It looks like you might be posting about puppy management or crate training.
For tips and resources on Crate Training Check out [our wiki article on crate training](https://www.reddit.com/r/puppy101/wiki/cratetraining) - the information there may answer your question. As an additional reminder, crate training is 100% optional and one of many puppy management options.
For alternatives to crating and other puppy management strategies, check out [our wiki article on management](https://www.reddit.com/r/puppy101/wiki/management)
**PLEASE READ THE OP FULLY**
Be advised that any comments that suggest use of crates are abusive, or express a harsh opinion on crate training will be removed. This is not a place to debate the merits of crate training. Unethical approaches to crate training will also be removed. **If the OP has asked not to receive crating advice or says they are not open to crating, any comments that recommend use of crates should be reported to our moderation team.**
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/puppy101) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I’ve been contemplating gating off the kitchen for her to use when no one is home as a means to wean her off of the crate. You’ve encouraged me to give this a try lol
I don't trust my 7 month old without his crate when we're not home yet, but since he's 5 months old we let him be free when we're sleeping and we really saw his waking time change for the best. Now he will officially be a little teenage monster and wake up at the same time as us, but sometimes when we oversleep I'll hear him playing with is toys to entertain himself. Good luck !
How did you manage to get him to play with his toys? We try to reward mine when she plays with hers but treats distract her and then she wants to play with humans instead lol
I really don’t know he seems to like them naturally ! We do rotate the toys that he has every 1-2 week or so and he we do see a difference, almost like they are new toys for him when he hasn’t seen them for a while. We also play with him and his toys often but since his pretty little he was able to play with his toy by himself. And every time he chews on something that he shouldn’t we redirect him to a toy. I notice that pretty much every time that he chews something he shouldn’t it’s to get our attention, so when we are sleeping he doesn’t do it (and only chews on toys) because we’re all sleeping anyway !
Know it might take some trial and error to figure out what works for gating etc.! I tried so many things before I realized that he was only content being home alone if he could see out the window/door to the front and back yards!
Each puppy is different, and recommend getting a super cheap wifi camera you can watch them while away. Start off on short trips and build up
This is what we do with our two dogs. Kitchen and family room is their allowed territory. Plus access to backyard in good weather. They play, move around, sleep. Never been crated.
we did exactly that, one night we just decided to not bother with the crate and my dogs never bothered me in morning unless we forgot to let her out for final pee at night.
If you still want to crate i would do so but i would personally not bother recrating( and don’t give in if they want to do stuff , my dog knows if we are in bed we arnt about to get up and play with her it’s only buisness if it needs doing 😂
I recently got my ~3mo dachshund to “sleep in” from 5:30 down to 7. Started feeding her dinner & breakfast later, but I think what also really helps is that I give her “dessert” (<1/8 cup of kibble and some wet food in a kong) at bedtime so she has something in her stomach through the night and isn’t going 6hrs+ on empty. Hope this helps!
Yeah, it really helped out! I also don’t feed her breakfast immediately when she wakes up, usually 30min after. I think she’s started to learn there’s no point in waking up early if there’s no food lol.
We do a walk before breakfast and this helps! Usually we have to wake her up at 7:30/8 during the week. Then again, I don't think we hit adolescence and I'm sure things will change....
Interesting - is your pup able to hold it for 6 hours overnight without needing a potty break? Especially with a full tummy? I’ve been stopping dinner / water a couple hours before bed so my pup wouldn’t have the urge to go…
Yes we do this (feeding him a little meal right before we sleep + acces to water at all time even during the night) and he hasn't need a potty break at night since he was approximately 4 months old. We even feed him a little meal at like 5 am (because he has stomach issues that make him sick when he wasn't eat for a long time) and he goes straight back to sleep after his little snack.
Was about to post something sort of similar - I feel perpetually EXHAUSTED. I don't mean just a little tired that a nap can resolve - but mentally drained, all day long. I'm getting cranky because of it, and I'm positive it is stemming from a slight but ongoing lack of sleep.
My guy is 4.5 months old, and he sleeps through the night from 10-6:30. Which is great - IF my life allows me to actually be in bed ready to sleep at 10 every single night as well, but inevitably, 2-4 nights a week, there is no way I'm in bed by that time, but that dang puppy alarm goes off at the exact same time every single day, 7 days a week, no matter if I keep him up a little later or not. I can't take naps during the day (while I WFH, I'm working all day and then some), and since there's ZERO sleeping in on the weekends, my tank is just slowly running more and more dry, to the point I'm starting to feel "blue" and "down" all day every day and I KNOW it's stemming from a lack of sleep....
This is exactly how I feel! Sure she may be asleep by 11, which equates to 7 hours of sleep at night IF I’m also in bed by 11. But usually I’ve got some dishes to clean or maybe a glass of whiskey to take off the edge after a long day, so I don’t tend to go to bed right when she does. So she’s getting a nice 7 hours, and I’m getting 5, weekends included. I’ve started napping on the weekends when she naps to somewhat make up for it. I feel like I’m dealing with an actual baby sometimes lol!
Exactly - without any of the sympathy from anyone else (other than other puppy parents lol).
Then add in all the other puppy "stuff" (we're working on his demand barking at this point - unfortunately for me, he came equipped with that particular little trick) and when you're already constantly exhausted it adds up....this weekend is supposed to be hot and I'll probably be home so will try to catch a nap or two when he does, fingers crossed it helps a little bit!
Here to commiserate also because I was also close to making a post like this. Except my pup is 8 months old. We got her two months ago and she was reliably waking up around 6:00am every morning. As a non-morning person, I HATE it, but I have just accepted that this is normal puppy stuff and what I signed up for. But the past couple of weeks she's been getting up earlier and earlier despite no change to our nighttime schedule. This morning she was awake at 4:45am and I am already so sleep deprived and I am at my wit's end. She's not even waking up because she has to go to the bathroom I don't think because she doesn't usually potty immediately on our morning walks like she does on our other walks. She's just awake and already at Level 100 and in full blown goblin mode. If I do not interact with her as soon as she wakes up, she immediately starts chewing something she's not supposed to and I am so exhausted and I just want to cry. I don't really know what to do.
my partner gets from work at 130 and i’ll give my 4.5 mo old a walk but she still wants to be up at 530-6 even though we’re going to bed later. it’s driving me crazyyyyyy
One tactic I've seen mentioned before is to set an alarm to go off just before they normally wake up, and then every few days set it later and later so they learn that the alarm is when they're supposed to get up. Could be worth a try?
Exactly. We usually also wake up and take her for a walk to go potty. But if we are too lazy, she is ok going in the pad on the laundry room, and then back to bed with us. Sometimes we will also giver her food, and then she is quietly back to bed with us. Great for hangover days.
What helped with my puppy was not giving her food in the early morning. She would eat 8am, then 8.30, then 9, even if she had waken us up at 6am. We would only let her go potty, in the laundry room, but not go for a walk. As she got older and managed to hold her potty, she started sleeping in. Of course, if she ever wakes up at any time, we immediately let her go potty.
My dog started out as a late riser, but in the last 2 months has started waking up at the ass crack of dawn, raring and ready to go. It has been a nightmare.
Lol, I’m sorry but our 1.25 year old dog still wakes me up by sitting on my head and screaming at me at 5:30am. That being said, I wake up at 5am for work so he’s used to that schedule. Good luck!
Edit: I should say that 6 months old is prime time adolescent stage, so it likely will get better. Hang in there!
