Good morning all! Hoping for some advice from all of you experienced lab owners please. We have had our puppy for a week now - he is 10 weeks old. He is doing really well, going to bed quietly at around 11.15pm, getting up for a toilet break around 3.15am and going back to his crate quietly afterwards. However, he is waking us crying/ barking between 5.45-6am (our alarm is set for 6am). What is the best way of dealing with this please without creating an issue for the future? We have tried a couple of things. We always wait for a pause in his cries before we get out of bed and go downstairs, and he's always quiet when we let him out of the crate - we take him straight to the garden to toilet. Initially we started our day after this but a couple of times now we have put him back to bed again, and endured 30 mins of crying/ barking. When he's quiet for a few mins we get up and start the day. We greet him quietly and don't play immediately to try and get the message across that 'humans aren't fun first thing in the morning', and he isn't fed breakfast until 7am. We have had one quiet morning when I woke before the alarm and pre-empted the issue by getting up before he started. Is this the best way? To get up at say 5.30am before he starts? Just worried he'll think we always get up that early. Or is it just a puppy thing, like a baby, will he improve as he gets older? All advice appreciated. Thanks.
You are doing all the right things - he will soon start to sleep longer If you can stand it then getting up before him then making it a few minutes later each day will work, but he will grow out of it like kids do even if you carry on as you are. ...
Hello Dino, we're going through the same thing with our 8 week old pup. Seems they are early risers at this age and this is normal Tiring but normal lol After the advice I got here, we just get up with him at 5am before he starts fussing. Whenever we next go down in the morning and he's still asleep, we will adjust the clock forward a bit.
Thank you Boogie and Briar. It's reassuring to know we are doing the right thing. I'll just set the alarm earlier until he sleeps longer. Hopefully the darker mornings ahead will help as well.
I found with our puppy it was an age thing. He used to wake up at around 5/5.30 every day and I was literally dead on my feet. Then one day I woke up not feeling like death checked the time and it was 7.20. I shot out of bed and down the stairs because I thought he was dead or something! Since then he's slept through until easily 7am. However, if I'm not up by around 7.30/8am I get *yap yap.. Ermmm I'm up people*. Then if I still don't get up, 5 or so minutes later.. *yap yap yap.. Still awake people and busting for the loo*. He's pretty lazy now though and after he's been to the loo and had his breakfast will easily settle down for a couple more hours. They'll get there!
I get up at 645 am and a puppy didn't change that. I'd take her out for a wee at 530 am and then put her straight back in her crate - no chit chat, no lights on. Same routine from day 1 and she caught on really quickly. Even if she whined for another wee at 630 am I'd put her straight back in her crate until 645. Maybe I got lucky or maybe it was my consistency, but it worked.
In the beginning, Jenny would wake to go out for a piddle around 2:30 or 3:00 a.m. Now, she goes down around 7:00 p.m., usually on the floor and we put her in her crate no fussing, just goes back to sleep. John takes her out around 11:00 and she goes right back into her crate, no fuss. Sleeps until around 6:00 or 6:30a.m. I usually come down,take her out for poo and pee, back into her crate with a treat and she goes back to sleep for a hour or so and gives me enough time to shower and get ready for my day with Jenny. I feed her 1st feeding 7:00 or 7:30 a.m. So far so good. I can't believe she goes down so early but she has done that since the day we brought her home. She usually takes three naps during the day time along with a few timeouts f she gets too crazy and bitey.
