we need our sleep and with the upcoming day light saving time changes are fearing a 4am wake up call next week!!! Any suggested techniques would be appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Spotted Devil Posted October 24, 2007 Share Posted October 24, 2007 A very brief reply for you as I have to dash.....I find this is pretty normal behaviour as Spring and Summer come upon us. My cats start waking up earlier and earlier and my pup has just started to do the same (doesn't help that the cats run absolutely amok ). It will actually make it easier when daylight savings comes in as it will be darker at 6am. I try and keep the house very dark - make sure you close all the curtains and block out any early light (tape up paper on the windows if you have to!) If pup is sleeping in a crate cover it with a blanket to keep it dark as well. The other morning, the girls were tearing around the house and of course Zig woke up too....I got up, walked calmly into the laundry, asked him to go back to bed and put a few biscuits in his puppy kong to keep him busy....I didn't hear another peep out of him until I got him up. Good luck :rolleyes: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mushaka Posted October 24, 2007 Share Posted October 24, 2007 Are u able to change ur routine a little? Mix it up so she never knows when she will be going walking? I have started to wear my dogs leads around my neck and flicking the latch so they desensitise to the sound..desensitise the cues . Im sure someone here will be able to provide you with better responses,but this is a start i guess lol Good luck with it!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poodlefan Posted October 24, 2007 Share Posted October 24, 2007 (edited) I anticipate that this problem will cease when daylight saving commences (unless you are in QLD in which case you are doomed). Your pup is waking up with the light. As she is maturing, she's going to require more stimulation than a once a day walk with a 16 year old dog. I'd be looking at some form of training to occupy her mind and additional exercise just for her. You bought a "high maintenance" dog in terms of exercise Marky - if you want her to sleep in, you'll need to tire her out. Time to add more exercise in the evening. :rolleyes: Edited October 24, 2007 by poodlefan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marckymarc Posted October 24, 2007 Author Share Posted October 24, 2007 Thanks for the prompt responses guys... The Spotted Devil - Good point about it getting lighter later in the morning. Our house is quite light so it may be worth covering some windows. I'll give that a try. Lewis & Lyn - I did think of mixing up the routine, however our work commitments usually means we are only just home before dusk. We may be able to change the routine with daylight savings. Thanks for the suggestion. Love the lead around the neck idea... but that is more of a problem for the 16yo than the pup, she is quite good at staying calm at the sight of the lead. poodle fan - I hope you are right about the light. I should clarify that we dont just walk her in the mornings, we take her to a designated dog park and try to exhaust her as much as we can with the ball and other dogs. Although, hopefully with daylight savings too, we can add an evening visit to the park too. I'll let you know how I go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JulesP Posted October 24, 2007 Share Posted October 24, 2007 The couple of weeks before daylight savings drive me nuts. I wake up, the dogs wake up. Blah. Roll on the weekend! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poodlefan Posted October 24, 2007 Share Posted October 24, 2007 (edited) The couple of weeks before daylight savings drive me nuts. I wake up, the dogs wake up. Blah. Roll on the weekend! Me too. Not only do the dogs wake up, but I have to get up to walk them at 5.30.. snake avoidance tactic. Yep, roll on the weekend. :rolleyes: Edited October 24, 2007 by poodlefan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chloebear Posted October 24, 2007 Share Posted October 24, 2007 (edited) The couple of weeks before daylight savings drive me nuts. I wake up, the dogs wake up. Blah. Roll on the weekend! Me too. Not only do the dogs wake up, but I have to get up to walk them at 5.30.. snake avoidance tactic. Yep, roll on the weekend. :rolleyes: I have never thought about walking earlier to try to avoid the snakes, I just gave up walking.....to scared after my last dog died from snake bite. When does daylight saving start? I live in Queensland Edited October 24, 2007 by chloebear Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Spotted Devil Posted October 24, 2007 Share Posted October 24, 2007 The couple of weeks before daylight savings drive me nuts. I wake up, the dogs wake up. Blah. Roll on the weekend! Me too. Not only do the dogs wake up, but I have to get up to walk them at 5.30.. snake avoidance tactic. Yep, roll on the weekend. :rolleyes: PF - I now get up at 5.45am to walk Zig too......not to avoid the snakes but to avoid the idiot dog walkers on the beach Not sure that daylight savings will make them any less idiots though :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BenjiMom Posted October 24, 2007 Share Posted October 24, 2007 Lucky you all..i live in Qld......grrrr eh?. Benji has always woken us up at 5am, but as as he's a toy, i've taken to put him on the bed with us...and.....yep..he goes back to sleep, Why I didnt think of this before now.. :rolleyes: I dont know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rysup Posted October 24, 2007 Share Posted October 24, 2007 I also hate the few weeks leading up to Daylight Savings.......the dogs are all up and at it at 5am and it sends me insane! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poodlefan Posted October 24, 2007 Share Posted October 24, 2007 (edited) [i have never thought about walking earlier to try to avoid the snakes, I just gave up walking.....to scared after my last dog died from snake bite. When does daylight saving start? I live in Queensland Chloebear, I asked a herpatologist about it. He said that very early in the morning was the best time to avoid them and between about 9-11 am was probably the most likely time as they are out but sunning themselves to warm up. So far, so good. The couple of dogs I know that have been bitten were bitten in the middle of the day. Fingers crossed my tactic works - it has so far. Oh, forgot to add .. you don't get Daylight Savings in Qld. I think it has something to do with the additional hour of light in the evening fading the curtains up there?? :rolleyes: Edited October 24, 2007 by poodlefan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chloebear Posted October 24, 2007 Share Posted October 24, 2007 Poodlefan, I am surounded by sugar cane, and at the moment it is cane cutting season, so all the snakes are being hunted out of the cane paddocks. Going by some of the tracks on the road they look pretty scary. Hope daylight saving works well for getting dogs to have a sleep in, perhaps I should try my own daylight saving here. With any luck it might work on both puppy and kids :rolleyes: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poodlefan Posted October 24, 2007 Share Posted October 24, 2007 Poodlefan, I am surounded by sugar cane, and at the moment it is cane cutting season, so all the snakes are being hunted out of the cane paddocks. Going by some of the tracks on the road they look pretty scary. Hope daylight saving works well for getting dogs to have a sleep in, perhaps I should try my own daylight saving here. With any luck it might work on both puppy and kids :rolleyes: What sorts of venomous snakes do you get up there. I'd have thought the cane toads may have lessened their numbers. That would make toads good for something. :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Working_Setters Posted October 24, 2007 Share Posted October 24, 2007 Hi all, I am new to this forum and have a question I would like some assitance with...We have a 7mth old German Shorthaired Pointer called Ruby Tuesday. The vet told us to feed her twice a day, so we have been feeding her some dry food in the morning at roughly 6am, then some can food and dry food at night. After we feed her in the morning, we take her (and our 16 yo Blue heeler X) for a walk to the local dog park. Our problem is that in recent weeks, Ruby has been deciding to wake up earlier and ealier. To the stage now that she wakes up at about 5am expecting to be fed and walked. She whines and occasionally barks to get our attention. We have tried ignoring her until we are ready to get up, or putting her outside until we are ready to feed her. The problem with putting her outside until we are ready is that she gets even louder outside which makes me worry about our neighbours at 5am in the morning. She is obviously excited about a) being fed and b) going for her daily run, so it is hard to be angry at her. But we need our sleep and with the upcoming day light saving time changes are fearing a 4am wake up call next week!!! Any suggested techniques would be appreciated. GSPs will do that. Sorry to be flippant, but GSPs are known for being both excitable and vocal. PF is right a walk/run at the dog park in the mornings isn't enough exercise for a young GSP. While I do highly recommend exercise, you must remember that (up to a point) the more you run your dog, the fitter it will get, so the more you'll have to run it, and so on. As mentioned, training is excellent mental exercise and will help a lot. By 7 months I think your dog needs to be learning some self control, just b/c it's light doesn't make it acceptable to bark/ whine, at least it doesn't at my place!! If/when my dogs indulge in unacceptable vocalisation, then there is a negative consequence. I find a squirt bottle for indoor use and water balloons for use in the yard to be very effective. If you can administer them without the dog being aware of your presence so much the better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frieda Posted October 24, 2007 Share Posted October 24, 2007 Daylight savings, what's that? My dogs wake me up around 5am every morning, with the let's stare at her, is she awake yep her eye twitched, lets lick her now. I am an early riser anyway so it does not bother me. But if I growl at them (literally) they do leave me be. The darkening of the rooms sound like a good idea which would probably work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Spotted Devil Posted October 24, 2007 Share Posted October 24, 2007 A really good point made by a number of people about ensuring your pup gets sufficient exercise/mental stimulation. Yesterday Ziggy had his usual early morning gallop on the beach and was crated (as usual) for about 3-4 hours while I was at Uni. Last night we went to show training - 2 hours plus 45min travel each way - the lad was a bit of a handful but managed to restrain himself and do some nice work but he slept in this morning (as did the cats and I) until 9am!!!! I love Thursdays Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JulesP Posted October 25, 2007 Share Posted October 25, 2007 I don't know about that! I went to obedience training last night and still got woken up at some annoying hour this morning! Ok there were stupid hot air ballons going overhead! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jasslyn Posted October 25, 2007 Share Posted October 25, 2007 My pup started waking me up earlier too (and I was already getting up at 5:30 so that there'd be time to walk him before leaving for work), so I was getting a little annoyed about that. He sleeps in a crate beside my bed though and I found the solution to the problem was putting a blanket over his crate so it's always dark in there. I leave the side facing me uncovered, so he can see me, but it's the side away from the windows. Now I just have to figure out a way to put a blanket over my bed. This morning we slept until 6:30, and it was me who woke us up, not him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marckymarc Posted October 25, 2007 Author Share Posted October 25, 2007 yeah... the dark room last night seemed to work ok... it was 5:45 instead of 5am which i can handle. it is amazing how valuable 45mins is to you at that time of the morning. hehehehe i am hoping that daylight savings and changing up of routine helps next week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now