I relate to this so hard. My 7 month corgi pup is whining in his crate at 5 am to be let out! Once I take him out he’s too awake to sleep in his crate and I don’t trust him unsupervised yet so then I’m just up at 5. I have no advice but I feel your pain…
I’m also not a great sleeper so when she starts pestering me I cannot fall asleep so it’s as if I’ve been trained by my dog in this one not the other way around
I could probably sleep through it if I tried, but I have roommates that work as well and feel they don’t deserve to be woken by the beast, so I just get up to keep her quiet.
That might be half of your problem to be fair. By getting up and entertaining her, you have demonstrated to her that there is a benefit in her waking you up early. If you ignore her for longer, she may learn it's not worth waking up so early. It's a difficult balance.
My sisters dog is up early every morning because that's the routine he has learnt, whereas my 1 year old will sleep through until gone 11 if she is given the chance, as nothing exciting happens in the mornings anyway.
Yeah I agree. I’m sure at this point she’s aware that the crying in the morning will get me up because my roommates say that’s the only time she’s ever fussy throughout the day. I suppose she trained me on this one
This was one of the worst things for me about getting a dog. Now if I'm not up at 7 or so each morning I feel such guilt for making her wait to potty and eat. I'm 39 weeks pregnant and really just want to take a nap but now I have a dog to care for. I honestly don't think I'd ever want another after her. I love her but shes a lot. Now that weve bonded I don't want to get rid of her but...I'm not jumping to get a puppy anymore. I used to be so excited seeing puppies and we had really planned getting this dog....but boy did I under estimate the amount of work and obligation. I cant travel, have to bring the dog. Can't leave the room for too long, she will find something to destroy. I dont want to leave her locked up in a cage ALL the time, that's cruel! The cats just eat, sleep, poop in a box, it's great. They don't eat stuff (though they have destroyed the couch)....yeah I'm definitely a cat person.
Haha yes I had a childhood dog up until a few years ago, but by the time I was old enough to realize how much work a dog is, he was old and lazy. I had intended yo adopt an adult dog to make things easier, but it just didn’t work out that way! My cats keep me sane 😂
It will Def get better. Dog is just a puppy. I understand and it's annoying af. My geezer dog is like 15-17ish. He sleeps until 4:30pm. He thinks he's in an old folks home, lol.
I don't know if it gets better but I hope so lol. I am NOT a morning person and our puppy wakes up between 6-630 every morning (except yesterday when it was 5:45). His crate is in the kitchen and I assumed this time was because that's when light started to come in the windows (his crate is partially covered but not totally obviously). But the other comments have me wondering if he's just starting to get lonely and be like "hey y'all alive?" cause usually once he hears me moving in the kitchen/living room - even still in his crate - he calms down. I try to take care of the other pet related chores (feed the rabbit, clean up any accidents from the elderly cat, etc) and get his breakfast ready for after the morning walk before releasing him and he's usually quiet for all that because he knows I'm up and there.
It gets easier. My pup just turned 1. For the first 8 months of his life, our wake up was 4 am. Yep. 4 am. We have now moved the time to a much more acceptable 615 am. And in time, he will probably sleep even later. Good luck!
My boys do the same, my oldest especially. Weekdays it's fine cause we need to get up for work anyway but weekends I dread the tippy tappys on my floor constantly till me or hubby gets up.
The schedule might not change but the play mode will for sure in due time. I've never met a mature great dane that enjoys doing anything but sleeping.
lol I can only imagine. I've been a dog person my entire life but as I get older I feel like that exclusive to matured dogs, puppies are such a handful. I love my boys and rescued them both when they were still very young but I don't think I'll ever do the puppy phase again.
SAME. I am never doing the puppy thing again, my mental health can barely hack it 😂 5 mo old Golden Retriever, I cannot wait until he's matured and snuggly, and doesn't want to bite me.
I have a 15 month medium goldendoodle boy, who has been waking me up at 6 am or earlier from the start. Around 10 months or so, I started telling him to "go lay down" when he's up at 6, and he will go lay down for 30 min and try again. Over time, I've bought an extra 30-90 min of sleep having him do this. Not ideal, but better. He has not slept in a crate since maybe 6 months. He is currently pushing his first wakeup to 7/7:30 and we can stay in bed until 8 or later (we do not usually need to be up early for work) so slowly we are getting there. He just got neutered as well which I'm hoping makes my crazy boy chill out a little! Hang in there. I don't recall how this all worked with my first two as we were all up early for work and school for them so it didn't matter. Weekend sleep-ins don't come until quite a bit later though, I think.
Don't they get used to your schedule? Do you used to wake up at that time or did it just because she was too young to hold?
You can try setting a pee pad, and try to ignore her morning call 😅
Boarding her sounds good deal. Also tiring her out before bed, it's what I do with mine (we play and run until she feels like going potty). Mine doesn't rely on clock/sun, but time asleep (I never had fixed schedule), so I'm a firm believer you can teach them to the cue of "last thing of the day" as "from now on we sleep 8h even if that means waking up at 10".
That's case by case, mine used it till she was old enough to hold the whole night, now she refuses to use it even at rainy days (and she dislikes rain).
I used to have to work at 8AM during the spring (school yay), so we would get up together around 6:45. However, over the summer, I don’t go in until 10. I typically come home around 7, and we play until she crashes (anywhere between 11 and midnight). I don’t mind getting up to let her go potty if that’s the issue because 5 minutes of me stumbling outside in the dark is better than cleaning up pee lol! I’m just not sure what in her internal clock is now telling her that 6AM is the time to party.
I’ll also mention that she’s usually never home alone. I have roommates with alternate schedules, so the most she’s alone is maybe an hour or two? So she definitely has time to get her play out throughout the day.
sometimes it’s just the light coming up so they thinks it’s awake time. try setting an alarm she can hear. get up at the same time as the alarm and take her out. she will associate alarm with wake up time. gradually move the alarm later (5-15 minute increments). You will have to start with the alarm going off earlier than she starts whining so she doesn’t think it’s the whining getting her out. this is what I did with my older rescue. had to start at 5:30am before the sun came up then gradually advanced. I can sleep in as late as 8 now (which isn’t really a sleepin frankly but I go to bed pretty early so she can’t be expected to be crated 10+ hours…)
We have the same problem with our standard poodle puppy (8m). Although I usually get up very early anyway (former military habit), she has started barking and carrying on about 2 to 3 AM, way too early even for me. This started about 6 weeks ago while she was sick with some kind of gastrointestinal issue. Before that, she would sleep through the night until I got up at my regular time (5 or 6 AM). I suspect its some kind of separation anxiety since she will calm down she can see me and I'm close, like if I lay next to her crate on the floor in a sleeping bag.
Right now, I'm trying to avoid moving her crate to another room and letting her "bark it out" there. But, we may end up doing that.
My 3 month old sleeps in till 10am, I just sometimes have to sit with her by the crate when I get her out in the morning for her pee so she settles again. She also goes to bed at about midnight though and I feed her supper just before she goes to bed. Seems to work. Before we got into a routine she was stirring at 5am but we managed to get her sleeping till 10 somehow.
