Hi,  

My 8 month old lab sleeps in our large hallway down stairs.  He is great at going to bed but wakes up most mornings at around 05.30 sometimes even earlier.  Once he has eaten and been out he goes back to sleep, I wish I could do the same!  As my husband and I both work full time our lack of sleep is killing us.  We have tried varying the time he goes to bed, has his last meal and last walk, but he still wakes up early.  We have even tried just ignoring him but he is destroying the door with his scratching.  Does anyone have any ideas on how we can get him to wake later..?

Is he crated?  If not, try a crate.  If he is, just ignore him.

Hi,

No, he is not in a crate.. not sure I could find one big enough.

You can get crates large enough for a lab pretty easily. There are always lots on ebay :)

Is the hallway dark in the mornings - if not, could you put up heavily lined, dark curtains ?

Daisy