Hi All, We have a near perfect 7 month old female lab. Slept through the night in her crate from day one, a big chewer but generally on her own stuff and completely dry in the house for the last 4 months. My last challenge appears to be getting her to sleep past 5:45am! She starts off whining then digs at the crate floor. We wait until she stops before we go down, it can be 30 minutes digging solidly so she is very keen to get out! She sleeps outside of her crate in the day (she originally was in her crate but can be trusted now so we have given her that freedom). She generally goes to bed at 10:30 in a covered crate. Her crate is towels and safe soft toys, as she chews at her bedding otherwise. She always has a final wee in the garden last thing. When we get up to her in the AM we take her straight out for a walk and she does a wee instantly and a poo about 1 minute later. We have tried: Putting her to bed later - she still wakes the same time. Letting her out in the garden instead of a walk (she runs straight out, eliminates, goes back to bed and sleeps). Getting up before she whines Having an alarm go off that she hears before we go in. Taking her for another walk in the early evening or late at night, but nothing seems to solve it - she wakes up the same time every day! Key parts from her routine (we both WFH, often both there but 1 of us always is 1 hours walk in the morning (off lead, running around in the woods). Breakfast in her frozen kong nap most of the AM with a wee break, bit of training and fun. 1 hour walk at lunchtime Lunch in her frozen kong nap most of the PM with a wee break, bit of training and fun. Dinner at 6pm in frozen kong. Play with us / bit of training. Has a long lasting treat chew around 8pm (bully stick, buffalo ear, beef tendon). Big drink then bowl is taken up. Sleeps from 9pm until whenever we wake her for a final toilet break! She is very much asleep at this point! I think it may just be a case of waiting until she gets older, but wanted to see if anyone had any ideas or similar experiences?
Don't lose heart. Sounds like you are doing everything you can. It's an age thing and she will grow out of it. I can remember staggering out at 5:30am so my girl could toilet. Then I'd just stagger back to bed for another hour or so. She's now 3 and half years old and waits patiently until I wake up to let her out, usually around 7am. So I'd say, hang in there. It gets better in time.
great - i thought that would be the case. Do you remember roughly when it got better for you? I am trying to plan a little break for us (and the dog) and would be good if she was sleeping a bit better.
Definitely age related and to some extent season related. I think Autumn/Winter, darker mornings, you should get some later starts. Hang in there.
Oh, golly. From memory I think she was around 12 months old. Mind you, we are currently back to early wake up calls because our girl has a 3 weeks old puppy who performs the hallelujah chorus around 6am. Kind of payback. The bleary eyed Labrador mum dragging herself into the puppy pen to feed her squalling offspring.
Honestly, there will be a light at the end of the tunnel (and it won't be a freight train)! Hillary waited patiently until I cracked an eye open at 8am today. Far later than is normal for her. Usually she makes polite enquiries (a nose nudging my arm) around 6:30 or 7:00.
thought i would give an update! After trusting her outside of her crate in the day time for a couple of weeks with no destructive chewing or accidents we left her crate door open at night... Instant lie in! We now have to wake her up, her record is 10pm-8:30am! I think she was just uncomfortable/bored and wanted to stretch out. For anyone reading this, there is hope!
I was going to suggest de-crating. IMHO they don't need to be crated, once they can be trusted not to destroy things. We also have a dog door, so they can go into the back yard anytime they want. None of our Labs tended to be big barkers, and did not cause problems in the yard by them selves. They would normally prefer to be in the house or, where ever we were.
