ya'll, Max is an early riser. Everyday, he gets up and is ready to go waayyyy too early. I can't even remember the last day I was able to sleep in. Anyways, does anyone have any tips/advice on helping Max sleep in a little, kick back atleast until 7 am? I am working on his "down" command right now, and it works for a bit, but only long enough for me to begin to snooze off, please comment...
Early Riser...
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I can't tell you how many times I got foster puppies/dogs and was told the dog would be waking me up at the crack of dawn. That might have happened the first few days they were with me but not afterwards.
What I do is to ignore the dog completely. They can whine, lick or whatever and I continue to lie there with my eyes closed and don't acknowledge them. This has always worked, no matter what schedule the dog was used to before I got them. My schedule is completely irregular--some days I get up at 8 and others it's 10 or 11 and my dogs (or cat) never wake me up unless it's an emergency to go outside.
What I do is to ignore the dog completely. They can whine, lick or whatever and I continue to lie there with my eyes closed and don't acknowledge them. This has always worked, no matter what schedule the dog was used to before I got them. My schedule is completely irregular--some days I get up at 8 and others it's 10 or 11 and my dogs (or cat) never wake me up unless it's an emergency to go outside.
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I always try keeping my dogs up and playing until about 30 minutes before bedtime, then I let them wind down, and I don't hear a peep out of them unless it's an emergency. Goodluck!
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During the week Apollo is up at 5:30. His bed time is also about 10. He will go and stay in bed until the alarm goes off. Of course once that happens, he knows we are gonna get up and play.
On the weekends we keep him up later (10:30 - 11:00) and he will sleep till 7.
I think we have had 3 early morning potty emergencies, but he normally goes back to his crate and settles right down.
On the weekends we keep him up later (10:30 - 11:00) and he will sleep till 7.
I think we have had 3 early morning potty emergencies, but he normally goes back to his crate and settles right down.
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That's the ticket right there. Along with taking them out as late and as close to your bedtime as possible. You must be able to "suffer" through for a couple of days, maybe more.
And if they get that lick in a ticklish place, well.....how well can you hold your laughter/need to get out of the way?
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My 4 mos. old pup wakes at 5 a.m.. During the kids school year its ok but now I can sleep in and shes still waking. So today I think ok, not until 6 (making her go longer each day) and then I hear retching. Geez so much for sleeping in. So up I get and let her out and feed her and now I am fully awake. Sigh..............
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I have raised about 10 puppies and taken in another 10 adult dogs in the past 20 years. Not one has continued this behavior after the first few days they're here. If you reward them in any way (any kind of attention) they will continue to pester you, effectively training you. If you ignore them consistently they will stop. It may take longer since they've gotten you into their routine but it still is possible.
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Ear plugs! He can whine all he likes and you can still sleep in. If he's not crated and he's licking YOU, I agree with Ruth, ignore him. But crating will also help with that problem. My dogs are almost 4 and 3 years old and have not NEEDED to be crated at night for a very long time. But I discovered that they will lay calmly in their crates until I feel like getting up on the weekend (sometimes 8:00 or 8:30, even *gasp* 9:00). If they were sleeping on the floor I know they'd be poking their noses in my eye LONG before that!
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Greta is 4 months old and she wakes up every single day at 5:00.a.m. I try to ignore her but she just leaks air all the time. LOL The whining is non stop for ever how long I lay there trying to ignore her. Brody actually gets up and just stares out the window while she is doing this. He is so easy. I think Im going to try what Sasha2008 did last night. Im going to try the fan.
Thank you everyone for the input. I had a nice wake up call at 4:30 am this morning. Wouldn't it be great if we could be up and rockin with only 6 1/2 hours of sleep, only difference though is I am pretty sure my boys are nappin right now while I am eating lunch at work still trying to be productive. Anyways, the ignoring is a great tool, I have done it in the past and it works, I think my problem is I don't have a workable crate inside right now, the soft crate I do have has been eatin through by my boy. I get the new metal one this week, so that should help...
Try getting up BEFORE your dog once!! It is hilarious!! My last GSD would fall up the stairs and could hardly function. Sometimes I would have to get HER out of bed.
Rosie is pretty close to as bad, but not quite. On work days she kind of drags around, but on my days off she has learned the meaning of 'Get Out!!' and quietly leaves. She does keep coming back to check though, but quietly walks out again so I don't know how often she does it or when she starts. If its an emergency she lets me know though!!
Rosie is pretty close to as bad, but not quite. On work days she kind of drags around, but on my days off she has learned the meaning of 'Get Out!!' and quietly leaves. She does keep coming back to check though, but quietly walks out again so I don't know how often she does it or when she starts. If its an emergency she lets me know though!!
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Unless you know for sure that he has to go to the bathroom, ignore him.
During the weekdays Im up at 6 am every morning and Echo, since he's not crated is sitting on the bed waiting for my alarm to buz, after that there is no containing him.
But on the weekends I can get at least another hour and a half out of him. We just make sure they go out at the last possible minute at night.
Indigo is still being crated, and has never made a mess in her crate, so she never wakes us up.
on occasion Echo will wake one of us up in the middle of the night for an emergency meeting, or maybe very early on a weekend.
I can tell by his persistence if he has to go or not. Then Ill just get up.I won't talk to him, Ill simply go downstairs, take Indigo out and let them both out back. I ask them for pee pee. they make then I go directly back in. Indigo in her crate, and I go back to bed.
I don't talk to them or praise them or talk our normal baby talk with them. So they don't get confused that its wake up time.
Works out pretty well.
During the weekdays Im up at 6 am every morning and Echo, since he's not crated is sitting on the bed waiting for my alarm to buz, after that there is no containing him.
But on the weekends I can get at least another hour and a half out of him. We just make sure they go out at the last possible minute at night.
Indigo is still being crated, and has never made a mess in her crate, so she never wakes us up.
on occasion Echo will wake one of us up in the middle of the night for an emergency meeting, or maybe very early on a weekend.
I can tell by his persistence if he has to go or not. Then Ill just get up.I won't talk to him, Ill simply go downstairs, take Indigo out and let them both out back. I ask them for pee pee. they make then I go directly back in. Indigo in her crate, and I go back to bed.
I don't talk to them or praise them or talk our normal baby talk with them. So they don't get confused that its wake up time.
Works out pretty well.
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I just realized while re-reading my post, that odly enough its the same method I used with my son as an infant.
If he needed a feeding or later a changing, I did it with haste and
then put him right back down.
No talking or chit chat. Just fixed the problem and back to bed.
And he slept through the night from 3 months on.
Funny I never made that connection before
If he needed a feeding or later a changing, I did it with haste and
then put him right back down.
No talking or chit chat. Just fixed the problem and back to bed.
And he slept through the night from 3 months on.
Funny I never made that connection before
My two usually wake me up around 5AM which is not all bad because most times I have to go to the bathroom. But, when I ignore them and go back to bed one looks out the patio door and the other settles in my bedroom, on the floor. They have gotten to know when I will let them out.
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