Jed has a wonderful singing voice which I could listen to all day, unfortunatly neighbours don't seem to see his 'talents'... at 6am when OH's alarm goes off Jed sleeps through it, OH has his shower and gets dressed, then he comes downstairs to a wonderfully behaved dog waiting quietly to be let out in the garden, OH returns Jed to crate, and off he goes to work, whistling his merry way....

My alarm goes off at about 6.50 and all hell breaks loose, Jed is jumping around in his crate (which sounds like 30 machine guns going off on its own!) he is singing/howling/barking/yelping/crying/whimpering all because he knows that it is me who does breakfast. So now as soon as the alarm is going off, sometimes before I have even come around enough to have the sense to turn the alarm off :rolleyes:, I am rushing into my upside down dressing gown, slippers on the wrong feet, hair stuck up on end, running down the stairs trying to get Jed's breakfast ready before the neighbours start banging on the wall.

HELLLPPPPPPPP!!! How can I get out of bed any quicker with out falling over my own feet.... or more to the point is there anything to be done to cool a certain dogs excitment over his breakfast????

He is quite vocal all day although we are just about breaking this... well a little bit... maybe!!!

Can you try to get up without the alarm?????   It would seem as if the sound might be the "starting point" for Jed!

Or maybe, you could "train" OH to give Jed his breakfast?????

I do know what you mean about singing - just imagine the choir I have here with 4 of them harmonising at times :D

Margot

LOL I think my neighbours would hit the roof if it was 4 of them, never mind the walls!!! (Me on the other hand would probably just join in with them all!!!)

I thought about getting OH to do breakfast but then surely Jed will do the same to him, so we would have the same problem but an hour or so earlier.

I wonder if I moved his breakfast time to say, when I get back from nursary (about 9.02!) I am sure he would still go mad when I come in the door but at least I would be more awake and willing to move like the clappers?

Nat, you are making this far more complicated than it is - the problem isn't when or where you feed him, what alarm you wake up to feed him to, who feeds him and so on - it is simply and purely whether or not you respond to and reward this behaviour.  At the moment you are rewarding it by getting his breakfast when he starts it. 

If you change the alarm, change the person who feeds or change anything else and still keep responding to this behaviour, you will again have the same problem as soon as he realises the new association.

do you have a mobile phone with an alarm on it ?  you can usually change the "tune" of the alarm so he wont recognise it as an alarm :)

That could work as well, if I kept my phone charged, I get the feeling he would eventually get wise (never really understood that thing about how smart Aussies are until we had him here!!) but it might give the neighbours a few days of peace!!

Well, at the moment, Jed has you trained to bring his breakfast to him pronto, when the alarm goes off!

The more that you rush around and bring the breakfast fast, the more you are rewarding him for this noise, and the more likely the noise will continue if not get worse!

Is your alarm the same as your husband's, just at a different time?  Or do they sound different as well?  If they sound different, then I would set your alarm to go off randomly throughout the day - when hopefully your neighbours are out or at least awake.  When it goes off, just switch it off and ignore Jed's noise.

When your alarm goes off in the morning, you MUST lie there and NOT move until Jed is silent in his crate.  Remember - whatever Jed is doing at the exact time that you start to respond is the behaviour which is being rewarded and which will grow stronger.  If you wait for him to be silent before moving, that is the behaviour that you are rewarding and he will learn that breakfast doesn't happen unless he is silent and still. 

Unfortunately to get to that stage, you are going to have to lie in bed and listen to his noise.  You might want to warn the neighbours that you are trying a behavioural method to stop the noise but that it might get worse for a few days before it gets better - but that this is the only way to stop it permanently and it's better that you suffer through a few days of noise than that you have this for the rest of his life.

I don't think I would have time to lay still in bed whilst I wait for Jed to quieten down, and as soon as I move he would start barking/singing again and then I would have to wait again. I do realise that this would be the best method but I have a 4 year to get bathed/fed/dressed etc and out to nursary by 8.55 every morning.

The alarm is the same sound as my OH's as well.

I think I am going to have to get up with OH (so before Jed is expecting me up) and then let Jed wait for his breakfast just for a while, and then lengthen that time, to just past 9.

