Does Anyones Elses Puppy Rise When The Sun Does?

[Mrs Rusty Bucket]

You know that trick where dog leaps up and barks at the door and when the other dog gets up to see what the fuss is about, the first one goes and nicks the other dog's bed?

My dog has been doing that to me. about 30 minutes *before* the sun comes up, the magpies go off, and wakes the dog up who comes and wakes me up...

Sometimes I get up and let her out - this morning she was busting. After one quick cat patrol she did number 1s and 2s. And sometimes I don't. I try to be careful to reward only the behaviour I want from her. Eg a soft bark at the back door, followed by a louder one if necessary - I reward - because I want her to ask politely and she usually only does it when she's BUSTING. If she's not busting, and continues to patrol the back yard without coming back - I shut the door with her outside. Which she doesn't like much.

If she runs around the house BARKING her head off at 3am and I can't hear burglars or cats - I ignore it until she shuts up. If she goes back to bed - it's all good. Otherwise I might get up and let her out, especially if her dinner was later than normal - she's usually busting. I wish I had a dog door.

But I don't reward running around the house BARKING at 3am for no reason. Because she likes the attention - and that means she's more likely to do it every time she wakes up.

Worst thing about the 5:30am wake ups? It makes it really difficult to get up when I'm supposed to at 7am... and I then feel like sleepy-crap all day.

[Nushie]

Why don't you just leave him until 6 if you're sure he doesn't need to toilet? and maybe get some ear plugs LOL

Two reasons mainly.

First being that he has always been so good in the fact that he only makes a noise when he needs to go out. Starts a a little whine, then a soft bark and then a louder one. I usually wake up to the whine and wait for it to get to the second bark incase he is just making a fuss. But up until the last week, he has only done it when he needed to go out. Usually by that stage he has been in bed for about 7 hours and i think thats pretty good for a 6month old pup to be holding on until then.

Second being that if i dont take him out he doesnt settle and go back to sleep, i tell him to shush and although the barking stops he keeps moving or scratching and the occasional whine. If i bite the bullet and take him out, i stand around for 2 minutes while he sniffs and sits there and then i go back to bed and sleep. He then settles back down and goes to sleep.

So it ends up being, do i make the effort and get up which is giving him what he wants but then i go back to sleep or do i lay awake while he fusses about in his crate and not get any more sleep? Lose / lose in my opinion. What happened to my little pup that would sleep in until my alarm went off, or the pup that even after my alarm went off i had to poke and prode to get him awake and out of bed?

[di_dee1]

Mine also wake early and hubby puts them in the pen then he falls straight back asleep. I often do not even hear it.

I am VERY grateful he does this and manages to fall back asleep. If I had to I know I would stay awake.

[shelby-001]

Our two are up between 6 and 6.30am depending on how late they played until the night before and what the whether is like. The sun starts peaking about 5.15am so I figure they are doing reasonably well, especially given they are on the patio which is on the side of the house that the sun actually rises.

They tend to amuse themselves for 15-20 mins then they come and sit at our bedroom door (we have a slider that opens on to the patio), if we pay no attention they snuggle up and wait for us to stir, if they can see we are awake, they whinge, no flies on them pair. They usually have to wait 20 - 30 minutes before we actually go out to them and get ready for our walk.