Problem with dog waking far too early

peteb2

:(Sorry for the second thread in quick succession folks. But this weekend was the one where I decided I was going to try sort out out all my dog issues.

Dog was fine at 4 months sleeping until about 6am from the night before. Ever since daylight savings time change she then started waking regularly at 5.30am. This has subsequently got worse and the last few mornings have been 4.45am.

She is crated overnight in the living room with the currents and blinds closed. The crate is surrounded by a soft crate that she ruined the zip on so it isn't too bright in the room.

Last week the only way it worked was if I went down and slept there for an hour with her curled up beside me on the sofa, feed her at 6am and then she was silent until we get up at 7am.

I've decided that having her up on the sofa when we are on it isn't the way to go forward and I can't be sleeping down there for an hour for ever. So this morning I got up at 4.45, let her out to pee, put her straight back in the crate and left. Five mins of silence followed by about 15 mins of crying. Back down and let her out ago. This time a poo. Back in and she's up on the sofa. Back into crate sraight away. And me back upstairs. 35 mins of whining ensued. To the point that I decided I was just letting her out to feed her. That was obviously what she was looking for as she went straight for the kitchen. And then I had an hour and a half of silence.

Anybody any thoughts on this? She's 6 months old. She gets a 15 min walk about 7am. The wife lets her run loose in a field close by around lunch time for 30 or 40 mins weather permitting and then she'll probably get another 15 mins walk at some point when I am home from work.
She generally lies around from 8pm at night. And we head to bed for 10.30.

I just can't keep this up!

dmg10

Feel your pain, but luckily for me I'm now getting 8hrs solid from my pup :-) Hasn't been plain sailing though....

First off, you'll need to disconnect your heart from your head and ignore her, putting up with the crying for a few nights, she'll get used to her own company...however, this depends on a few things.

When you say she lies down at 8pm and you go to bed at 10.30, do you put her out for a toilet before you go to bed? If not, then let her out for a break before you head off to bed. Based on this, and calculating forward, she should be able to hold until at least 7am at that age. (Lift all water about 2hrs before bedtime and don't allow her any during the night). But she's gotten used to you coming down, giving her attention, snuggling up, so she wants this all the time now :-)

My own pup was getting in the habit of consistently crying at 6.30, until one morning, I thought, hang on, she was only out at 1am, ignore her....and sure enough, I came down at 8 and she was fine. Pure habit of crying for attention at that hour, she hasn't done it since. The other thing was, I also had the problem where she needed to do both in the middle of the night but 5mins apart, so I just learned to wait until she was done and no more crying 15mins later.

But don't give in to her :-) Don't feed her when it suits her, feed her when it suits you...As long as you know she's had her toilet breaks and she's not crying for that, ignore any attention seeking - get earplugs for the rest of the household if you need to... It should only last about 30mins and after a few nights there should be nothing.

Good luck!

peteb2

Yeah I though as much. I knew either way I would be rewarding for her for crap behaviour.

I put her out before I go to bed so I know's she's peed. But every time i end up getting up at 4.45 or 5 she still goes when she goes out. Though I'm not sure whether it's just because I am telling her and she knows its expected.

She just keeps going and going with the crying solidly. And usually at some point she gets wound up and starts scratching at whatever bedding is in the crate.

And I guess whatever about myself, the neighbours won't be too impressed!

dmg10

Are you able to put her in a room that isn't bordering the neighbours house? You could also try putting a blanket over the crate to make it more of a den, it might also muffle the sound a little!

They'll always pee whenever they're let out, so it's just a case of lengthening the time by maybe 30mins each night until you get the number of hours you need from them. For example, in the early days, I'd set the alarm to every 4hrs to let her out. Every few nights, I lengthened this to add 30mins on each night (4.5hrs, 5hrs etc), until we got to a point of getting through the night. For a few weeks, she did need to go at 6.30 but that's stopped now because one morning I woke to her crying and decided to ignore it and she stopped her noise after a few minutes and went back to sleep for another hour.

With your pup, if the noise does go on and on, maybe a quick open the door, a strong gruff 'enough', close the door and leave? With the bedding, get some old pieces of cast off carpet, costs nothing, can be replaced easily and you don't mind how chewed it gets. The metal cages are great as they can't chew through them. And make sure she's some chew toys to keep her occupied if she does wake up.