Sorry I know you are only offering the obvious answer to my question but this is the one time of the day where I really don't have time to be in bed!! :)

maybe its not just his breakfast that he is so happy about it could also be that he has realised  the fun day begins when mum gets out of bed ;) and he gets out of his crate to play .
When my OH is on early shift up at 0600 they dont even stir but as soon as they hear me moving puppy will bark with excitement standing by the back door!
I dont feed in the morning anyway so I know its not a food thing!!

Would it be possible to leave him out of his crate for the time between hubby leaving and you getting up that would be a change of routine which may quieten him down.
Ask hubby to ring you at the time you would normally set your alarm to try and break the habit.

Roni

We have been thinking if it is time to let him out of his crate at night, maybe it is time to bite the bullet.

I think I will do as you say and get OH to leave him in the living room and still push his breakfast back to a better time for us all.

As for the excitment at it being me coming downstairs and not his food, I think it is maybe part of it but he is certainly thinking 'hurry up ad get my bowl', not 'hurry up and give me a stroke'!!

If he's been out for a potty break when you're husband gets up, I'd just ignore him completely. Do your normal morning routuine and see to your 4 year old child. Jed will scream, bark and generally carry on - ignore him - don't speak to him - don't even look at him! Then when you get back from dropping your hcild off at school, feed him. I guarantee you he'll stop it within a week. You'll have to warn the neighbours, but tell them it will be worth it for a few day's inconvenience... buy them some ear plugs. :D

Changing your routine because you've trained the dog to train you to get up when he makes a fuss is just making a rod for your own back. I bet you wouldn't put up with such demanding behaviour from your 4 year old either - he-he!

I know, everytime the alarm goes off and I leg it down stairs and get him to be quiet ASAP I know I am only reinforcing his behaviour, but when neighbours start banging on the wall I have to do something - anything - to get him quiet.

I will pop round and see the neighbours before I go to pick Thomas up, and let them know that there will be more noise before it get's better!

Thanks everyone, great advice as usual :)

when your OH leaves,cant he let the dog in with you?

No up stairs is a no dog/cat zone. Besides he is only 7 months so can't go up and down on his own, and he weighs a fair bit, add that to the thrashing around he does when he is picked up, I'm not sure I could get him back down the stairs!

could your OH put a anti bark collar on him when he leaves? until you get him out oif the habit of breakie arriving?

I hadn't thought of that MichelleD

:)

I'm puzzelled by this statement, I haven't read all of this post but why can your dog at 7 months not go up and down stairs, my pups can do that at 8 weeks old?  Being a no go zone I can understand but not that he can't get up and down them.

With larger breeds it's inadvisable to allow them to use stairs till they're full-grown to avoid strain on their joints. The odd step when out is fine, but a full flight of stairs, especially at speed, can cause a great deal of damage.

Hi Natalie,

I had the same problem with my young pup. The best thing you can do is to ignore Jed when he is barking and playing up and only give attention when he's quiet. Get up as you normally would and get on with your routine but completley ignore his 'bad' behaviour. If you are worried about your neighbours I would go round and speak to them apologise and explain what training you are doing to try and stop it. Also explain it might mean he makes a lot of noise short term unitl he gets the hang of it. Hopefully they will be more accomodating if they think you are doing something about the noise rather than let him get on with it. With regards to him jumping around in the cage don't let him out untill he is calm. I always make mine sit and stay while I open the door and then give them the ok command so they know they can come out. I agree that you should wait to feed him untill you have been to nursery then you can concentrate on training him.

In order to stop my pup screaming for dinner I completely ingnored his whining, jumping up at me as well as the worktops and got on with my daily stuff. When he was quiet I would start to get his dinner if he started screaming I walked away from it and carried on with what I was doing, then when he was quiet I would go back to his food etc. It took a long time and a lot of patience admittedly but he soon learnt that being quiet meant he got fed quicker than if he made a lot of noise.

I now have a 16 week pup that sits as still as a statue and is quiet as a mouse untill he gets his dinner.

Good luck it takes perseverance but if you make the effort you will get there in the end.

Thanks Cadbury, Jed is fine around dinner time, it is just his breakfast he get's overly excited about, also we have never let him out of his crate whilst he is jumping around, and now he will always sit and wait for us to open the door, he just sit's and wait's after he has been a complete plonker!! At all other times he is absolutely fine in his crate, no problem what so ever.

