At what time do your dogs wake up?

Francl27
Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
edited November 18 in Chit-Chat
My old dog... he'll sleep in until we get up.

My puppy though... 5.20am on a good day. I'm so exhausted. I barely have time to watch one show with my husband after the kids go to bed before I have to go to bed, and even then, it's not enough. And that's with waking up once during the night to pee too! I don't really want to do that but I'm seriously considering crating her downstairs after she goes to pee at night and going back to bed upstairs alone... (but then she cries and cries so I don't get much sleep either).

Any idea on how to make it easier? It doesn't matter if she's crated or not in the morning, she'll be noisy either way and wake me up. We do take water away after 8pm, and she goes out the last time between 9.30pm and 1am, but it doesn't seem to make any difference.

This hasn't helped me with my diet at all considering that I'm up early so hungry earlier, then I'm exhausted all day and end up making poorer choices.
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Replies

  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    you wake up when your dog wakes up? why?

    Because I sleep lightly and she's noisy. She's a 4.5 month old puppy...
  • pamfgil
    pamfgil Posts: 449 Member
    Ear plugs, and be prepared to clean up until she gets older?
  • TheRoadDog
    TheRoadDog Posts: 11,788 Member
    I don't have any pets, but my little Road Dog is usually up when I awaken.
  • 4legsRbetterthan2
    4legsRbetterthan2 Posts: 19,590 MFP Moderator
    I'm seriously considering crating her downstairs after she goes to pee at night and going back to bed upstairs alone... (but then she cries and cries so I don't get much sleep either).

    sometimes you just have to do the "cry it out method" it sucks for a day or two, but they get the message and will stop. This may be your best bet, she will have accidents at first while adjusting, but once she gets into the new routine she will be fine.
    she goes out the last time between 9.30pm and 1am
    this is a pretty big window, especially for a puppy, strict routines really help with potty training until their bladder gets better.
    It doesn't matter if she's crated or not in the morning, she'll be noisy either way and wake me up.

    This is just going to have to be something you train her on. My dogs know a "go to bed" command. On weekends I get up and let them out around the time they are used to work days, and go back to bed. They know "go to bed" means to go to their bed and lay down. It is also a helpful command if you need them out of the way (like doing yoga and they all want to pile on you) or if something wakes them in the night they think they need to react to.

    She is a puppy, so it will take some time and lots of reinforcement to get it, but she will.
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,423 Member
    I would take the dogs out early just long enough for them to pee but then go back to bed.
    A white noise machine helps me sleep better.

    http://www.raisingspot.com/training/housebreaking-puppy
  • SomebodyWakeUpHIcks
    SomebodyWakeUpHIcks Posts: 3,836 Member
    Maybe she wakes up because she's thirsty
  • kristen8000
    kristen8000 Posts: 747 Member
    6:15am every morning - but that's our fault, we got her into a routine M-F, so she thinks Saturday and Sunday should be the same. I have a puppy face close to my own at 6:15am because she wants out. I get up, let her out then I'm usually too awake to bother going back to sleep. I let my BF sleep in and the dog and I snuggle on the couch. I'd rather get up than risk having to clean up an accident.

    It's part of having a dog.
  • kms234
    kms234 Posts: 132 Member
    She's still a baby. :) The general consensus is they can hold it for an hour per month of age so a 4.5 hour window is pretty spot on for her. It WILL get better, I promise!

    Are you leashing her when you take her out to pee? If not, try it. She will learn that she's to pee and then go back to bed, not run around sniffing everything in the yard.
  • RAinWA
    RAinWA Posts: 1,980 Member
    My dog is old and I usually have to wake her up for her morning walk and breakfast before I go to work. My monster cat has decided 3:30 a.m. is a good time to come sleep on my head. Working on training him.
  • kms234
    kms234 Posts: 132 Member
    Sometimes I think I want a dog but then I read posts like this and sleep sounds better.

    100%. Puppies are a LOT of work. We adopted a 4 year old mutt 2 years ago and he came to us "ready to go". He's never once woken us up in the middle of the night to go potty. Rescue dogs are the way to go for first time pet-parents. They've been vetted and (typically) well-trained.
  • annaskiski
    annaskiski Posts: 1,212 Member
    kms234 wrote: »
    She's still a baby. :) The general consensus is they can hold it for an hour per month of age so a 4.5 hour window is pretty spot on for her. It WILL get better, I promise!