It sometimes just takes time, and constant adjusting in how you deal with it, but stand firm....if they suspect for a minute they can twist you around their paw, they will :-)

Just another thought, do you crate her inside during the day? If not, it might be no harm so she gets used to being crated for long periods of time even while you're in watching tv and she's left in the kitchen.

peteb2

the wife goes out for a few hours in the day and she is crated then with the kong so no problems there. She'll go lie in in the evenings sometimes so theres no problem with it.

Tried the blanket over it. Doesnt make a difference.

She used be able to hold the peeing until 6.30 before so i don't get why its changed. Do i just ignore her then at that time and not let her pee?

dmg10

peteb2 wrote: »

the wife goes out for a few hours in the day and she is crated then with the kong so no problems there. She'll go lie in in the evenings sometimes so theres no problem with it.

Tried the blanket over it. Doesnt make a difference.

She used be able to hold the peeing until 6.30 before so i don't get why its changed. Do i just ignore her then at that time and not let her pee?

If you know she went around 10.30/11 the night before I'd try and ignore her at the 6.30, see what happens? But as soon as someone starts moving around the house I'd be down like a shot :-) She's old enough to be holding it. But make sure to have all water lifted from at least 2hrs before final pee before bed so you know she's as empty as possible! Good luck!

Ms Tootsie

Hi peteb2

We had a similar problem with our pup who is almost 7 months old now. He would whine and cry from about 4am onwards and would only settle when I went down to the kitchen and sat with him. Myself and the other half were at our wits end! Cranky and sleep deprived and nothing was working.

Eventually I cam across a dog forum (for the life of my I can't remember the name of it. Wish I had saved the link as the advice was priceless) and we followed the instructions posted by someone else who had the same problem.
Firstly take the crate into the bedroom with you (not ideal I know, but it's not a permanent move).
If the dog starts whining to get out, sharply tell her to be quiet and shine a torch towards her crate to let her know that you (her pack) are still close by). Extend the time you normally let her out to pee by 20 minutes on that first night.
On the second night, still have the crate in the bedroom, any whining, do the same as before and extend the time by a further 10 minutes.
On the third night do the same as above and extend the time by a further 10 minutes.
Follow this until you have her 'holding it' until a more sociable and reasonable hour.

Once she is holding it and not whining to be let out, move the crate closer to the bedroom door. After 2 nights move it to inbetween the hall and the bedroom (so that it is half in the bedroom, half out). After another two nights move the crate into the hall. Keep following this procedure so you move the crate closer to the stairs, eventually to the bottom of the stairs and finally back to where you want the crate to remain permanently.

This sounds like a long winded process I know. In fact the whole thing took us over a month but as you can see from previous threads we were having a nightmare trying to get the dog to sleep past 4 am!! Thankfully our little guy now patiently waits until we come down to let him out - which is 7 am on a weekday and about 9am on a weekend since we go to bed later the night before the dog has a later bathroom break before being crated for the night.

Also as she is still quite young have your tried wrapping a ticking clock up in an old jumper of yours. The scent and sound are both very calming and it might soothe her when she wakes up waiting to be let out.

Hope this helps and best of luck with it!!

peteb2

i did that at the start when we first had her. So I'm not really prepared to go back to that point. Plus the crate is massive! Its 40 inches so not really for moving up and down the stairs!

Vince32

Normal puppy days stuff, I can only echo dmg10's advice, and perhaps add a toy or ball to her crate for when she wakes up early, chances are she wakes up to go to the toilet, but not always.

I remember my first 6 months, and I hardly got any sleep at all, the damn dog would sleep all day and be awake all night, and it's gets to the point where you have to unplug your heart, and let your mind get some rest. The problem is / was for me, the dogs muscles weren't strong enough to hold water all night, so just like a baby I was up at least once a night to check in on it and let it have a few minutes in the garden. (the dog not the baby :P )

I found a soft toy with bell in it, or a squeaky left nearby is enough to entertain the dog until your finished grooming yourself in the mornings, then outside for the toilet, and inside for breakfast.

Stick to the routine, dogs love routine, it's reassuring to them, and they know whats expected of them, and they are happy to please their masters. If it's easy for you to make a schedule for the dog, and stick to it as closely as you can, you'll see the difference is remarkable.

While I was breaking the night cycle of hell, I watched my dog intently, and anytime it settled down for a nap I took it around the block, just to keep it awake until bedtime then everyone went to bed at the same time, and got up at the same time. Routine, Routine, Routine.

Problem fixed itself after 3 days and 4 nights.

Hope you can take something from this, if not good luck with your problem

Vince