Early riser

[Robyn, Greg and Snickers]

Snickers used to sleep until 6 am ever since we got him however since the time change in October he has been getting up at 5 am. I thought he just needed some time to adjust but this seems a bit extreme. Yesterday, he was at daycare all day came home exhausted and was raring to go at 5 again! Any thoughts from this wise group? Will this go on until we change the clocks next Spring??

[Camilla and Darwin]

Darwin started whining earlier and earlier each day to get out a couple weeks back. My husband just got up, let him out, then put him back in. He didn't need to go to the bathroom either, just wanted attention. Then one morning, I decided he was just whining for attention and I just told him "No" when he started whining. He immediately stopped and went back to sleep until eight. (He usually sleeps from eleven to eight but had started to whine around 6:30 or 7:00)

I didn't say it very harshly at all, just a firm no. We did this two mornings in a row and he stopped both times. Since then, we haven't had any more problems, he just sleeps straight through until eight. Maybe he just needs to know that he needs to stay in there, and barking won't get him out.

[Dan, Judi, & Timbow]

This is a different approach and may or may not work for you, but it really helped us with Timbow. He used to start crying really early in the morning too and it would make us crazy! Especially when we knew he didn't have to go to the bathroom right then. All he wanted was to be with us, so we started letting him sleep on the floor by our bed. We closed our bedroom door so he couldn't have roam of the house, and put a blanket down so he would be comfy. It worked miracles. He would sleep until we woke up and best of all, he was happy. Your puppy might be crying early because he thinks you should be awake and giving him attention.

[Paul & Michele]

It's funny you should mention this I haven't noticed it with Molly (our Goldendoodle) but my 3 1/2 yr old little girl does this. Now that the time has gone back she goes to bed a little earlier and rises a little earlier too! With the exception of when it's cold out and she doesn't want to get out of the covers.........

[Yvonne N]

Astro is getting up every morning around 3am ready to play. Ugh. Astro, go lay down buddy. He will usually find a toy to entertain himself with. That is after a cold nose in the face wake-up.

[Dan, Judi, & Timbow]

hahaha. The few times that Timbow wakes up early he does the cold nose in the face to me... sometimes followed by a lick. lol