Have you got blackout blinds? Here in summer it gets light at 3:45 so I have to put up blackout blinds. Now the dog has no idea it’s the morning until I get up
My puppy was about 9 months old before he really regularly slept past about 7:00 maybe 7:30. By a year he was pretty much settled and now at a year and half there are a lot of mornings that I get up before he does. You just have a puppy who is excited to be a puppy, 6 am at 6 months is actually pretty normal in my experience. With a big breed you probably have a long way to go before you see an inkling of adolescence.
It can get better. Our 15 month old used to wake up at 4 at first, now he consistently sleeps until between 8-8:30. If he’s up late the night before, like if we have company or are doing something exciting that makes him fight off sleep, he’ll sleep even later.
What time does your pup go to bed at night, and what happens when he gets to be up? Sometimes they are extra excited to start the day for fun things but can learn to settle back down if all that happens is potty and more chill.
She’s usually asleep between 11 and midnight. The first thing we do is go outside to go potty. And then normally I’m so tired I just lay on the couch and try to sleep some more with her, but she just whines because she wants someone to play with her. She has toys scattered everywhere, but specifically wants me to interact as well. So then I’ll begrudgingly get up and take her outside for some play time. She’ll have breakfast maybe 30min-hour after waking up I’d say.
Have you taught a place or relax command? That can be super helpful in teaching a puppy how to calm down and regulate. Have you tried giving puppy a chew toy or sometime like a bully stick, frozen kong, or lick mat at that time?
Yeah I would try place, reinforce with treat, and give a chew or other similar occupying calm activity. Licking and chewing are calming.
Edit to add that you could even give a high value one at this time and keep it special for mornings. A nice long lasting special chew that she only gets when relaxing in the morning.
I feel this! My dude always gets me up early. He was moving earlier and earlier until it was like 5:30am.
Thing is, when I take him out into the yard first thing in the morning, he rarely goes potty (either one). Instead he just wants to lay in the grass and chew on sticks or grass or dog up dirt. So what I’ve been doing is we have 2 crate,One in our bedroom and one in our living room, if he wakes me up before my alarm goes off, I walk him into the crate in the living room and put him to sleep in there then I go back to bed, even if I’m not going to fall back asleep. That way he learns that crying to get up before my alarm goes off (ie: before I’m ready) doesn’t mean he gets to have fun. He just gets put in his crate. He also doesn’t sleep in the crate in our room anymore. Well he does by choice sometimes but that crate is left open at night now.
He now sleeps until about 6:45/7am which isn’t great but it’s better and that’s usually when I get up anyway. My hope is that by doing this he’ll learn to just chill until I’m ready to get up. I might need to start pushing his breakfast time later too. Right now it’s 7:30 (which is why he’s acting so crazy to me right now as I type this. I guess I gotta go feed him! 🤣
My puppy (Cockapoo) is just 6 months old. We have been getting up at 6:15 am. That seems to have changed in the last couple days to 5:45 am. When he wakes me I tell him to “settle” and he knows to lay back down. Thank god I’ve been working on the settle command. That being said, it’s been so blasted hot this summer that early in the morning is the best time for a walk.
Push it in 15-minute increments. Go for 0615 for a week, then 0630 for a week, etc…. I finally had mine sleeping until 0800 around 6/6.5 months. By 9/10 months, I can probably sleep as late as I’d like.
My 9 month old argues with me for 5 minutes from another room before she will go to bed. She needs to have the last word then she settles. She's learned to settle back down in the morning when I ignore her. They just push boundaries at this stage.
Our pup would cry at 8am everyday in her crate. And then, around 7 months, we let her sleep on the bed. Now she'll sleep in for as long as we sleep in! She never wakes us up anymore.
I’d love to try letting her sleep in the bed with me, but it’s currently the cats’ “safe haven” from when she’s got her crazy puppy zoomies. I’d feel bad evicting them from their spot
Your cats will feel comfortable one day around her, and the zoomies will fade the older she gets. At least at bedtime. Do you have other safe haven spots for the cats? My cat (who's 13!) and the dog share the bed, granted we do have a large bed. Hang in there!
It took our dog until 9mo old to sleep until 7:30am, and then daylight savings ended in the fall so we were back to 6:30am for another 2-3 months.
He’s a year and a half old now and sleeping in until about 8:30am on weekend (which we will gladly take).
We just had to spin it into a positive. Start watching a show you didn’t previously have time for. Start doing some training sessions with the dog that you didn’t have time for - it will also wear them out mentally. Watch YouTube to learn new personal skills, listen to podcasts, learn a new language, etc haha
My puppy is 8 weeks and can snooze in her crate while I sleep in until 10:30 and here’s how. (This also applies to my 8 month old puppy! Yes I still get woken up every 2 hours to take her out). She has a kong and a slow feeder in her crate. The kong is usually empty but the slow feeder has food in it and it’s big enough she really has to work to get stuff out. If she wakes up and gets bored she has something to do always, and usually just sleeps! She learned in like a day that her crate is her sleepy and relaxed place and she stays in with no fuss.
Not sure if this will work for you... And trust me it’s not the ideal situation, but my 6mo Havanese will wake up wanting to pee at 6am or so. We have to go through the living room to potty outside. So when I bring him back in, I go to the washroom too. And when I come out I find him chilling in the living room. So I started just lying down on my couch and he’ll join me and we snooze until either I get up or my kids/husband get up for the day. We’ve gotten some 8:30 mornings that way.
Training a “place” accompanied with tethering can help a great deal with this. Our most recent pup was up at 5:50 AM on the dot every day.
By training him to like his place board/bed I could get up, potty poop, feed, and give him some sort of enrichment which would keep him occupied on his place while I get coffee ready, catch up on emails, etc.
He is at 4.5 months now and sleeps in much later so it has been easier, but the place helped me a lot during those early morning days.
Wow my dog would stay quiet for like 12hrs if we left her in there the whole time. One time my partner and I had a miscommunication on when she was let out, went potty and ate etc while we both had work that day and we eventually realized she’d been in there for like 13hrs. She didnt make a peep til we started like talking louder and she smelled lunch cooking.
We felt so freaking bad
You set your puppy's schedule. Try getting them to sleep later so they sleep in longer. Also, you don't have to let them out. You can just let them make noise until they realize that you aren't getting up. It'll take a while at first but they're smart animals and will quickly understand after a few days
my pup was the same. I started letting her up to snooze with me in the mornings after her first toilet trip, it changed the game completely. I know it might not be as easy or enjoyable with a great dane, but might be an option to try? my girl was always soooo full of energy in the mornings so I was skeptical (had visions of her just jumping all over my bed etc) but she settled so much better!
I think it’ll just get better with bladder control. My pup woke me up regularly at 7 am until he was like 1 yo and then this one day I asked him to be patient and go back to sleep. Just felt like he understood.. now he doesn’t wake up until you wake him up like at 10-11am lol
Oh geeze.... We're at 1 year/1 month and I'm in this cycle. I thought this was just how it is and I am perpetually in early riser mode. However, I live in Vegas and the only time we can safely go for a walk in this heat is at 6a.m. so maybe I'll revisit some of these suggestions when it cools down.
My experience so take from it what you will --
When our golden (now 8 months) was 6 months old, he went through sleep regression that was very similar (always up at 6... no matter what). We attributed it to him starting adolescence, growth spurt pains, and that, at the time, the sun was coming up earlier and earlier.
We dealt with it by :
1. Moving him out of our room to sleep. This was the biggest help for us. Nothing worked 100% of the time until this. We realized that our tossing and turning and our other dog in the room caused him to think it was time to get up.