    Are you leashing her when you take her out to pee? If not, try it. She will learn that she's to pee and then go back to bed, not run around sniffing everything in the yard.

    This^^^ The puppy needs to go out every 4.5 hrs (her age in months)

    This is part of having a puppy. (sorry, but they do get older. In 4 more months she will sleep through the night)
  • ItsMeGee3
    ItsMeGee3 Posts: 13,254 Member
    4:00 every morning! I guess they get used to it during the week and think they should get fed at that time on the weekends too. If you've ever had a Bullmastiff snort in your face, You'll get out of bed and feed her!
  • yellingkimber
    yellingkimber Posts: 229 Member
    My dog will stay in bed until she absolutely can't wait to pee any longer because she doesn't want to get out of bed. When she was a puppy, we were on a pretty strict schedule and she went out at 10 PM every night and 7 AM every morning before I went to high school. In college, my schedule was always really varied, so I'd just take her out right when I woke up (whenever that was), right before bed, and once more in the middle of the day if she wanted to go again. When my boyfriend moved in, his schedule was opposite mine, so he could be in bed until 1 PM or so depending on the day. She's totally content to just lay in bed until the last person out of bed gets up.

    My cat, on the other hand, is a pain in the kitten every morning. He'll wake me up at the exact moment that it's no longer night-time dark outside. Sunrise starts at 5:23 AM? He will paw me in the face and meow at me until I acknowledge him. Sometimes I go back to sleep afterward, but I'm a morning person, so I'll take a kitty alarm over an alarm clock any day.

    Also, not cool blaming your poor decision making on the puppy making you tired. There are plenty of things that can make you tired and it's on you to do better. I second the poster that says leashing her. My dog is a hound mix and won't eliminate in the yard sometimes unless she's leashed or supervised because she gets distracted by smells and forgets why she was out there in the first place.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    I don't have to leash her at night to pee, she goes right out then back in her crate (unless it's raining then I have to go out with her. Sigh).

    Also, not cool blaming your poor decision making on the puppy making you tired. There are plenty of things that can make you tired and it's on you to do better.

    .. so uncalled for. I'm not getting enough sleep because the puppy wakes me up - fact. No need to look elsewhere about why I'm tired, lol, and how is it on me to do better? It's not exactly my choice to be woken up 2x a night, and my husband isn't helping either... so please share with me your wonderful tips on how to get more sleep (my kids don't get to bed until 9pm most nights already and at least 2x a week I'll go to bed at the same time already).
  • Timshel_
    Timshel_ Posts: 22,834 Member
    4:40a at the latest. I am usually up by 4a though.
  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
    edited May 2017
    I remember puppy days so well. I had a nightmare puppy situation.

    My puppy despised her crate, tried to eat it often, tried to kill herself trying to get out of it, no matter what we tried, epic fail. To this day she still eats everything. Truly not a normal dog. I was up more than twice a night, a lot of times I would move from room to room, even slept in the living room with her a lot, where ever she would settle down that's where I'd be. She is still hand full, while a very smart and sweetest dog ever she refuses to apply smartness to anything and I am blessed with the craziest lab I could have ever put my sights on.

    Now we have a 3 dog arrangement. I have a 16 year old, 11 year old and 3 year old. We insulated our garage, put in fans and even a heat source for really cold winters and they sleep out there. They are lucky dogs cause they have the luxury of an old couch to sleep on, all the dog beds they want with a carpeted area as well.

    My dogs are all large Labradors. We put a doggie door to the outside so they come and go in a fenced in back yard all day, at night we close the doggie door (can't have my dogs barking all night in the dark), but they all sleep together and are let out at 5:30 in the morning for the day.
  • kschwab0203
    kschwab0203 Posts: 610 Member
    My dog is almost 2 and still gets up in the middle of the night to potty- it sucks.
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  • toned_thugs_n_harmony
    toned_thugs_n_harmony Posts: 1,001 Member
    kms234 wrote: »
    She's still a baby. :) The general consensus is they can hold it for an hour per month of age so a 4.5 hour window is pretty spot on for her. It WILL get better, I promise!

    Are you leashing her when you take her out to pee? If not, try it. She will learn that she's to pee and then go back to bed, not run around sniffing everything in the yard.

    1 hour per month of age? hmmm. my 10 week old puppy (2.5 months) sleeps from about 11 pm until 430 am every day without having to go potty. He goes out around 430 and then usually he goes back to sleep until about 6-630.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    RoxieDawn wrote: »
    I remember puppy days so well. I had a nightmare puppy situation.

