My nearly 8 month-old black lab puppy is going to bed between 10:00 - 11:00 pm and wakes up by 5:00 am already. I feed her at 6:00, so she's awake a whole hour when I wish she was sleeping, or at least quietly awake (right now she tends to wine/bark after a while). I do know how to reinforce quiet, but I am wondering if she is waking up by 5:00 am because she isn't tired enough from not having enough exercise or waking up hungry. She gets at least 45-60 minutes of formal exercise each day and is neither overfed nor underfed by looking at her. Is it normal for a dog in her situationto be awake by 5:00 am?
8 hours is a reasonable goal for night time at this age, so she's waking a little earlier than we'd expect. This article has some tips that might help: https://www.thelabradorsite.com/dog-wakes-up-too-early/ We actually recommend just 40 minutes of formal exercise a day at this age, so I'd be surprised if lack of exercise was the issue - but you might want to look at how much stimulation her brain gets during the day. How many hours does she spend crated during the day? And how much time does she spend alone? Puzzle games, training games etc, at regular intervals throughout the day, may help tire her out and meet her need for stimulation and interaction so she's not calling for you at 5am, too