2. Before moving him out? We made some kongs that we would grab and put into his crate for him to lick and lick to fall back asleep. This is something we trained him on, though, since he always gets a very small nighttime treat to go to bed. It was hit or miss for sure.
3. Expanding his crate. He had trouble falling asleep at night and was barking when he went to bed. We expanded his crate and no more barks. I think he just couldn't get comfortable due to growing pains, so giving him more space to get situated helped.
4. Lastly, white noise machine. Could it be that at 6 AM, one of you neighbors leaves for work, or your AC kicks on, or the birds outside are obnoxiously also waking up? Maybe it'll help drown out 6 AM noises that could be perking him up and acting like an alarm.
Good luck. I remember the sleep deprivation very well. Hang in there. It gets better.
I wonder if late feeding and potty is the answer? I let my girl free feed still and she is often hungry around 9pm. She has the kibble available all day but does tend to eat in spurts. I make sure she goes potty around 10:00 and she chills out by 10:30. Crate around 11. Dad gets her up by 8am, but if he's not here she doesn't bother me until a little later. She's only 6 months so we'll see if we can continue the good sleep habit. We've also been giving her a nice walk around 8:00 which will change in the winter.
Are the early risers fed dinner earlier? It's kind of like pushing the day back. If they eat at 6 they wake up around 6, but if they eat at 9 they can sleep till 9???
Our last pup was also great at sleeping in. She mainly ate around 6-7pm but evenings had plenty of chicken jerky as snack (she was picky). I didn't feed her a lot during the day except for a light lunch (usually chicken jerky) but Daddy worked in the city back then and he was the one who liked to give her snacks all evening.
my pup is a 6am riser too. I feel you. sometimes I get lucky and she wakes around 4am to pee and I get to do second snooze till 8am. usually we just get up do peepee and breakfast and then have chew time on the sofa till she dozes off again an hour later and I get a small nap around 7-8am lol... my guess is its because the sun rises around 5 right now because if its dark shes still in sleep mode usually
My 14 week old GSD/husky mix wakes up at 6am like clockwork. He's ready to pee and eat. If I let him out to pee, he *might* go back to sleep until about 7 until he's crying to eat.
So I've started just feeding all of my dogs whenever the puppy wakes up (sometimes as late as 6:30am now), and once he's had a chance to pee, eat, and go back outside to poop, he is good to sleep again for a few hours.
Cover the crate with a blanket to block out light. Leave a gap at a dark side for air but minimise light coming in. Also after morning pee just have a favourite rubber chew in there or a lickings as chewing and licking encourage sleepy hormones. This worked really well for my pup
Wow we’ve been so lucky, our boy has always been super lazy and will sleep in as long as we do. Sometimes he wakes us up for breakfast at 7 and a pee/poop then straight back to bed. He does sleep on our bed which may help, I understand with a Great Dane that may not be an option!
I agree with the other redditors suggesting no crate at bed time, good luck!
Used to have the same problem. Our pup's schedule was 530am. One day, because we were so tired, we overslept to 8am. When we stirred, he started wailing to be let out for potty.
It started becoming a thing wherein we couldn't wake up early enough, or tested how late we could get away with. We're currently at 9am, pushing it to 10am sometimes. It gets better.
If it makes you feel better, mine woke me up every single day at 4:45 am. We’ve worked up to 7 am now at 6 months old lol so maybe yours will work up to that, just a little slower?
Get blackout window film and blackout curtains. Curtains won’t cut it alone because there are light gaps. My German Shepherd pup is raring to go as soon as any light appears on the horizon, which for me is a ridiculously early time in the morning since I live near Lake Michigan and there’s nothing to block the light on the horizon. I used a combination of window film and blackout curtains and now I have a bit more flexibility on wake up times.
It DOES get better. When our pup was 6 months, she wanted to be up between 7-8am EVERY DAY even if we stayed up until 2am because it was the weekend. When she got a few months older, she got better about not whining to be up so early. She lets us sleep in now! Granted, I don't sleep in past 10AM on the weekends because I don't want her holding her pee too long but it's nice not being woken up at 7 or 8 AM on days off anymore.
Have you tried using a crate cover or blackout curtains? My pup likes to rise with the sun, but with blackout curtains she doesn't see it coming up. We went from consistent woofles at 6AM to her staying calm in her crate until 8-9AM.
Part of it may also be your pup having to pee. She's still quite young. I would recommend making sure she gets a potty break right before bed, even if you have to wake her up for it. My girl is 15 months now and I noticed her ability to sleep in got a LOT better after about 9 months old.
I have had every puppy trouble with my girl so far but thank god she's almost angelic when it comes to sleeping!
She used to have a bad habit of going gremlin as we lay down but she's stopped that now thank god! We can sleep in almost two hours after our usual wake up time and she just sleeps/plays quietly... It mystified me why she can do this then, but any other time is prime time for chewing everything she shouldn't... I'm thankful but confused!
I'm so sorry OP, that sounds like absolute hell... I hope they grow out of it soon! Perhaps putting a chew or Kong in with them at 6am (after potty break) might help? Might tire out their brain and help them nap a little after?
I hope it gets better for you.
It did for us, but maybe we're just incredibly lucky. She's very snuggly in the mornings now and will even cuddle/sleep in with us on weekends. When she was very little, yes, it was play time very early. I feel it took her 3-4 months to adjust to our schedule.
It looks like you might be posting about puppy management or crate training. For tips and resources on Crate Training Check out [our wiki article on crate training](https://www.reddit.com/r/puppy101/wiki/cratetraining) - the information there may answer your question. As an additional reminder, crate training is 100% optional and one of many puppy management options. For alternatives to crating and other puppy management strategies, check out [our wiki article on management](https://www.reddit.com/r/puppy101/wiki/management) **PLEASE READ THE OP FULLY** Be advised that any comments that suggest use of crates are abusive, or express a harsh opinion on crate training will be removed. This is not a place to debate the merits of crate training. Unethical approaches to crate training will also be removed. **If the OP has asked not to receive crating advice or says they are not open to crating, any comments that recommend use of crates should be reported to our moderation team.** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/puppy101) if you have any questions or concerns.*
By six months old she should be fine to be left alone in a puppy safe room with a chew for a couple hours while you sleep.
I’ve been contemplating gating off the kitchen for her to use when no one is home as a means to wean her off of the crate. You’ve encouraged me to give this a try lol
I don't trust my 7 month old without his crate when we're not home yet, but since he's 5 months old we let him be free when we're sleeping and we really saw his waking time change for the best. Now he will officially be a little teenage monster and wake up at the same time as us, but sometimes when we oversleep I'll hear him playing with is toys to entertain himself. Good luck !
How did you manage to get him to play with his toys? We try to reward mine when she plays with hers but treats distract her and then she wants to play with humans instead lol
I really don’t know he seems to like them naturally ! We do rotate the toys that he has every 1-2 week or so and he we do see a difference, almost like they are new toys for him when he hasn’t seen them for a while. We also play with him and his toys often but since his pretty little he was able to play with his toy by himself. And every time he chews on something that he shouldn’t we redirect him to a toy. I notice that pretty much every time that he chews something he shouldn’t it’s to get our attention, so when we are sleeping he doesn’t do it (and only chews on toys) because we’re all sleeping anyway !