    My puppy despised her crate, tried to eat it often, tried to kill herself trying to get out of it, no matter what we tried, epic fail. To this day she still eats everything. Truly not a normal dog. I was up more than twice a night, a lot of times I would move from room to room, even slept in the living room with her a lot, where ever she would settle down that's where I'd be. She is still hand full, while a very smart and sweetest dog ever she refuses to apply smartness to anything and I am blessed with the craziest lab I could have ever put my sights on.

    Now we have a 3 dog arrangement. I have a 16 year old, 11 year old and 3 year old. We insulated our garage, put in fans and even a heat source for really cold winters and they sleep out there. They are lucky dogs cause they have the luxury of an old couch to sleep on, all the dog beds they want with a carpeted area as well.

    My dogs are all large Labradors. We put a doggie door to the outside so they come and go in a fenced in back yard all day, at night we close the doggie door (can't have my dogs barking all night in the dark), but they all sleep together and are let out at 5:30 in the morning for the day.

    My first puppy was a golden retriever and he ate EVERYTHING. I really didn't want a lab because of this... turns out my cute little mutt is 25% lab, lol. She's very easy though, just pretty hyper especially in the afternoon.

    The little stinker woke me up at 5.13am this morning, then decided to take a nap from 6am to 7.30am... and of course *I* couldn't go back to sleep.
  • JeepHair77
    JeepHair77 Posts: 1,291 Member
    Oh, jeez. Puppies. I swore I'd never have a puppy. Puppies are worse than babies. The Furry Love Of My Life was about a year old when we got him (a teenager, really) and our nights were still awful for a few months before we all got on routine.

    It'll get better. Our dogs are lazy AF and would sleep much later than we would most mornings.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    JeepHair77 wrote: »
    Oh, jeez. Puppies. I swore I'd never have a puppy. Puppies are worse than babies. The Furry Love Of My Life was about a year old when we got him (a teenager, really) and our nights were still awful for a few months before we all got on routine.

    It'll get better. Our dogs are lazy AF and would sleep much later than we would most mornings.

    Lol I was saying just 3 months ago that I'd never have a puppy again. Then I really wanted a dog I could take on hikes. I would have gone for an older dog but we have two kids so I wanted to make sure that there would be no underlying issues, and my dog doesn't get along so well with every dog so I figured it would be easier with a female puppy. So here I am. She's awesome though.

    But my first puppy? Harder than my twin babies!
  • Ironandwine69
    Ironandwine69 Posts: 2,432 Member
    Francl27 wrote: »
    you wake up when your dog wakes up? why?

    Because I sleep lightly and she's noisy. She's a 4.5 month old puppy...

    I guess you don't have kids.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    Francl27 wrote: »
    you wake up when your dog wakes up? why?

    Because I sleep lightly and she's noisy. She's a 4.5 month old puppy...

    I guess you don't have kids.

    I do, but they're 9 and I'm usually up before them anyway.
  • 4legsRbetterthan2
    4legsRbetterthan2 Posts: 19,590 MFP Moderator
    kms234 wrote: »
    She's still a baby. :) The general consensus is they can hold it for an hour per month of age so a 4.5 hour window is pretty spot on for her. It WILL get better, I promise!

    Are you leashing her when you take her out to pee? If not, try it. She will learn that she's to pee and then go back to bed, not run around sniffing everything in the yard.

    1 hour per month of age? hmmm. my 10 week old puppy (2.5 months) sleeps from about 11 pm until 430 am every day without having to go potty. He goes out around 430 and then usually he goes back to sleep until about 6-630.

    My dog was managing the 9 hour window while we are at work by the time she was 10 weeks. I agree some are able to pick up much faster, maybe not all though. I have always crated when not home and never had issues (outside of illness type stuff) after about a 2 week adjustment period.
  • 4legsRbetterthan2
    4legsRbetterthan2 Posts: 19,590 MFP Moderator
    kms234 wrote: »
    Sometimes I think I want a dog but then I read posts like this and sleep sounds better.

    100%. Puppies are a LOT of work. We adopted a 4 year old mutt 2 years ago and he came to us "ready to go". He's never once woken us up in the middle of the night to go potty. Rescue dogs are the way to go for first time pet-parents. They've been vetted and (typically) well-trained.