I suspect it is you he's thrilled to pieces about seeing rather than his breakfast. Only I know that on work mornings when the OH gets up first I usually wake to find myself wearing a very wriggly Jack Russell hat. He's not one bit interested in me getting up and getting him anything to eat and certainly isn't interested in the OH feeding him either! But he absolutely has to be reunited with me after a night in the kitchen and as part of our reunion he is convinced I need him to sit on my head!

I know that it's probably easier because upstairs isn't a dog-free zone once the humans have got up in our house but I'm sure that Jed is making such a hullaballoo because he knows that when your alarm goes off he gets reunited with you.

You've got several choices really but I doubt you'll easily be able to get up without him hearing you! So either you brazen it out and don't go down to him till he's quiet - which will probably take more time than you've got available in the morning. Or you just get up and accept that one of the first things you need to do is go and greet him. Which I realise is reinforcing the behaviour but, at the same time, wonder whether this might help your relationship with the neighbours. What I wouldn't do, however, is reinforce the behaviour by feeding him though. Would it be practical for your OH to leave Jed out of his crate when he goes? Only this might cut down some of the noise. 

Roz :-) :-) :-)
Your descriptions of some of Nipper's behaviour never cease to make me laugh. Tansy comes up to Mummy in bed once Daddy has gone to work too, and we have a mutual adoration frenzy until she dozes back off for an hour LOL.

Onetwothree's advice is really sound, but if you are not prepared to change your routines so as not to cause a habit for your dog, how about when hubby gets up to let him out that he gives him a pre-made drink stored in the fridge of a cup of goats milk and 2 egg yolks, whilst Jed is doing his business he can quickly warm it in the microwave for 30 seconds.  Jed will drink it and it will fill his tummy up and he will not be quite so vocal and hyper that you are coming down later to give him breakfast.

Medium to large breeds shouldn't be encouraged to "do" stairs under a year old because of possible damage to their hips!  There's no point in hip-scoring if you over-exercise/allow your pup to jump too much/charge up AND down stairs willy-nilly :D

Margot

Hi Natalie,

You've been given some great advice on here an the best way to go really is to ignore his behaviour completely, not looking at him or speaking to him, no aknowledgement what so ever until he is quiet and then praise.  I really don't think an anti bark collar is appropriate for a 7 month old puppy especially as you're likely to be able to change this behaviour relatively quickly by training. All the best.

Karen

Ah-ha, Lokis Mum thankyou now I understand.  Amazing what you learn here.

LOL I think I should explain that I am not a 'newbie' and I realise that onetwothrees advice is very sound (as usual I may add!!), but it is not something that would work for us, having said that the advice of just completely ignoring Jed until he is quiet (which I really should have known myself :rolleyes:) is what will work for us. Others have explained about the stair thing, but TBH I'm not sure Jed would make a whole flight of stairs even if I let him, I think he is so much of a wuss he would probably bottle it!! :D

Thanks everyone for all of the advice, I have taken little snipets from all of it and puzzled together a method that will work, and if it doesn't work... well there is always the sausage factory ;)

Hi Nat ,
you'll have to keep us  up-dated on your plan :) would be very interested!!

Roni

I think he will soon realise he won't get fed until he is quiet, he is an Aussie afterall!

I didn't mean it about the sausage factory BTW, can you believe I felt a slight pang of guilt after writing that?!!! LOL

My pups do the same with my mum every morning its not that they want brekki its there excited to see her  so much so that they started howling to get her up ! she does the same as you and feeds them to shut them up .
They do the same when she comes home every night too :rolleyes: Ive been stricked with her this week and told her to totaly ignore them when she comes in and within 2 days they stopped singing well they shut up pretty quick
shes not tried it for the mornings as she wants everyone to sleep but thats next on the cards ,

Hi Natalie, could you move his crate to against a wall furthest away from your neighbours so they are less likely to hear the barking and then you might be able to leave him to bark for a wee while?

Thought of you this morning, Nat - all Aussies primed up and singing at 6.30 am, ready to go out!!!

(What will I do when we move & have neighbours )

Margot

LOL Margot, well so far so good, I was awake at 5 this morning so decided to come down instead of rolling over and over in bed, so there hasn't been any noise what so ever, and he still hasn't had breakfast!!

(No way am I wanting to be up at 5 every morning, can barely function after doing it only once!!!:rolleyes:)

If you just turn some mornings around, so that he doesn;t know just what will happen - leave that bit of uncertainty ... it might just work!

Margot