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.

[Jennifer and Jack]

At five months Jack was in daycare when I worked. We both got up st 5 am I did treatments he slept at my feet. I got coffee and he had breakfast. We both left and I brought him to day care to play until I was done with work.

When he was too little for daycare, I got up super early, did my stuff, walked him a good thirty minutes and he was crated. I had two dog walkers come every few hours.

Now we are both home. We get up to potty in the am...then we go back to bed. Now that he is not a puppy, he sleeps when I do.

I don't think the puppy is trying to show you he is boss by getting up early....I think he his just done sleeping...puppies have so much more energy then grown up dogs...

Duncan is so cute! I used to sit on the floor and play fetch with Javk as I drank my coffee.

[Lisa, Daisy & Dexter]

When Daisy was 5 months old we also got up at 6AM. She would let us know. I would scoop her up (feet never touched the ground) take her out back to her potty spot and then in we would come. She back in he crate and I back in our bed until about 7AM.

Daisy now sleeps in her bed in our room. She sleeps until one of us gets up, today it was me. I got dressed, took her potty and in we came. She is now sleeping on the floor by DH's side of the bed. I am where I always am when this happens, on the computer.

If we stay in bed so does she. Even if it's 9AM. We always make the first move.

[Kaytlin and Cooper]

Cooper wakes up at 8am.... im going to have to train her out of this as i will soon be working 2pm - midnight so im going to need her to sleep in later. its going to be tough

[BG and Gavin]

Gavin is big on sleeping in!  This has developed over time.  At 5 months I think he was still waking up early.  Now most times he will stay sleeping until the last person gets out of bed (usually me).  Being off work for the summer and back and forth to the cottage our routine is less than predictable.  We had a party and campfire last week with lots of company including other dogs and Gavin slept in until 11:30 the next day! 

[Cheryl and Finnegan]

At 5 months, Finn was up at the break of dawn giving me "the look."  You know, the one that says "you planning to stay in that bed all day?"  We'd go for a 1/2 hr. walk in a nearby park and then he'd play with his toys at my feet while I had my coffee and got ready for work.  Now that he's 2, he loves to sleep in.  I'm usually the one waking him up for his walk.  Then he goes back to bed while I get ready for work LOL  Good luck with Duncan!

[Adina P]

They do start to sleep in later as they get older....at least mine do.  Rosco refuses to move until about 9am, occasionally sooner.  And even if he does get up, he just finds a new place to flop down and nap more.  Boca is crated at night and I send her out for a morning potty between 7am and 8am.  My morning routine is focused on a toddler and baby and the dogs hang out or are crated depending on where I need to be in the house and how much supervision Boca can have while I diaper, potty, dress, feed everyone.

[Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*()]

ever since Murphy came home to us and was sleeping on the bed at night, ( by 10 weeks old) he would stay in one spot, and only get up when the second person got up, regardless of the time. My DH would say he is so my dog when it comes to liking his sleep. He still is like that. If we are up. He's up. If we sleep later, he stays in bed.

Now Bella, she is up and down all night and does come to the sides of the bed and stares at us at all hours. Sometimes for potty, sometimes just to check in and get a head rub. But she will go back to bed and settle until we get up. If DH gets up early (4:00am most days) she will get right up in bed with me and lay on his pillows like she's saying, "finally, he moved, so I can have my spot back"

When I get up, about 5:30 on work days, they run to the bedroom door, go right to their kitchen spot and wait for breakfast. I get a cup of coffee and get their food ready. Somedays it's a process of mixing and cutting if it's a home cooked or Raw Food day. They now lay outside the kitchen and are not allowed inside the invisible line of the doorways.
Then they go out and are home with us, or home waiting for the pet sitter to come play, let them out or swim w them.

[Laurie, Wally & Charlotte]

Perhaps Duncan is getting up so early, because he knows that he'll be fed breakfast right away.  If you changed up the routine by letting him out to relieve himself when he starts to complain, and then put him back in his crate for a while before feeding him, maybe he'd start to sleep a bit longer.  It might be worth a try.  

[Richard Crowe]

Our dogs wake up between six and six-thirty AM.  We get up and let them out to go potty.  Then we clean up the puppy pen (we presently have four Maltese/Chihuahua puppies from a Maltese female that we rescued from a shelter while she was pregnant). We then feed the puppies and settle down for our coffee but, first we give each dog a treat of cut-up Dick Van Patten Beef Roll and a milk bone.  We can tell a lot about the personality of our rescue dogs by how they accept the treats.

Then Judy takes some of the dogs into bed and reads the newspaper while I take the others into the office and work on the computer.  We feed our dogs their breakfast at 8:30 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yI-xSb37LY

Sometimes we have fifteen to twenty dogs to feed since we do Maltese and Doodle rescue.

 

[Camilla and Darwin]

Darwin slept until about 6:30-7:30 until he was around 5 months, after which he started waking up earlier and earlier every morning. After it started being around 5:00am, I decided that he was just learning that he got out whenever he wanted if he whined. So the next morning, he whined and I said "no" really loudly from the bedroom. He went right back to sleep and didn't make a peep until 7:30. We only had to say no 1 or 2 more times, then it wasn't a problem anymore. He now will sleep in until whenever we get up. When I say whenever, I mean it. Sometimes we wake up at 8, sometimes we wake up at 12. It just depends on when we go to sleep I guess. It's the same amount of time in his crate, just a different rotation and he does completely fine with it. 

I think your pup may still need to go out earlier, but eventually he will be able to adjust to your work schedule. 

[Shannon and Finn]

Finn is 6 months old and is a sleeper, stays in bed until I get up but occasionally the kids coax him out earlier. He isnt crated at night, just sleeps in our room. He tends to lounge through the morning with more energy at night. I am a night owl and he is my shadow for sure. He also eats later in the morning, his own choice, and isnt in a crate waiting to get out so that might be it too. He has been this way since the get go.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

My guys are two and three, and they love to sleep in.  I get them up around seven when I wake up, but they'd definitely sleep much later if I let them.   It was just about five months when they started sleeping until we woke them, although they sleep in their beds in our room....that may make a difference.