Early Morning Survey

[JoHarborne]

I'm having a bit of a battle with the Woodster at the moment over early morning wake-up!  This has been brought to a head this week by my H being abroad on business and me having to cope on my own (and I'm in rehearsal so I'm not getting to bed until midnight) ... I digress.

What time does your dog(s) wake up in the morning?  Do you let them out immediately or do you let them moan/winge/bark?

Woody can hear our (delightful!) neighbours who have six month old twin boys (even though we're an end terrace) and when they wake up at 5am - he wakes up - and we wake up ... you're getting the picture here eh?!  I want to ignore him and get up when I'm good and ready but my H INSISTS on getting up almost immediately.  And so this week W has been going mad - barking/howling/crying - you name it.  I'm very close to completely losing the plot.

Any ideas?  Advice?  Is it possible for me to train him to play quietly until a more reasonable hour - 7.30 would be a luxury!!!

Thanks for reading!

Jo xxx

[Whistler]

We dont hear anything from Ollie until he hears us up and about usually about 7 weekday and 8-30 weekends

[JoHarborne]

We dont hear anything from Ollie until he hears us up and about usually about 7 weekday and 8-30 weekends

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8.30?!?!     Do you want to swap dogs?!?!  

 We've been having 5am calls for the past month.  I mean, we are child-free by choice but we might as well go ahead and have twins of our own at this rate!!

I'm of the "leave him to cry" school of thought but it isn't working thus far.

[wendy]

Oh I do feel for you.  My last cocker Benji (who was a rescue cocker) woke up every morning dead on the dot of 5am (this went on for five years).  It did get better as we would get up and feed him, let him do his business (think this is what he needed) and all go back to bed.  

Finley however is very very different he gets up when we do, and is never in any desperate need for the loo or for his breakfast -  so I am enjoying this.

Wendy and Finley

[JoHarborne]

Oh I do feel for you.  My last cocker Benji (who was a rescue cocker) woke up every morning dead on the dot of 5am (this went on for five years).  It did get better as we would get up and feed him, let him do his business (think this is what he needed) and all go back to bed. 

Finley however is very very different he gets up when we do, and is never in any desperate need for the loo or for his breakfast -  so I am enjoying this.

Wendy and Finley

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FIVE YEARS?!?!  Dear God I can't cope with another week of this!!  

I have tried taking him straight out at 5 and then putting him back in his pen but I ended up (I'm so embarrassed about this   )  yelling at him when he was still full-on barking at 6am.  He looked absolutely terrified.  I'm not surprised - I don't know where that tone of voice came from.

Thing is, the house on the other side is empty but has just been let and we'll be having new neighbours in a week or so.  The house has always been empty ever since we got Woody and now I'm really worrying....

[Annette]

I'm of the "leave him to cry" school of thought but it isn't working thus far.

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Me too! But in our well-documented case, we haven't cracked it yet.

Over the Easter hols we steadfastly got up to Buddy at 5-5.30 to let him out for the loo, and put him back, no fuss etc. Donned earplugs and tried to sleep on til 8am.

I don't think he ever settled though, and was really very distressed when we finally all got up. Staying a bit clingy all day as a result.

Now we are all back in work/school routine I have decided that I will get up for the loo trip, then curl up on the sofa with him for the rest of the night. That way he gets some more sleep (and I do too!), isn't distressed, and is a much happier dog during the day.

Last night I was very late to bed (my OH away for the week too) and he still woke at 5.30 so I'm beginning to suspect that there might be some trigger other than his bladder. So tonight I'm going to try going to bed early and see how he goes.

Still clobbered, but getting used to it. And it is marginally better than the 4.30 starts at first (which, with hindsight, I think we managed badly), so I'm hoping that as he matures we might get longer nights, so long as this doesn't turn into a habit.

I know that this goes against a lot of the advice we have received, and I hope no-one feels we are ignoring it, but I really think we were heading towards separation anxiety. Thing is I have been able to peer in a few times when coming back from outings during the day, and he's beautifully settled then. It just seems to be a thing in the mornings.

Sorry this is so long

[taniac]

Jovi wakes up anywhere between 6-6:45am, because he's crated we do get up and let him out in the garden when he starts up, because he always goes straight out in the garden to do his biz.  I let him back in and leave him loose in the kitchen with Neo until we're ready to get up...

