Still Not Sleeping Through The Night

[Guest BeckaS]

I feel so silly asking so many questions, but I want Toki to be as happy & comfortable as possible, so here goes!

 

We have a fairly standard schedule that we follow (although it varies a bit on weekends), but after 2 months, it seems Toki has adopted a schedule of his own. We go up to be usually between 1030-1130, and Toki follows no problem. He goes to bed right when we do. The problem comes in the morning - his internal clock gets him up 30-60 minutes before I do. No matter what time we go to bed or how much we walk him, he is always up before us. Then he just paces around our bedroom until we let him out. He doesn't have to pee & he knows he won't get food for another 30-60 minutes, but he gets up anyway.

 

Is there any way to get him to sleep that extra hour? I'd love the extra rest in the morning.

[Guest jenznaz]

Earplugs?

 

Xilo does this too, it's pretty annoying. Sometimes if I pat his bed and call him, he'll lay back down, otherwise he lays directly in front of the bedroom door and flops around accidentally scratching the door and walls and making a ruckus like an impatient child.

 

Sorry I don't have more advice, but I can totally relate!

[Guest BooBooMama]

I feel so silly asking so many questions, but I want Toki to be as happy & comfortable as possible, so here goes!

 

We have a fairly standard schedule that we follow (although it varies a bit on weekends), but after 2 months, it seems Toki has adopted a schedule of his own. We go up to be usually between 1030-1130, and Toki follows no problem. He goes to bed right when we do. The problem comes in the morning - his internal clock gets him up 30-60 minutes before I do. No matter what time we go to bed or how much we walk him, he is always up before us. Then he just paces around our bedroom until we let him out. He doesn't have to pee & he knows he won't get food for another 30-60 minutes, but he gets up anyway.

 

Is there any way to get him to sleep that extra hour? I'd love the extra rest in the morning.

 

BooBoo woke up at 5:00 every morning for months. I would just 'play asleep' and ignore her. Eventually she adjusted to my body clock.

[SPDoggie]

Since you know he does not NEED to go out, do your best to ignore him, maybe say, "lie down" and in time he should get the hang of sleeping later.

 

Our boy Kingsley gets up at 3am. He used to come over and look at us like, "you wanna get up and play?" But has learned that he can just re-adjust and then stay asleep longer! (we've had him going on 5 years now)

[Guest Sunset123]

Arrisa is starting to get up earlier, too. I think she's noticing that it's getting light earlier. She will do the same thing... pacing the bed and whining.

 

What we had to do was train her to follow the command, "go to your bed." Now when she wakes up too early we have the tools to let her know she needs to go back to sleep. It's really helpful!

[Guest momofevie]

I, too, lie very still and say, "not yet, Evie. Go lay down." Took a few times, but she got it. Now, sometimes I have to wake her up!

[Guest Spencers_Greyt]

I think you're out of luck. Mine get up with the sun - so summer it's really early, winter it's later. I don't lock them in the bedroom with me though and leave my bedroom door open so they can mosey around the house if they want to or use the dog door to get out.

[Guest greytgrandma]

Hot Rod sleeps longer if he has a small snack of kibble before bed.And he eats his supper late anyway around 8 in the evening

If he eats any earlier than that hes up way to early for me when he spends the night

[silverfish]

Have you tried walking him last thing at night? One or two of ours have done better on that routine. Sometimes a biscuit or two just before bedtime works, too. If it's just that he wants to be up and doing, you have two choices; train him to stay in bed until you get up, or make him sleep somewhere else.

 

Ours have always slept downstairs. It's taken Sid the longest to adjust to being an only dog, sleeping alone away from his people, but we're there now and he doesn't even bother to get out of bed when we get up in the morning. It hasn't been helped by the fact that there's often been someone sleeping in the downstairs guest room, because then he's had company, and has often been allowed to sleep in there with them, but we weren't in a particular hurry so it didn't matter to us.

 

If it's just the light which is waking Toki, you might think about having heavier curtains to block out more light? I had a friend once who used to do that with her children when they were toddlers. She said it was like covering up a budgie's cage - no light, no noise.

[Guest pennmorgan]

The squirt bottle and a loud voice worked like a charm for us, once we took down the crate and Olivia started pestering us at 5:45 am. A couple days of squirting her in the face, and she hasn't made a peep in months. She wouldn't dare, for fear of the scary squirt bottle!

[Guest BeckaS]

Silverfish - Yes, we do a short walk before bed...but perhaps a longer one might tired him out more.

 

For everyone who suggested to "play asleep", I tried it this morning & it got me another 40ish minutes! Toki paced the room for awhile & eventually went back to his bed. He got back up about 15 minutes before my alarm & I figured for a first try, this was pretty good, so I got up with him then. Fingers crossed for even better luck tomorrow!

[kronckew]

'go to bed' and 'lie down' work mostly here. at least for a while, they can get me an extra half hour sometimes. they picked up those commands early on. millie will also sometimes get up before me and blue, and starts fussing about until i (and blue) get up. she then gets into the bed we've just vacated. little devil.

 

she has been adjusting her clock slowly to the lighter mornings. blue would stay in bed till the house disintegrated around him from old age, or at least till he hears positive signs i'm serious about going out, they know the sound of velcro sandal straps, a sure sign. they can even usually hear me tie my shoe laces. i swear they can hear me looking at their leashes.

[GeorgeofNE]

I notice you didn't indicate what TIME he wakes up!

 

George woke up at exactly 4 AM for the first two months. I eventually got sick of that and told him to go lay down until it was time (which is only 5 AM!) and he got over it fast enough. They are used to be woken up fairly early in the kennels I believe.

[Guest BeckaS]

Thanks to all for the advice. Ignoring Toki seems to be working. This morning he got up only 20 minutes before I usually do. Small victories!!