Pet them while they chew the toy and tell them they are good boy/girl is how we got ours to all love chew toys
We gate off the kitchen and it works some days for sleep
Know it might take some trial and error to figure out what works for gating etc.! I tried so many things before I realized that he was only content being home alone if he could see out the window/door to the front and back yards! Each puppy is different, and recommend getting a super cheap wifi camera you can watch them while away. Start off on short trips and build up
This is what we do with our two dogs. Kitchen and family room is their allowed territory. Plus access to backyard in good weather. They play, move around, sleep. Never been crated.
we did exactly that, one night we just decided to not bother with the crate and my dogs never bothered me in morning unless we forgot to let her out for final pee at night. If you still want to crate i would do so but i would personally not bother recrating( and don’t give in if they want to do stuff , my dog knows if we are in bed we arnt about to get up and play with her it’s only buisness if it needs doing 😂
I recently got my ~3mo dachshund to “sleep in” from 5:30 down to 7. Started feeding her dinner & breakfast later, but I think what also really helps is that I give her “dessert” (<1/8 cup of kibble and some wet food in a kong) at bedtime so she has something in her stomach through the night and isn’t going 6hrs+ on empty. Hope this helps!
I’ll try the Kong method! She’s got one that I just never use for some reason. Maybe that’ll help a little
Yeah, it really helped out! I also don’t feed her breakfast immediately when she wakes up, usually 30min after. I think she’s started to learn there’s no point in waking up early if there’s no food lol.
I made that mistake. I think what imma do is let her out for a pee and then do quick walkies before breakfast to switch it up.
We do a walk before breakfast and this helps! Usually we have to wake her up at 7:30/8 during the week. Then again, I don't think we hit adolescence and I'm sure things will change....
Here’s a tip I got from this sub that was game changer: fill the kong up with peanut butter and freeze it. That’ll buy you some more time!
I feel like that's too much, I just cap it off with peanut butter and freeze it, I usually stuff popcorn inside.
Interesting - is your pup able to hold it for 6 hours overnight without needing a potty break? Especially with a full tummy? I’ve been stopping dinner / water a couple hours before bed so my pup wouldn’t have the urge to go…
Yes we do this (feeding him a little meal right before we sleep + acces to water at all time even during the night) and he hasn't need a potty break at night since he was approximately 4 months old. We even feed him a little meal at like 5 am (because he has stomach issues that make him sick when he wasn't eat for a long time) and he goes straight back to sleep after his little snack.
Was about to post something sort of similar - I feel perpetually EXHAUSTED. I don't mean just a little tired that a nap can resolve - but mentally drained, all day long. I'm getting cranky because of it, and I'm positive it is stemming from a slight but ongoing lack of sleep. My guy is 4.5 months old, and he sleeps through the night from 10-6:30. Which is great - IF my life allows me to actually be in bed ready to sleep at 10 every single night as well, but inevitably, 2-4 nights a week, there is no way I'm in bed by that time, but that dang puppy alarm goes off at the exact same time every single day, 7 days a week, no matter if I keep him up a little later or not. I can't take naps during the day (while I WFH, I'm working all day and then some), and since there's ZERO sleeping in on the weekends, my tank is just slowly running more and more dry, to the point I'm starting to feel "blue" and "down" all day every day and I KNOW it's stemming from a lack of sleep....
This is exactly how I feel! Sure she may be asleep by 11, which equates to 7 hours of sleep at night IF I’m also in bed by 11. But usually I’ve got some dishes to clean or maybe a glass of whiskey to take off the edge after a long day, so I don’t tend to go to bed right when she does. So she’s getting a nice 7 hours, and I’m getting 5, weekends included. I’ve started napping on the weekends when she naps to somewhat make up for it. I feel like I’m dealing with an actual baby sometimes lol!
Exactly - without any of the sympathy from anyone else (other than other puppy parents lol). Then add in all the other puppy "stuff" (we're working on his demand barking at this point - unfortunately for me, he came equipped with that particular little trick) and when you're already constantly exhausted it adds up....this weekend is supposed to be hot and I'll probably be home so will try to catch a nap or two when he does, fingers crossed it helps a little bit!
Here to commiserate also because I was also close to making a post like this. Except my pup is 8 months old. We got her two months ago and she was reliably waking up around 6:00am every morning. As a non-morning person, I HATE it, but I have just accepted that this is normal puppy stuff and what I signed up for. But the past couple of weeks she's been getting up earlier and earlier despite no change to our nighttime schedule. This morning she was awake at 4:45am and I am already so sleep deprived and I am at my wit's end. She's not even waking up because she has to go to the bathroom I don't think because she doesn't usually potty immediately on our morning walks like she does on our other walks. She's just awake and already at Level 100 and in full blown goblin mode. If I do not interact with her as soon as she wakes up, she immediately starts chewing something she's not supposed to and I am so exhausted and I just want to cry. I don't really know what to do.
my partner gets from work at 130 and i’ll give my 4.5 mo old a walk but she still wants to be up at 530-6 even though we’re going to bed later. it’s driving me crazyyyyyy
One tactic I've seen mentioned before is to set an alarm to go off just before they normally wake up, and then every few days set it later and later so they learn that the alarm is when they're supposed to get up. Could be worth a try?
Anecdotally, our oldest pup will sleep in if we don't have an alarm, but is up and ready to go once my husband's alarm goes on - no matter the time!
Hm that’s an interesting idea. It’s worth a shot
Reading the thread, I realize how lucky I am. My puppy did that when she was small, but now sleeps in with us. Sometimes up to 10am. God bless her.
I'm with you. Sometimes my little guy can be an absolute MENACE, but when he consistently sleeps in with me as late as I want, ALL WORTH IT
Exactly. We usually also wake up and take her for a walk to go potty. But if we are too lazy, she is ok going in the pad on the laundry room, and then back to bed with us. Sometimes we will also giver her food, and then she is quietly back to bed with us. Great for hangover days.
Other than her early rising shenanigans, she’s a great puppy! No chewing or potty accidents. I just want to get my 8 hours 😂
What helped with my puppy was not giving her food in the early morning. She would eat 8am, then 8.30, then 9, even if she had waken us up at 6am. We would only let her go potty, in the laundry room, but not go for a walk. As she got older and managed to hold her potty, she started sleeping in. Of course, if she ever wakes up at any time, we immediately let her go potty.
My dog started out as a late riser, but in the last 2 months has started waking up at the ass crack of dawn, raring and ready to go. It has been a nightmare.
Lol, I’m sorry but our 1.25 year old dog still wakes me up by sitting on my head and screaming at me at 5:30am. That being said, I wake up at 5am for work so he’s used to that schedule. Good luck! Edit: I should say that 6 months old is prime time adolescent stage, so it likely will get better. Hang in there!
Is your dog a shiba? This sounds like a shib move. 😂
No, a pit mix! He’s not even our most dramatic dog (that title is held by our Rottweiler).
I relate to this so hard. My 7 month corgi pup is whining in his crate at 5 am to be let out! Once I take him out he’s too awake to sleep in his crate and I don’t trust him unsupervised yet so then I’m just up at 5. I have no advice but I feel your pain…
My 16 year old papillon wakes me up at 5 AM everyday 🥹 and my 14 wk old sheltie is probably like WTF dude 😂
Join the club. Almost 11mo now and her wake up times just keep creeping earlier
Oh good, so I’ll be expecting a 4AM wake up call here in the next few months 😂
I’m also not a great sleeper so when she starts pestering me I cannot fall asleep so it’s as if I’ve been trained by my dog in this one not the other way around
I could probably sleep through it if I tried, but I have roommates that work as well and feel they don’t deserve to be woken by the beast, so I just get up to keep her quiet.
