What's Your Morning Routine?

[Theresa & Duncan]

This is mine:

Duncan wakes up at 6:00 AM every morning. I can practically set my watch to it. I technically don't have to wake up for work until 6:45, but I digress. Duncan is crying in his crate, so I get up. We go downstairs, I feed him breakfast, and let him out. He has a big pen in the laundry room where he stays when we aren't home, so he settles down in there and waits for his peanutbutter filled kong. I give it to him, then go back upstairs to catch another half hour of sleep. Duncan stays in his pen until I'm nearly ready for work, but I blowdry my hair downstairs so I can play fetch with him (yes, INDOOR fetch) while I'm finishing up. The it's back in the pen when I leave for work until the hubby comes down to take him out for a walk.

Duncan is 5 months old and has been getting up at 6:00 for almost 2 months. He would wake up at all different times before that (usually later). I'm curious to see what other morning routines are like. I've read a lot about pups needing to know "who's boss", including when is time to get up, but I've never figured that part out. I'd certainly like for him to sleep later or at least hang out in his crate for a bit without cryIng, but I'm not sure where to start or if that's possible.

[Adina P]

Just curious, does your getting them up have to do with training or some other reason?

[Kimmy & Chewie]

Chewie is 15 months old. Gets up at 6am on most days. 

When he was younger, he will try to wake me up by nudging and licking me, but since I don't have to get up till 6.30am, I ignore his waking up attempts until my alarm goes off at 6.30am. I usually get up before my alarm and know that Chewie's awake (from the sound of him walking around in the bedroom). The moment he sees my eyes open, he'll start the nudging and licking :)
I take him down to go potty and have his breakfast. Then I have my breakfast and get ready for work. Chewie goes back to sleep for most part of the day.

[Christine & Shelby]

Shelby now sleeps (or entertains herself) until I get up in the morning (usually 5:45/6:00 on weekdays, 7:30/8:00 on weekends). Shelley now has a dog door, so she has usually already gone potty by the time I get up, but when she was younger.... That would be first on the list. Then I get a quick drink of my morning coffee (Diet Coke) and we head out for our morning walk (30 minutes oe so). Upon our return I watch the news and we play a little bit of indoor fetch or tug. Thnen I get ready for work, Shhelby supervises.... And I feed her around 7:45 when I leave for work.

When she was still be crated during the day - I would come home at lunch, let her out to potty, co for a quick walk around the block... Play fetch for a bit and then back in the crate and I was back to work. Since it is just me and Shelby I started transitioning her to house freedom pretty early.... I can't remember the exact timing, but I think she was 100% crate free by 1 year!!!

[Heather Martinez]

I don't remember exactly what time Teddy woke up at 5 months, but it was probably around 6 am or even earlier. He didn't start sleeping past 6:30 until he was about a year old. Then he progressively began to sleep later. Teddy is 21 months old and now he sleeps or at least waits quietly in his pen until I get up. On weekdays, I get up between 6 and 7 am, but on weekends I sleep as late as 9:30 am. He will sometimes make noise to let me know that he's awake, but he won't really bark. He'll do a "roo-oo" or a high pitched squeak. We're extremely strict about barking, so he's been trained not to do it. Once I get up we go on a walk, and he doesn't get breakfast until I leave for work on weekdays or after his walk on weekends. 

[Lynda Kamrath]

Our morning routine is a little different since both my DH and I are retired.  We work, if and when we want to, at home or away, but one of us is always here with the dogs.  I get up and read in the early morning and then go back to bed.  The dogs have sleeping mats in our bedroom but sleep wherever they like.  At 7:15 to 7:30 one of us gets up and makes the coffee for him, cappachino for me, and bring it into the bedroom.  When we are back in bed, we tap the bed for the boys to hop up and they get on the bed for their morning scratches.  After coffee, my DH gets up and takes Harpo out to get the morning paper.  Harpo gets his treat for bringing the paper and then comes into bed and eats it in front of Groucho.  My DH reads the paper and then gets breakfast for us.  After I eat breakfast, I feed the dogs, and then the day begins - unless it is Saturday.  On Saturday, my DH always makes pancakes or French toast, and we cut up the leftovers and have a pancake hunt in the backyard.  The dogs do a sit/stay while he hides the pancakes all over the yard and then he tells them to "go gettum" and they look all over with their noses until they find all the pancakes (one dog at a time).  Well, that is the way we start our day.  Retirement is great! 

[Amy, Cubbie & Ollie]

Cubbie is 3.5 and Ollie is almost 3 and we get up at 4:45am M-F for work and that seems to carry over to the weekend.  On the weekends, I'm lucky if they sleep in till 5:30am.  They are just used to going out to the bathroom at that time and it seems that their bodies are on that schedule no matter what time we go to bed at night.  One the weekends I just let them out to potty, give them a biscuit, and then tell them to go back to bed and we usually get another hour or 2 of sleep until they decide that it is time for breakfast.  I guess in our house, the doodles "are the boss" because there is no sleeping when one dog is making noise because he is hungry and the other one is giving you tons of kisses to wake you up for breakfast.  lol

[Emily & Wispa]

Wispa is still just a baby, at 11 weeks, but we do have a routine.  Again, it varies from weekday to weekend.  On weekdays, I get up at 6, take her out and feed her.  Then she gets to cuddle in bed for about 10 minutes :)  Then I leave for work at 7, and my fiance is up with her, plays with her while he has breakfast, then takes her out again at 8, and leaves her penned in the kitchen/hallway area with a filled kong and some kibble scattered on the floor.  Then I get home before 1pm, as I'm working half ways at the moment.  I'm back to full days from next week, though, so we'll have a dog walker come take Wispa from 11am-1pm every weekday.

On weekends, we like a good lie in, so I usually will wake up at 8, feed Wispa and take her out, then go back to bed and she sleeps at the foot for a good 1-2 hours by which point we feel extremely lazy and wonder if perhaps today is the day we'll go to the gym :)