Sammy Barking In Crate One Hour Earlier Then We Get Up

[Steve, Maria & Sammy]

Hello - Wanted to see if anyone has experienced anything similar:

Sammy (4 mos old, we have had him for 2 mos) has been great about his crate, especially at night, but lately he has been getting up about an hour before we usually get up and barks until we let him out. (We get up each morning at 6:45am and he has been getting up between 5:15am-5:30am). The first 2 times he did it, I took him straight out to go to the bathroom and then put him back in his crate where he continued to bark each time. I tried staying up later and letting him hang out until around midnight, thinking maybe we were retiring for the night too early and he simply "had to go", but that is not the case. Each time this week this has happened, we went to bed for the night at different times (10, 10:45, and 12am). Is it just a phase? I need every minute of sleep I can get! Prior to this week, if our alarms didn't go off for work (meaning Saturday or Sunday), he would sometimes sleep until 7:30-8am. Any ideas?

[Adina P]

I think a lot of puppies like to get up early...and gradually as they get older they realize the beauty of sleeping in.  My Rosco is 5 y.o. And you have to FORCE him to get up before 9am.  But as a pup Sammy's age he was ready for the day by 6am or earlier!  Where is his crate?

[Adina P]

What I would do is issue a loud verbal command or reprimand and then march to his crate and create a mini earthquake, shaking or banging on his crate.  Be prepared to repeat for 10-15 min EVERY time he barks until he gets the message that 'Quiet' means quiet or else earthquakes happen.  I don't mean to shake/bang on the crate for 15 min straight...I meant that it might take 15 min of going through the bark-->'quiet'-->bang on crate before he quits.

You can also set your alarm for 15 min after he likes to wake up and then over a week or two incrementally set it 15 min later and later till you reach your wake up time. Then he might await the alarm as a cue that you will let him out.

[Elizabeth, Bailey & Bruin]

This worked for Bailey...all I had do do was hit the top of her crate with my hand and yelled "quiet" and she did.  It only took two times...Hated doing it but it worked!!!

[Sherri, Sophie, Winston, & Kitty]

This is what you told me when i was having this problem with Sophie and it worked like a charm.

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

When my dogs were puppies, they usually got up around 5 am and had to go out. I would take them out and bring them back into bed with me and they always went right back to sleep. However, if you are opposed to this long term, do not start it, but I happen to love this early time of the day snuggled up with my Doodles. If Sammy is in the crate all day while you are at work and all night while you sleep, that is a lot of time spent in a crate, in my opinion. I might be in the minority, but I did not crate my dogs long at night as puppies, but rather shut them in our bedroom with us and they usually preferred the floor. Neither of my dogs ever had one accident in our bedroom and now have full run of our house at night while we sleep and sometimes, I find them in their crates in the morning. Good luck!

[Ginny Nightingale]

My 11 month old pup has been crated at night all along and started waking up at 6 am--this was not a problem when I was raising 8 other pups for the last few months, but when the last of those pups left, I was desperate to sleep in a bit! I decided to let the puppy sleep gated in to our family room and not in the crate. He has been sleeping later ever since. As a matter of fact, we slept until 8:30 today with not a peep out of him. (We are retired so do not need to get up early anymore.) I am not sure I would give your puppy that much freedom yet, though. Maybe do what Adina says as far as the "earthquake" or alarm, then, as soon as you can trust him, gate him in the kitchen with a bed and let him sleep in there. 

[Ben & Amos Zeeman]

Does he go bathroom when you take him out? at 4 months, going all night without a potty break might be a little tough for him. If he does need to go to the bathroom, I would put him back in his crate and ignore it. When amos started barking to get out of his crate, and I knew he didn't have to go to the bathroom, I just ignored it and after a few nights, he learned it didn't get him anywhere and he stopped.

[Stephanie and Jellybean]

We had an issue with this at about the same age. Our trainer told us to get up, walk right past her crate, making no eye contact, and we were not to let her out of the crate. We spent about 5 minutes in the room, and then walked out. She was never allowed out of the crate while barking. It only took a couple of days, and she stopped barking altogether in the crate. She knows she has to be quiet to get out of the crate. She also learned she is not in charge of when she gets out of the crate! It's that alpha thing!

[Barbara B., Sasha & Oliver]

LOL Sammy is trying to train you :)   Oliver did this when he was a baby too.  He did this for a very short period of time, I rode the wave until it passed.  I also started feeding him his dinner as early as possible, I would exercise him like crazy during the evening and then he settled into a routine.  He really did not make much of a fuss, just a little bark.  I get up very early at 4:30 am - yeah I know ... crazy huh?  and of course Ollie would do this at 3:30 - 4:00am  arrrrghhhh !!  I think it will pass, just a puppy thing. 

[Ginny Nightingale]

How is it going with Sammy? Have you tried any strategies yet? 

[Steve, Maria & Sammy]

Sorry for the delayed response. After creating this post the holidays happened and we have had a very different schedule, seeing a lot of new people (to Sammy), and a lot of kids! I think the day after Christmas, Sammy slept until almost 9am! Since then, the issue that we had seen for nearly a week appears to have passed. When we get back into our regular schedule next week, we will be able to see if it is still happening. Thank you everyone for the great ideas.

[Carol Brand]

I'm a crate banger too.  It is a bad habit for dogs to start barking in the crate.