Sleeping Help Please?

[Incy]

Pebbles is a 6 month old working cocker bitch. I have had her from a puppy, she sleeps in a crate in my bedroom my routine has not changed we go to bed around 11ish ,she use to wake around 6.30am early but acceptable, however the last 2 weeks she is waking at around 5ish every morning "TOO EARLY" I try to get her to settle again but she barks and barks and bashes her crate continuously until I let her out at first I thought she needed the toilet because it was not like her but she doesn't want to go out instead she goes to the kitchen looking for breakfast (she is on 3 feeds a day). I also have a 3yr old Lab bitch and of course once Pebbles awakes so doe's Ella and then she's looking for her breakfast, so now the house is awake and can't get back to sleep, but the dogs are now feed, watered and back to bed, Please any ideas ?

[seaangler]

Put her down with the other dog...



Boooooo..

[Incy]

Ella my other dog sleeps in my bedroom!

[waggytails]

I have had a similar problem and for me the worse thing I did was to feed her when she woke early, as you say she would have breakfast and then go back to sleep, so in the end I get up and made her wait to a reasonable time for breakfast after a while we started to get sleep ins.

[Anita D]

I've had similar early wake ups with my 6 month old.  Sometimes as early as 5.30.

I changed a few things a couple of weeks ago, although I did them altogether so not sure which one it was that helped!

I started to feed his last feed at 7pm, I also weighed him and checked that he was getting the right quantity as they grow all the time.  He did need more.

I moved his crate where he could see my other Cocker.

I made sure he didn't get too much rest in the evening.  

And I've been able to, through the school holidays, vary the time we get up so that he doesn't have our usual alarm time stuck in his mind.

Something has helped because he is happy until 7.15/7.30 now.

Last wee at 10.30pm - a proper empty with a stroll around the block.

He gets plenty of stimulation through the day also.

Good luck, I know from experience it can be very tiring.