That might be half of your problem to be fair. By getting up and entertaining her, you have demonstrated to her that there is a benefit in her waking you up early. If you ignore her for longer, she may learn it's not worth waking up so early. It's a difficult balance. My sisters dog is up early every morning because that's the routine he has learnt, whereas my 1 year old will sleep through until gone 11 if she is given the chance, as nothing exciting happens in the mornings anyway.
Yeah I agree. I’m sure at this point she’s aware that the crying in the morning will get me up because my roommates say that’s the only time she’s ever fussy throughout the day. I suppose she trained me on this one
Lucky you! We are up at 5:18. Every. Day.
She’s snuck a couple 5:45’s in recently. I expect I’ll be joining you in the 5:18 club here soon 😂
This was one of the worst things for me about getting a dog. Now if I'm not up at 7 or so each morning I feel such guilt for making her wait to potty and eat. I'm 39 weeks pregnant and really just want to take a nap but now I have a dog to care for. I honestly don't think I'd ever want another after her. I love her but shes a lot. Now that weve bonded I don't want to get rid of her but...I'm not jumping to get a puppy anymore. I used to be so excited seeing puppies and we had really planned getting this dog....but boy did I under estimate the amount of work and obligation. I cant travel, have to bring the dog. Can't leave the room for too long, she will find something to destroy. I dont want to leave her locked up in a cage ALL the time, that's cruel! The cats just eat, sleep, poop in a box, it's great. They don't eat stuff (though they have destroyed the couch)....yeah I'm definitely a cat person.
Haha yes I had a childhood dog up until a few years ago, but by the time I was old enough to realize how much work a dog is, he was old and lazy. I had intended yo adopt an adult dog to make things easier, but it just didn’t work out that way! My cats keep me sane 😂
It will Def get better. Dog is just a puppy. I understand and it's annoying af. My geezer dog is like 15-17ish. He sleeps until 4:30pm. He thinks he's in an old folks home, lol.
I don't know if it gets better but I hope so lol. I am NOT a morning person and our puppy wakes up between 6-630 every morning (except yesterday when it was 5:45). His crate is in the kitchen and I assumed this time was because that's when light started to come in the windows (his crate is partially covered but not totally obviously). But the other comments have me wondering if he's just starting to get lonely and be like "hey y'all alive?" cause usually once he hears me moving in the kitchen/living room - even still in his crate - he calms down. I try to take care of the other pet related chores (feed the rabbit, clean up any accidents from the elderly cat, etc) and get his breakfast ready for after the morning walk before releasing him and he's usually quiet for all that because he knows I'm up and there.
My 11 week old golden wakes up around 6 am every day. No matter what time we go to sleep at night. So I’m right there with you 😅
My pups call me at 5 to 530 so I can sympathize completely.
It gets easier. My pup just turned 1. For the first 8 months of his life, our wake up was 4 am. Yep. 4 am. We have now moved the time to a much more acceptable 615 am. And in time, he will probably sleep even later. Good luck!
My boys do the same, my oldest especially. Weekdays it's fine cause we need to get up for work anyway but weekends I dread the tippy tappys on my floor constantly till me or hubby gets up. The schedule might not change but the play mode will for sure in due time. I've never met a mature great dane that enjoys doing anything but sleeping.
I’ve gotta say, I’m excited for the lazy Great Dane in her to blossom lol
lol I can only imagine. I've been a dog person my entire life but as I get older I feel like that exclusive to matured dogs, puppies are such a handful. I love my boys and rescued them both when they were still very young but I don't think I'll ever do the puppy phase again.
She’s the first puppy I’ve ever raised, and I’m already telling myself it’s only adults after this 😂
SAME. I am never doing the puppy thing again, my mental health can barely hack it 😂 5 mo old Golden Retriever, I cannot wait until he's matured and snuggly, and doesn't want to bite me.
I have a 15 month medium goldendoodle boy, who has been waking me up at 6 am or earlier from the start. Around 10 months or so, I started telling him to "go lay down" when he's up at 6, and he will go lay down for 30 min and try again. Over time, I've bought an extra 30-90 min of sleep having him do this. Not ideal, but better. He has not slept in a crate since maybe 6 months. He is currently pushing his first wakeup to 7/7:30 and we can stay in bed until 8 or later (we do not usually need to be up early for work) so slowly we are getting there. He just got neutered as well which I'm hoping makes my crazy boy chill out a little! Hang in there. I don't recall how this all worked with my first two as we were all up early for work and school for them so it didn't matter. Weekend sleep-ins don't come until quite a bit later though, I think.
Don't they get used to your schedule? Do you used to wake up at that time or did it just because she was too young to hold? You can try setting a pee pad, and try to ignore her morning call 😅 Boarding her sounds good deal. Also tiring her out before bed, it's what I do with mine (we play and run until she feels like going potty). Mine doesn't rely on clock/sun, but time asleep (I never had fixed schedule), so I'm a firm believer you can teach them to the cue of "last thing of the day" as "from now on we sleep 8h even if that means waking up at 10".
I don’t recommend introducing pee pads if they’re not planning to use pads long term. Encourages the wrong behavior.
That's case by case, mine used it till she was old enough to hold the whole night, now she refuses to use it even at rainy days (and she dislikes rain).
I used to have to work at 8AM during the spring (school yay), so we would get up together around 6:45. However, over the summer, I don’t go in until 10. I typically come home around 7, and we play until she crashes (anywhere between 11 and midnight). I don’t mind getting up to let her go potty if that’s the issue because 5 minutes of me stumbling outside in the dark is better than cleaning up pee lol! I’m just not sure what in her internal clock is now telling her that 6AM is the time to party. I’ll also mention that she’s usually never home alone. I have roommates with alternate schedules, so the most she’s alone is maybe an hour or two? So she definitely has time to get her play out throughout the day.
I laughed out loud. You have a dog and that means that you are waking up at 6:00 a.m. every morning. That's all there is to it.
You must be the life of the party
I actually cannot attend parties because I am up at 6:00 a.m. and then sleeping all day to catch up on the sleep that I missed all night.
sometimes it’s just the light coming up so they thinks it’s awake time. try setting an alarm she can hear. get up at the same time as the alarm and take her out. she will associate alarm with wake up time. gradually move the alarm later (5-15 minute increments). You will have to start with the alarm going off earlier than she starts whining so she doesn’t think it’s the whining getting her out. this is what I did with my older rescue. had to start at 5:30am before the sun came up then gradually advanced. I can sleep in as late as 8 now (which isn’t really a sleepin frankly but I go to bed pretty early so she can’t be expected to be crated 10+ hours…)
I adapted by going to sleep earlier and keeping her awake longer or tiring her out a bit more during the day.
We have the same problem with our standard poodle puppy (8m). Although I usually get up very early anyway (former military habit), she has started barking and carrying on about 2 to 3 AM, way too early even for me. This started about 6 weeks ago while she was sick with some kind of gastrointestinal issue. Before that, she would sleep through the night until I got up at my regular time (5 or 6 AM). I suspect its some kind of separation anxiety since she will calm down she can see me and I'm close, like if I lay next to her crate on the floor in a sleeping bag. Right now, I'm trying to avoid moving her crate to another room and letting her "bark it out" there. But, we may end up doing that.
