[Ziggy]

Hi all, Ziggy is five months old and fully toilet trained. He dosen't cry at night however at 6am he takes off and just barks and barks and barks. We have tried staying in bed and not rushing down to him but he just keeps barking even if it's for an hour or two. How can I stop this? He is like clockwork and I think my other half is thinking of going to the spare bedroom. 8O

 

[Ru6y]

I don't know, but Lotti's internal alarm goes off at 5.20am - although her barking tends to be intermittent but can go on for a couple of hours. Hopefully someone will post an answer.....

 

[Sasha101]

Help! Having the same problem. I have two brothers at 4.5 months old. They start at around 4.00 every morning. If they are not whining they are barging and jumping up at the child gate we have up.

I have tried ignoring them, feeding them, letting them in the garden and then back in but as soon as left alone they start up again.

If i go downstairs and sit on the settee they will happily go back to sleep but i cant! :-(

Im walking around like a zombie at the moment, dont know how much more i can take!

 

[Clare_e_2000]

Bumping because I'd quite like some help with this too.

 

[icybabe]

Yes help needed here too my lab barks at 3am every morning god knows why then as the breeder said she went to bed at 12 midnight- 7am. But not since ive had her she is 13 weeks old and i have had her for 4 weeks. she also barks in the day if left too

 

[Ru6y]

5 am this morning zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

 

[ginx85]

I know these are probably things you have already tried, but I am wondering if some of them are waking up at sunrise and think it is time to get up, Koko did this and we invested in a black out blind and she now gets up when we get up which is normally 8am!

Also, I have found as hard as it is to do that I have to go to bed later than I used to, and we normally have a little play about 30 mins before bed time (I am yawning all the while but she loves it), and she is then happy to go in her crate and lay down!

As a last resort if you are competely shattered and on rare occassions for your own sanity, if they wake up at an unearthly time you could put a stuffed kong in with them, that might keep them occupied for a few hours!

Good luck guys, keep us updated!

 

[vix_w]

Jess used to wake up and bark and cry and scratch and whine etc at 4:30. First we started leaving her crate open so she could wee on paper in the kitchen but then she was wide awake and the scratching started etc. It was suggested putting a blanket over her crate to trick her into thinking it's still dark - and it did help. She did start to wake up later after a few weeks til we got to about 5:30...but then we started setting our alarm before her own early morning alarm but of course, we never really then knew whether she could stay longer. However, we went camping and had to shut the cage door and found that she didn't actually mind being "locked in" so when we got back we starting shutting the cage door again at night and now we don't have to clean up wee in the morning!

So, because we're still waking up at 5:30........PMSL at this but we bought a babycom! Sounds mad but when she was waking up early and making a racket, she was telling us she needed the loo. So she didn't get into the habit of having to make noise to wake us up...we invented "labracom"!!! TBH, it's the best thing we did! We now hear her wake up and can tell when she's starting to get fidgety, without barking etc, and go down to her. She normally wakes about 6:15 but we can go down about half hour later...our latest lay in so far with labracom is 7am! Doesn't sound like much of a lay in when I tell my friends (who laugh at me and labracom) but compared to 4:30 wake up, it's lurverly!!!!! But when we think that Jess tends to fall asleep 9-ish and falls asleep on the grass when we take her out for a wee before bed, I can handle getting up at 7 for her!!!!

 

[Mambosmum]

hehehehe done that too :lol: :lol: :lol:

They do settle eventually lol but like children pups are all different in amounts of sleep and peeing they need. Good luck!!

Marianne

 

[_Vicky_]

god Ruby was HELLLL - basically black out curtains and patience is all I find that works. Even now (she is four on friday omg where did that time go) she still is the first one up and has the odd whine - although she shuts up when is told now. I tried everything from keeping her up late to kongs to changing her meal times everything. Some are just early risers I guess. I did find once the mornings get darker she was better so thats one advantage of the winter approaching I guess xxx

 

[bld]

We are soooo lucky! Even if Gillie is awake he stays quiet until we go out to him. No magic tips I'm afraid other than a pee and poo before bed.

 

[...]

I think some people are REALLY lucky and have young dogs who are happy to lay in until whenever they fancy getting up.....the rest of us are like you and get an early morning alarm call :wink: .

I would fully expect a dog below a year old to want to get up, pretty much as soon as the sun rose, which of course in the summer is pretty early.

You can try black out curtains, or covering the crate with a heavy blanket...but even this has it's limits if the youngster can hear all the birds announcing the arrival of a New Day. The other thing that sometimes helps is NOT feeding the pup as soon as you get up....make it wait at least 30 mins, as otherwise it could be calling for it's brekkie, which of course you are rewarding by giving it.

My main advise is, Learn to Love the early mornings.....The peace and quiet, the early morning bonding with your youngster :wink: and just wait it out. Most will happily lay in once they reach adulthood and then you go and get another pup and start all over again....... Or is that only ME? :wink: :lol:

 

[Em_n_Bailey]

Bailey is not a barker or a whiner, now....but she did when we first brought her home as an 8 week old

I'm not sure on what exactly stopped her, probably a mixture of small things that we did.....I can only tell you what we did

Bailey was crated, and during the night if she cried (and it was before 6am) I took her out into the garden for a wee/poo then put her back in her crate and ignored all cries....it was really hard though

If it was after 6am, I would take her out for a wee/poo and then snuggle up on the beanbag in the living room & she would go back to sleep (she wasn't allowed on the sofa back then :wink: )

We also ignored all cries/whines during the day, like when we got home, we would wait for her to be quiet before she was allowed out of crate.....or if me & the kids went upstairs, all cries were ignored and we only let her out again once she had quietened

We also made a point of making sure she knew we were ignoring her when she was whining.....I would walk into the room to get something without making any eye contact at all and then walk out again

It sounds a bit cruel when I say it all now, but it didn't take long at all......she doesn't cry or whine as it never got her anywhere

Inoring her was really hard, and at first I just felt that it wasn't helping or changing anything but persistance paid off.....the crate did help with it all though

 

[Luna-Tuck]

Up until around 5 months old Luna would pee around 2/3am some nights despite going out at 10/11pm. For a while we set an alarm and then she woke us whining and then she slept through to about 530am. She tends to wake with the birdies or sunrise so dark curtains or a blanket over her crate (when we used it) helps.

So for a while I was very tired!!!
Suddenly, we realised that she was going through the night 10/11pm-ish until 630am ironically once we'd de-crated her at around 6months!! She sleeps in our bedroom and and would jump up onto our bed at around 5am.

You could try darkening the room or crate more, could try putting the radio or tv on at a very low level (Luna tends to sleep in more if the dead-noise of a fan is on in the room), could try leaving a t-shirt you've just been wearing with pup to reassure.

Be reassured things get easier! At 16months old Luna now wakes me at 7am and will go back to bed for a couple more hours after being toileted. Lie-ins can return!