Hi there

I wonder if anyone can help a rather tired mother to a 5 month old Labrador?

Oak is 5 months old as I said and to this day (we have had him from 10 weeks) has not slept longer than 5am!  Now I am morning person and am up for work 4 days a week at 5.30am but this morning he was up at 4.45am which is just too early.

He goes to bed fine on his own - he has a bed in the living room and has paper down in case he needs the loo in the night (not always) and he never has an issue with being on his own downstairs.  We have two Persian cats who have taken a dislike to him and stay upstairs out of his way so there is a stair gate on and Oak is not allowed upstairs.  At his alloted time in the morning he takes to going to the bottom of the stairs and whinning loudly until one of us goes down.  Sometimes he can be settled again until 5.30am but mostly I hear him up to mischeif so have to go down and investigate as he is very bright and can now open certain cupboards!  We have tried feeding his evening meal at different times, and as my husband works shifts he is often let out in the night but to no avail he still wakes at 5 or before every morning!

Do you think this is just one of those things that will improve as he gets older or am I always going to be seeing 5am?  Also we have a 3 year and 5 year old children - one of whom doesn't sleep through yet so we have the double whammy of nights and early mornings!

Any advice gratefully received!

Thanks

Nicola

My now 2.5 year old Flattie was and can be much the same. It took until he was almost 8 months to stop wanting out throught the night and only once he had been in kennels for a couple of nights did he stop constantly getting up at 5.
We tried all different things but to no avail. We mostly get through to the alarm at 6 now and if we are really lucky about 7 at the weekends although as it gets lighter in the mornings he will probably get up earlier again.
Like us I suppose some are early birds and some like their beds, we got a new puppy in December and he will sleep until we get up just like the other 2 in the room, only Otis likes to get up that early!!!

Our Retriever was the same, this stopped when she got to around 7 months and could go all night without a wee, she has just turned a year and takes herself to bed at
about 9:30pm and dosent wake till we get up around 7:30am sometimes later at the weekend if the kids lie in!! Have you tried letting him out for a wee when he wakes you then popping him back to bed, with no talking, fuss etc? He's still a baby and it will get better with age!

Whenever I've had pups I've got up at 4am for the first 3-5 months to let a pup out for it's pee, pups can't generally hold their pee for longer so wake up and this is what I do to toilet train, there is never any newspaper down and my pups are toilet trained quickly in doing this routine, once let out I then go back to bed, pup learns that crying etc will be ignored and I'm not up longer than to let him/her out. I just say bed and they go back to bed. They soon get used to this routine and learn to settle down again until I get up properly.

At 5-7 months that then moves up to 5am the pup learns to wake up when it hears me coming downstairs instead of him/her waking me up. Then 7-12 months I get up at 6am and by the time a pup is 12 months it is then 7am. (Though I'm always up at 6am so only counts for weekends :-) )

So for me your predicament is perfectly normal.

Pups vary some will sleep longer, some less, but at 5 months he's perfectly normal for me. :-)

I just expect pups to be like babies for that first year I know my sleep will be broken. I would expect his body clock to have settled down to your 5.30am get up by 7 months though.

Just make sure he is contained in a safe area and child lock the cupboards he is opening, let him out and go back to bed. :-)

thanks everyone for replying - I will be waiting until 7 months then for a later start than 5am!  I wouldn't mind if I could get things done but spend the time creeping about trying not to wake the kids - who wake up at 6am anyway.

He is completely toilet trained during the day but at night he sometimes goes to the loo on the paper and goes back to bed - other times he goes outside but whatever his bum is up to he still wakes up!  I guess we are all different and I am always up no later than 6.30am even at weekends whereas my husband would love the luxury of sleeping until 10am but he never gets the chance!

Thanks again.

Nicola

You really need to leave him in an area where you know he can't get into mischief - you say you are worried he is opening cupboards etc... 

This would be the purpose of a crate or a puppy play pen - so if you hear him, you can just turn over and go to sleep, safe in the knowledge that he can't be doing anything he's not supposed to.

Puppies (and kids!) have different sleep-wake patterns to adults..

Put child locks on the cupboards -or any lock -I have done. I have an adult dog that when bored likes to open cupboards and carry frying pans around. :) With the locks she can't do it.

My pup was a nightmare initially - it seemed like months I was up between 4 & 5am with her.

She has now sorted herself out and sleeps really well - hopefully in time Oak will learn the proper time to get up!!!