However he does sometimes carry on barking for attention and Neo whines (as he wants a walk)!!  This morning Jovi was quiet but only because he was eating holes in a towel that hubby had left by the washing machine  

I can't wait until we're in our new house so there are stairs and at distance between us, they'll have to wait then, cos I doubt I'll be able to hear him!  

It is really hard to ignore them when you know they need to 'go', would giving him a chew or a kong to concentrate on when you go back to bed work??

[taniac]

Last night I was very late to bed (my OH away for the week too) and he still woke at 5.30 so I'm beginning to suspect that there might be some trigger other than his bladder. So tonight I'm going to try going to bed early and see how he goes.

Where does he sleep, could it be something like the central heating coming on waking him?  Do you pull all the curtains? If we don't we'd be up with the dawn

[LoveCatz]

We are coping with 5am mornings but Pepsi is only 10 weeks old. This morning she moaned a bit at 5 am and then nothing until 6.45 when she heard me get up and head straight for the shower. I'm hoping it will get better with age at the weekends at least  Funny thing is, I seem to be the only one who hears her (except this morning when the combination of her howling and the shower running did wake OH)

[JoHarborne]

Thanks for all your replies - I'm not feeling so alone in my early morning misery!

Woody is in a pen rather than a crate and by the exterior wall (hence he can hear the neighbours).  We checked whether it was the central heating coming on but it definitely isn't - we've ruled that out.  We can't move his pen because there's nowhere else to put it.  The window has a blind on it although not a black-out one so the sun maybe a factor.  We also wonder if he can hear our cats coming in the catflap but there's nothing we can do about that either - the door is shut but I'm sure he can hear them.

I've tried to do the sofa thing with W in the past but he just jumped all over me and I gave up and went back to bed and left him to winge.  My H is convinced that Woody isn't wingeing for the toilet but just wants company.

He's a year old now.  So not sure about the "growing out of it" theory??

Oh and I forgot to mention - our delightful neighbour plays jazz trumpet and he usually starts practising at 6am ... their house is currently up for sale so there is some hope on the horizon ....  

[taniac]

It could well be the cats, as I'm sure sometimes Jovi's woken by Maverick coming in.  Jovi's a year old too  I would definitely 'try' to ignore it if you know he doesn't need to go and you don't want to get up.  Jovi wants to play but we don't pander to him.. It's worse at weekends and he still tries to get our attention but we are pretty good at ignoring him (and luckily he isn't continuous with his attempts for attention).

[*-Nikki-*]

Oh it’s usually around 6 ish every morning .
It's even earlier in the summer ...when the stupid cows lean over our fence   - it sets Holly off who after about three years off this still can't understand why they are there   - then she sets them all off .
Don't really have any advice , as we need to get up at that time, to get them all cleaned out, exercised n fed before I go college   - then it's up to my dad to sort em out for the rest of the day

could it be something like the central heating coming on waking him? 

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This is what used to set Chloe n Tina off in our old house .

[subeeloo]

We dont hear anything from Ollie until he hears us up and about usually about 7 weekday and 8-30 weekends

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....same goes for us. We've never had a moments problem with getting him to bed or during the night. For the first time yesterday I heard him howl, and he was in the back garden with all of his toys and water, as I popped out for 1.5hrs, we are enclosed all the way round, so I was quite surprised to hear it  

[Annette]

Oh and I forgot to mention - our delightful neighbour plays jazz trumpet and he usually starts practising at 6am ... their house is currently up for sale so there is some hope on the horizon ....  

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Surely that isn't legal?

Inconsiderate B*******

Let the dog howl...as revenge!

[Colin]

Jo you are going to hate me for this but my dogs don't stir before 9 am ! I rarely go to bed before 1 or 2 am so it's late to bed and late getting up. On the rare occassions I do get up before 9 Jimmy has a look of horror on his face and has to be literally tipped out his basket. I take them out straight away for a quick 5 min toilet walk, bring them back and feed them, then they sleep soundly for another hour until their first proper walk of the day.

If I'm ill, I've got until about 11am before Misty starts whimpering a bit - it'd be lunchtime before Jimmy did.