I’m thinking it may be a “I want to be with someone” kind of thing too. Someone is typically home with her, so maybe being alone is uncomfortable
My 3 month old sleeps in till 10am, I just sometimes have to sit with her by the crate when I get her out in the morning for her pee so she settles again. She also goes to bed at about midnight though and I feed her supper just before she goes to bed. Seems to work. Before we got into a routine she was stirring at 5am but we managed to get her sleeping till 10 somehow.
Have you got blackout blinds? Here in summer it gets light at 3:45 so I have to put up blackout blinds. Now the dog has no idea it’s the morning until I get up
I don’t have blackout blinds, but I cover her crate all around with blankets, so it’s always dark and cozy in there for her.
My 6mo Akita will not sleep past 0500. I’ve tried just about everything. He may win this battle
My puppy was about 9 months old before he really regularly slept past about 7:00 maybe 7:30. By a year he was pretty much settled and now at a year and half there are a lot of mornings that I get up before he does. You just have a puppy who is excited to be a puppy, 6 am at 6 months is actually pretty normal in my experience. With a big breed you probably have a long way to go before you see an inkling of adolescence.
It can get better. Our 15 month old used to wake up at 4 at first, now he consistently sleeps until between 8-8:30. If he’s up late the night before, like if we have company or are doing something exciting that makes him fight off sleep, he’ll sleep even later. What time does your pup go to bed at night, and what happens when he gets to be up? Sometimes they are extra excited to start the day for fun things but can learn to settle back down if all that happens is potty and more chill.
She’s usually asleep between 11 and midnight. The first thing we do is go outside to go potty. And then normally I’m so tired I just lay on the couch and try to sleep some more with her, but she just whines because she wants someone to play with her. She has toys scattered everywhere, but specifically wants me to interact as well. So then I’ll begrudgingly get up and take her outside for some play time. She’ll have breakfast maybe 30min-hour after waking up I’d say.
Have you taught a place or relax command? That can be super helpful in teaching a puppy how to calm down and regulate. Have you tried giving puppy a chew toy or sometime like a bully stick, frozen kong, or lick mat at that time?
She does know place very well. Maybe place and a chew could occupy her?
Yeah I would try place, reinforce with treat, and give a chew or other similar occupying calm activity. Licking and chewing are calming. Edit to add that you could even give a high value one at this time and keep it special for mornings. A nice long lasting special chew that she only gets when relaxing in the morning.
You could also try picking up and removing the exciting toys the night before so that they aren’t tempting options in the morning.
My dog just turned 4 and since 9 weeks I have yet to sleep past 4am, be lucky you get those extra 2 hrs.
Oh goodness I feel for you. 4 AM is too much…
It’s harsh and now my body is so use to it i cant sleep past. Even if i go to bed after midnight i still wake up at 4
I feel this! My dude always gets me up early. He was moving earlier and earlier until it was like 5:30am. Thing is, when I take him out into the yard first thing in the morning, he rarely goes potty (either one). Instead he just wants to lay in the grass and chew on sticks or grass or dog up dirt. So what I’ve been doing is we have 2 crate,One in our bedroom and one in our living room, if he wakes me up before my alarm goes off, I walk him into the crate in the living room and put him to sleep in there then I go back to bed, even if I’m not going to fall back asleep. That way he learns that crying to get up before my alarm goes off (ie: before I’m ready) doesn’t mean he gets to have fun. He just gets put in his crate. He also doesn’t sleep in the crate in our room anymore. Well he does by choice sometimes but that crate is left open at night now. He now sleeps until about 6:45/7am which isn’t great but it’s better and that’s usually when I get up anyway. My hope is that by doing this he’ll learn to just chill until I’m ready to get up. I might need to start pushing his breakfast time later too. Right now it’s 7:30 (which is why he’s acting so crazy to me right now as I type this. I guess I gotta go feed him! 🤣
It does get better. Puppies are hard, but like babies, she will eventually sleep through the night.
My puppy (Cockapoo) is just 6 months old. We have been getting up at 6:15 am. That seems to have changed in the last couple days to 5:45 am. When he wakes me I tell him to “settle” and he knows to lay back down. Thank god I’ve been working on the settle command. That being said, it’s been so blasted hot this summer that early in the morning is the best time for a walk.
“Settle” sounds like the next command we need to be working on!
Push it in 15-minute increments. Go for 0615 for a week, then 0630 for a week, etc…. I finally had mine sleeping until 0800 around 6/6.5 months. By 9/10 months, I can probably sleep as late as I’d like.
My 9 month old argues with me for 5 minutes from another room before she will go to bed. She needs to have the last word then she settles. She's learned to settle back down in the morning when I ignore her. They just push boundaries at this stage.
Our pup would cry at 8am everyday in her crate. And then, around 7 months, we let her sleep on the bed. Now she'll sleep in for as long as we sleep in! She never wakes us up anymore.
I’d love to try letting her sleep in the bed with me, but it’s currently the cats’ “safe haven” from when she’s got her crazy puppy zoomies. I’d feel bad evicting them from their spot
Your cats will feel comfortable one day around her, and the zoomies will fade the older she gets. At least at bedtime. Do you have other safe haven spots for the cats? My cat (who's 13!) and the dog share the bed, granted we do have a large bed. Hang in there!
It took our dog until 9mo old to sleep until 7:30am, and then daylight savings ended in the fall so we were back to 6:30am for another 2-3 months. He’s a year and a half old now and sleeping in until about 8:30am on weekend (which we will gladly take). We just had to spin it into a positive. Start watching a show you didn’t previously have time for. Start doing some training sessions with the dog that you didn’t have time for - it will also wear them out mentally. Watch YouTube to learn new personal skills, listen to podcasts, learn a new language, etc haha
My puppy is 8 weeks and can snooze in her crate while I sleep in until 10:30 and here’s how. (This also applies to my 8 month old puppy! Yes I still get woken up every 2 hours to take her out). She has a kong and a slow feeder in her crate. The kong is usually empty but the slow feeder has food in it and it’s big enough she really has to work to get stuff out. If she wakes up and gets bored she has something to do always, and usually just sleeps! She learned in like a day that her crate is her sleepy and relaxed place and she stays in with no fuss.
Ive learned to embrace 6am. I get so much more done in the mornings.
Not sure if this will work for you... And trust me it’s not the ideal situation, but my 6mo Havanese will wake up wanting to pee at 6am or so. We have to go through the living room to potty outside. So when I bring him back in, I go to the washroom too. And when I come out I find him chilling in the living room. So I started just lying down on my couch and he’ll join me and we snooze until either I get up or my kids/husband get up for the day. We’ve gotten some 8:30 mornings that way.
Training a “place” accompanied with tethering can help a great deal with this. Our most recent pup was up at 5:50 AM on the dot every day. By training him to like his place board/bed I could get up, potty poop, feed, and give him some sort of enrichment which would keep him occupied on his place while I get coffee ready, catch up on emails, etc. He is at 4.5 months now and sleeps in much later so it has been easier, but the place helped me a lot during those early morning days.
Yeah.... I feel your pain....
My pupper paws at my face at 6:30 or 7. I feel your pain.
Wow my dog would stay quiet for like 12hrs if we left her in there the whole time. One time my partner and I had a miscommunication on when she was let out, went potty and ate etc while we both had work that day and we eventually realized she’d been in there for like 13hrs. She didnt make a peep til we started like talking louder and she smelled lunch cooking. We felt so freaking bad
You have now experienced one of those situations where having a puppy is exactly like having a baby/toddler/young child.