    Sometimes yes and sometimes no. Most that come from foster situations are pretty well trained and you can get a pretty good background on temperment. I adopted a 5 yo jack russell from the pound that lived outside in a kennel his whole life, hardest potty trainer I have ever had, but even he mostly had it down in a month. Otherwise the most amazing little pup ever, especially considering his absolute lack of proper socialization when he was young!
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    edited May 2017
    kms234 wrote: »
    She's still a baby. :) The general consensus is they can hold it for an hour per month of age so a 4.5 hour window is pretty spot on for her. It WILL get better, I promise!

    Are you leashing her when you take her out to pee? If not, try it. She will learn that she's to pee and then go back to bed, not run around sniffing everything in the yard.

    1 hour per month of age? hmmm. my 10 week old puppy (2.5 months) sleeps from about 11 pm until 430 am every day without having to go potty. He goes out around 430 and then usually he goes back to sleep until about 6-630.

    My dog was managing the 9 hour window while we are at work by the time she was 10 weeks. I agree some are able to pick up much faster, maybe not all though. I have always crated when not home and never had issues (outside of illness type stuff) after about a 2 week adjustment period.

    My puppy confuses me really. I let her out at 2.30am to pee, and she hasn't peed once since. It's been 5 hours. Let her out numerous time, didn't even crate her back after 2.30am.. nothing. She woke me up at 5.45am this morning because she started to play, she clearly didn't even need to pee or anything.

    I guess she just wakes up with the sun.
    kms234 wrote: »
    Sometimes I think I want a dog but then I read posts like this and sleep sounds better.

    100%. Puppies are a LOT of work. We adopted a 4 year old mutt 2 years ago and he came to us "ready to go". He's never once woken us up in the middle of the night to go potty. Rescue dogs are the way to go for first time pet-parents. They've been vetted and (typically) well-trained.

    Sometimes yes and sometimes no. Most that come from foster situations are pretty well trained and you can get a pretty good background on temperment. I adopted a 5 yo jack russell from the pound that lived outside in a kennel his whole life, hardest potty trainer I have ever had, but even he mostly had it down in a month. Otherwise the most amazing little pup ever, especially considering his absolute lack of proper socialization when he was young!

    That's one of the reasons I was a bit reluctant about getting an adult too. Easier to train and handle an untrained puppy than an adult! And most surrendered dogs are surrendered because they are too much work, so I don't really expect much in term of basic training there either (I'm not that picky either - I just want my dogs to know sit, stay, not destroy everything, and be housebroken, lol).
  • ashleyminnich1
    ashleyminnich1 Posts: 60 Member
    Why my youngest dog was a puppy, he wanted to go out around 5am. Now it both my dogs feel that getting up when the sun is up is a good idea. This week, they were up by 6:30.
  • pinuplove
    pinuplove Posts: 12,871 Member
    I always view getting a new puppy along the lines of having a newborn - you're going to be sacrificing some sleep for a while. 4.5 months is still a baby! She'll be able to go longer eventually, but for now I think you have to accept that you'll be waking up earlier than you'd like for a while. It's part of having a puppy.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    31shines wrote: »
    kms234 wrote: »
    She's still a baby. :) The general consensus is they can hold it for an hour per month of age so a 4.5 hour window is pretty spot on for her. It WILL get better, I promise!

    Are you leashing her when you take her out to pee? If not, try it. She will learn that she's to pee and then go back to bed, not run around sniffing everything in the yard.

    1 hour per month of age? hmmm. my 10 week old puppy (2.5 months) sleeps from about 11 pm until 430 am every day without having to go potty. He goes out around 430 and then usually he goes back to sleep until about 6-630.

    My dog was managing the 9 hour window while we are at work by the time she was 10 weeks. I agree some are able to pick up much faster, maybe not all though. I have always crated when not home and never had issues (outside of illness type stuff) after about a 2 week adjustment period.

    My dogs also had a long window. I've only had to get up with them when they are sick. I got lucky. My kids all slept through the night pretty early and so did my dogs. But I have 2 kittens that think 11pm is party time. They are annoying. I even tried crating them lmao they were not happy about that.

    I have a Siamese cat. She just randomly jumps on the bed meowing at night. It doesn't help either, lol.

    I did have insomnia issues before getting the puppy though so waking up early isn't exactly new, and I guess it's easier to fall back asleep now because I'm so tired...
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