All

Once again I turn to you guys for invaluable advice!

Our pup is nearly 6 months old and he is completely toilet trained.  He is out regularly during the day to do his business - 2 walks (about 15 mins each) and into the garden as often as he needs.  He is taken out last thing and night to go before bed - usually between  11pm and 12am.  He then sleeps through to 6-630am being completely clean.  That is up until last week!!

He is now up between 430am and 530am barking.  The first couple of days we shot straight out of bed thinking good boy, he needs out and he's told us.  Now it looks like he is in the habit of getting up at this time in the morning!  A couple of morning's we did try to ignore him as I've been reading online that this may be demand barking.  Are we doing the right thing in ignoring him and waiting till about 6am to go to him (incidentally, the times we have ignored him he hasn't done anything in the house).

Is this my new early morning alarm call or is there any advice anyone can give to get him to wait a bit longer?  I don't want to force him back into the habit of going in the house but at the same time I don't want to be up at 430am every morning!

Thanks

Lisa

When my pup was young I would get up if I heard him bark, put his lead on and take him out into the garden all without saying a word to him. If he performed he would get loads of praise, if not I would just take him back indoors and put him back in his bed still without saying anything at all. That way we prevented any accidents indoors but also reinforced the idea that we weren't going to play .

It is quite tricky interpreting those middle of the night barks but the above method worked for us and he then only barked if he needed to go out for a genuine reason :-) It didn't take many nights for the penny to drop.

Does your central heating come on at that time during the night as it may be he is hearing it start up and is reacting to the noises he hears?

Hi Harley

After he comes back in he does want to play so I'll try putting him on the lead tomorrow morning.

The central heating was a thought I had earlier today so I'm planning to move the time or switch it off to try eliminate that being a factor.

Thanks

Lisa

Milk man?

When you let him out, and you must respond for a while in case he makes a 'mistake'...dont speak to him, make eye contact or respond warmly in any way. Just take him out ..wait for a performance and then back to bed...dont speak. He will think you're a miserable git but will soon realise that his playmate isn't up at that time of the morning:-)
The important bit is to not re-enforce his idea that he can call you to play.....toilet only.

The second alternative, slightly more painful..... is to set the alarm before he is due to bark and take him out as before... no contact at all...back to bed and ignore further noise. It will stop but is a pain until it does..not least for your neighbours.

Hi Lisa,

as suggested it could be something going on indoors or out that regularly happens at that time :)  Apart from CH and milkman, it could even be that Mr Fox regularly takes a shortcut through your garden at that time of the morning - you may never know!

I agree with the other posters, take him out for his business, no fuss, then back to bed.  The habit should break even if it is one that's caused by a noise outwith your control.  If he's particularly noisy and a toilet break doesn't quieten him down, then have a word with your neighbours to explain that you're having a temporary training issue and hopefully they wont mind if they're reassured you're trying to get on top of it.

Try changing the timer on your CH starting up and also closing blinds or curtains in the room he spends the night in to see if it helps him remain settled.

regards, Teri

my pup is doing the same, some nights she will sleep all night till about 6.30am, others, its between 4.30 and 5am.  I get up and let her into the garden, she does do what she has to then its back into her cage for more sleep.  Hopefully this will get better as she gets older, she is 4 months now.

Does not help me though getting wakened at that time I dont sleep well at the best of times, but, she must sense when I am in a lovely sleep, then its yip!! yip!!! grrrr!!!! joys of having a pup.  Then I'm tired for the rest of the day. LOL!!!!!

Anyone leaving for work in your area at that time? Could you leave a radio on low so he does not hear it until the habit is broken and then tail the sound off?

We only get woken early at weekends, as we are in the office by 7:30 dogs walked, come 8ish at home and Jake gives a woof, about 3 mins later woof, ditto so OH gets up and on with it whislt I do the housework... Its like having kids again.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

I think it's just a case of eliminating them one by one until we can eventually get an extra hour or so's sleep!

I'm so tired but how can you be mad at the cuddliest little thing with the waggiest tail that is so happy to see you ;-)

Wish me luck for the next few days or it's down to the local shop to buy matchsticks to keep my eyes open!

Lisa

and there was me thinking it was only our pup that had suddenly delighted in the early morning call!! Khan is now 5 months old and has done really well with toilet training and settling into bedtime routines etc. when the clocks altered we expected some change in his body clock with feeding and waking.
OH and i went away for a few days MIL came and stayed to look after pup and children. I don't think she got much sleep!! It's been 2 weeks since we got back and Khan has been waking early. it would start with low level whining for about half an hour and then he would bark.
my OH would get up immediately so that the noise wouldn't disturb anyone but i have finally persuaded him to wait for as long as possible as it's almost like having a child and 4.30am get ups are not family friendly!! I think we've nearly cracked it! now that he's used to 3 meals a day we then moved his dinnertime so it was an hour later and this seems to have helped too.
We also had to rethink washing machine and dishwasher times too, a bit of a pain as we have economy 7 which is on 11 - 7!!
the best night sleep is always a wednesday night following puppy training - so now thinking Khan may need a bit of mental stimulation early evening!

I don't think my partner was particularly fooled by my assurance that our furry friend sleeps comfortably in his crate every night, particularly when the howls and incessant scratching at the door strongly suggested a certain anxiety to come up to bed with us...after a while lying there trying to ignore him, I went downstairs to sort him out: no discussion , just straight to get the grooming kit out. After stripping his ears, throat and clipping his nails he was a whole lot quieter and we all got some sleep in the end. Toe nail clippers are a great way to remind your lad that sometimes no human attention is a better option.

Just to give you a bit of an update on how Cooper got on last night.

When my OH came home from work we went through all the things that happen round about that time in the morning (milkman, someone leaving for work, central heating etc)

We came to the conclusion that there was no other noise apart from the central heating coming on so we changed the time and hey presto we got up with our alarm!!

My OH's not too happy that he's getting up when the house is still cold but if it keeps Cooper sleeping a little later I'm all for it!  :-)

Once again thanks to everyone for your advise and comments.  Couldn't do this without all of you.

Lisa

Ah had to be something making the pup stir the old central heating!!

Glad you are getting your sleep again. One of our dogs is called Cooper as well :-)