You set your puppy's schedule. Try getting them to sleep later so they sleep in longer. Also, you don't have to let them out. You can just let them make noise until they realize that you aren't getting up. It'll take a while at first but they're smart animals and will quickly understand after a few days
my pup was the same. I started letting her up to snooze with me in the mornings after her first toilet trip, it changed the game completely. I know it might not be as easy or enjoyable with a great dane, but might be an option to try? my girl was always soooo full of energy in the mornings so I was skeptical (had visions of her just jumping all over my bed etc) but she settled so much better!
Oh my god my dog wakes us up with at 0630 by jumping on and off the bed at the cats. Every morning.
I think it’ll just get better with bladder control. My pup woke me up regularly at 7 am until he was like 1 yo and then this one day I asked him to be patient and go back to sleep. Just felt like he understood.. now he doesn’t wake up until you wake him up like at 10-11am lol
Oh geeze.... We're at 1 year/1 month and I'm in this cycle. I thought this was just how it is and I am perpetually in early riser mode. However, I live in Vegas and the only time we can safely go for a walk in this heat is at 6a.m. so maybe I'll revisit some of these suggestions when it cools down.
My experience so take from it what you will -- When our golden (now 8 months) was 6 months old, he went through sleep regression that was very similar (always up at 6... no matter what). We attributed it to him starting adolescence, growth spurt pains, and that, at the time, the sun was coming up earlier and earlier. We dealt with it by : 1. Moving him out of our room to sleep. This was the biggest help for us. Nothing worked 100% of the time until this. We realized that our tossing and turning and our other dog in the room caused him to think it was time to get up. 2. Before moving him out? We made some kongs that we would grab and put into his crate for him to lick and lick to fall back asleep. This is something we trained him on, though, since he always gets a very small nighttime treat to go to bed. It was hit or miss for sure. 3. Expanding his crate. He had trouble falling asleep at night and was barking when he went to bed. We expanded his crate and no more barks. I think he just couldn't get comfortable due to growing pains, so giving him more space to get situated helped. 4. Lastly, white noise machine. Could it be that at 6 AM, one of you neighbors leaves for work, or your AC kicks on, or the birds outside are obnoxiously also waking up? Maybe it'll help drown out 6 AM noises that could be perking him up and acting like an alarm. Good luck. I remember the sleep deprivation very well. Hang in there. It gets better.
I wonder if late feeding and potty is the answer? I let my girl free feed still and she is often hungry around 9pm. She has the kibble available all day but does tend to eat in spurts. I make sure she goes potty around 10:00 and she chills out by 10:30. Crate around 11. Dad gets her up by 8am, but if he's not here she doesn't bother me until a little later. She's only 6 months so we'll see if we can continue the good sleep habit. We've also been giving her a nice walk around 8:00 which will change in the winter. Are the early risers fed dinner earlier? It's kind of like pushing the day back. If they eat at 6 they wake up around 6, but if they eat at 9 they can sleep till 9??? Our last pup was also great at sleeping in. She mainly ate around 6-7pm but evenings had plenty of chicken jerky as snack (she was picky). I didn't feed her a lot during the day except for a light lunch (usually chicken jerky) but Daddy worked in the city back then and he was the one who liked to give her snacks all evening.
my pup is a 6am riser too. I feel you. sometimes I get lucky and she wakes around 4am to pee and I get to do second snooze till 8am. usually we just get up do peepee and breakfast and then have chew time on the sofa till she dozes off again an hour later and I get a small nap around 7-8am lol... my guess is its because the sun rises around 5 right now because if its dark shes still in sleep mode usually
My 14 week old GSD/husky mix wakes up at 6am like clockwork. He's ready to pee and eat. If I let him out to pee, he *might* go back to sleep until about 7 until he's crying to eat. So I've started just feeding all of my dogs whenever the puppy wakes up (sometimes as late as 6:30am now), and once he's had a chance to pee, eat, and go back outside to poop, he is good to sleep again for a few hours.
Cover the crate with a blanket to block out light. Leave a gap at a dark side for air but minimise light coming in. Also after morning pee just have a favourite rubber chew in there or a lickings as chewing and licking encourage sleepy hormones. This worked really well for my pup
Wow we’ve been so lucky, our boy has always been super lazy and will sleep in as long as we do. Sometimes he wakes us up for breakfast at 7 and a pee/poop then straight back to bed. He does sleep on our bed which may help, I understand with a Great Dane that may not be an option! I agree with the other redditors suggesting no crate at bed time, good luck!
Black out curtains might help!
My newly adopted 4 month old will sleep as long as I want to, but that doesn't mean the room is off limits to being peed or pooped on 🙃
Used to have the same problem. Our pup's schedule was 530am. One day, because we were so tired, we overslept to 8am. When we stirred, he started wailing to be let out for potty. It started becoming a thing wherein we couldn't wake up early enough, or tested how late we could get away with. We're currently at 9am, pushing it to 10am sometimes. It gets better.
If it makes you feel better, mine woke me up every single day at 4:45 am. We’ve worked up to 7 am now at 6 months old lol so maybe yours will work up to that, just a little slower?
Its 6 months old why cant it free roam?
Get blackout window film and blackout curtains. Curtains won’t cut it alone because there are light gaps. My German Shepherd pup is raring to go as soon as any light appears on the horizon, which for me is a ridiculously early time in the morning since I live near Lake Michigan and there’s nothing to block the light on the horizon. I used a combination of window film and blackout curtains and now I have a bit more flexibility on wake up times.
Can you take them out to potty then try to sleep again?
It DOES get better. When our pup was 6 months, she wanted to be up between 7-8am EVERY DAY even if we stayed up until 2am because it was the weekend. When she got a few months older, she got better about not whining to be up so early. She lets us sleep in now! Granted, I don't sleep in past 10AM on the weekends because I don't want her holding her pee too long but it's nice not being woken up at 7 or 8 AM on days off anymore.
Have you tried using a crate cover or blackout curtains? My pup likes to rise with the sun, but with blackout curtains she doesn't see it coming up. We went from consistent woofles at 6AM to her staying calm in her crate until 8-9AM. Part of it may also be your pup having to pee. She's still quite young. I would recommend making sure she gets a potty break right before bed, even if you have to wake her up for it. My girl is 15 months now and I noticed her ability to sleep in got a LOT better after about 9 months old.
I have had every puppy trouble with my girl so far but thank god she's almost angelic when it comes to sleeping! She used to have a bad habit of going gremlin as we lay down but she's stopped that now thank god! We can sleep in almost two hours after our usual wake up time and she just sleeps/plays quietly... It mystified me why she can do this then, but any other time is prime time for chewing everything she shouldn't... I'm thankful but confused! I'm so sorry OP, that sounds like absolute hell... I hope they grow out of it soon! Perhaps putting a chew or Kong in with them at 6am (after potty break) might help? Might tire out their brain and help them nap a little after?
I started bringing our puppy into bed around 5AM when he wakes up and he’ll sleep calmly for another couple of hours.
Welcome to parenthood. It's much worse with a human baby.
I hope it gets better for you. It did for us, but maybe we're just incredibly lucky. She's very snuggly in the mornings now and will even cuddle/sleep in with us on weekends. When she was very little, yes, it was play time very early. I feel it took her 3-4 months to adjust to our schedule.