Tips On Getting Greyhound Out Of Bed In Morning For Walks

[Guest Winnie2014]

Winnie and I get up around 5-5:15am most mornings. She usually starts shifting around before this, but not always. The minute I turn on the TV she jumps up for some cuddles/petting followed by her breakfast (which she gladly eats!) We walk at 6am, so after she eats she usually settles into her bed while I get ready for work.

 

But recently, I've had to pitch treats for her to even want to get up to go for a walk! And even then, they've got to be smelly treats, none of our usual freeze dried chicken treats. This morning, she ate the treats, I put on her collar and she went right back to her bed. Little twerp. I physically picked her up to go outside.

 

We live in an apartment, so she has to go out before I go to work so she can do her business. And she's perfectly fine and willing to walk once we get out the door (even at the door)! In the afternoons, she will get up to go out when I say, "Wanna go for a walk?" Mornings I get no response to the same inquiry. Our walks on average during the week are 30-40 minutes depending on how much we stop and sniff. Weekends we'll walk for an hour sometimes. She gets walked by me 2x a day and the dog walker around lunchtime M-F.

 

Is she just acting like a princess or is there a better solution for me to get her to walk in the mornings? I really need to leave the house around 6:45am to get to work on time (7am meetings are a killer, for sure.)

[Feisty49]

Boy does this sound familiar, but since I'm retired, most of the time it makes no difference.

 

Annie's rise-and-shine time has moved ahead, and right now it's about 8:30, back from 9 o'clock last week right after clocks changed. Until about September last year, Annie would get up when I got up, between 6 and 6:30. She hasn't seen 6:30 in months, unless there is a reason for which I have to insist. She will get up If I stand at her bedroom bed, use my mom/grandma voice (which is not a loud voice), seriously point my finger toward the door and say to her, "You have to get up now!" she will get up, albeit reluctantly. This voice works for a lot of things, such as planting when on a walk. I've had her over 3-1/2 years and she knows when I am serious.

 

Try to be serious with Winnie. No whiney, sweet, cajoling voice. You mean business and she needs to listen up. Assume your insistence is going to work. If it doesn't work, continue with the treats??

 

To avoid her running away away after putting on her collar, have the leash attached to the collar before putting it on and then hang on to it. She can't run if you're holding her. Annie's leash and collar are always attached and hang on a hook next to the back door.

 

P.S. In my opinion, she is acting like a princess. Even the best of them, and Annie is one of the best in the behavior area, can be stubborn and reluctant to stay with the program and have to be brought back to reality.

Edited March 23, 2015 by Feisty49

[krissy]

How old is Winnie? Could be she has some aches and pains now and needs a little longer to get going. If she's a middle aged or older hound, maybe consider a good joint supplement and see if that makes any difference.

 

And if she's a young hound... well then I guess it could be any number of things!

[Guest Winnie2014]

Oh she's young! She's going to turn 4 in May. So it definitely sounds like princess behavior. I'll work on using a more firm voice in the morning. We use "okay" to be released from her bed but that might not be firm enough for our needs in the morning.

 

As for the collar/leash, they're always attached and usually she sidesteps her bed on the way to the door but today she made a beeline for the bed. Next time she does I'll just firmly tell her "Nope" and tell her "Let's go!" with a gentle tug on the leash.

 

She had the luxury of getting up later last weekend when the sitter stayed with her when I went out of town, but even when I try to sleep in I wake up to her rustling/licking herself around 5am anyway!

[NeedlenoseJake]

No advice, but I just have to say I chuckled when I saw this title. Only greyhounds!

[XTRAWLD]

Oh she's being a prissy pants!

 

Ryder does the same thing. He usually responds the third time I call him, and when he's really being lazy the sixth time. After that, i go over, fasten the leash to his collar, back away a bit and lightly tug and up he goes.

[Guest Winnie2014]

No advice, but I just have to say I chuckled when I saw this title. Only greyhounds!

 

Isn't that the truth! It's so funny because she's perfectly happy to go out once we're at the door/outside the apartment. And if I say the word "Car" or "park" on the weekends she goes bananas - helicopter tail, hopping about. We usually sleep in an extra hour, go for a walk, and then get in the car to go to the park/my parents'/wherever else, and then come home to a quick walk (~15 mins), and then I leave for the afternoon to do my errands and such.

[Guest Rose29]

This made me laugh. I can sympathise with you, I can have Jake's coat and lead on some mornings and his still fast asleep in bed!

[CharlieRhea]

I laughed too when I saw the title. My 5 yr old Greyhound does that @ night now. He gets excited when I put his collar on but then lays on his bed and wont move. I have the luxury of having a fenced in yard so he can go out there if he has to. Sorry, that doesn't help your dilemma at all. I suppose you have to remain tough in the morning and make her go do her thing. Is it still dark when you go out that early?

[Guest Winnie2014]

Glad to give everyone a good laugh today! I just don't want to make the treats the "norm" in the morning. Treats are rewards for doing proper things out on our walks/in the house not for just getting out of bed.

 

Before DST, it was starting to get light out as we were walking..now we're walking in the dark again, which stinks.

[macoduck]

Have you tried being ready to go out the door as soon as she's finished eating? You could tether her to you so she couldn't go back to bed.

[rsieg]

The real problem here is this:

 

"Winnie and I get up around 5-5:15am most mornings."

 

As a non-morning person, I have to agree with Winnie here. If God meant for people/dogs to get up that early, he would have put up the sun to light the way :-)

[Guest Winnie2014]

Have you tried being ready to go out the door as soon as she's finished eating? You could tether her to you so she couldn't go back to bed.

 

That's a thought for sure. I will just have to make sure to change my clothes before her breakfast. I try to give her the 30 minutes to digest her food if at all possible before our walks. I start putting on makeup as she's eating and then she'll usually go and watch me from the carpet in my bedroom before retiring back to her bed in the living room.

 

The real problem here is this:

 

"Winnie and I get up around 5-5:15am most mornings."

 

As a non-morning person, I have to agree with Winnie here. If God meant for people/dogs to get up that early, he would have put up the sun to light the way :-)

 

I also agree as a non-morning person! But 7am conference calls with the other side of the world make that a difficult task indeed. When I first got her, Winnie was up and about at 3am which was when they fed them in the kennel! That changed pretty quickly. She's usually happy enough for a stretch and some attention after I sit on the couch in the morning prior to her breakfast, so she's up and awake (mostly). I admit, I don't sleep as deep as I used to...Winnie rustling/digging/licking in the middle of the night wakes me up sometimes.

[turbotaina]

When I adopted my old boy, Turbo, our schedule was to get up, walk, feed, I'd get ready for work, then he'd get a final turn out in the back yard before I'd leave for work. He pretty quickly associated the final turn-out with me leaving for work, and he'd refuse to go out. So I changed my schedule so that he would get his walk right before I left. That way, I could be sure that he was empty when I left. So maybe switch your routine order up a bit and throw her off?

 

Our boy Heyokha always willingly goes for walks with me, but he has a different routine with my husband. Collar/leash/coat go on, then he'll got and lie down on his bed and refuse to move until hubby throws some bread for him Then he'll get up and go for a walk. Sometimes, he won't get up, so hubby throws bread, walks out of the house, Heyokha gets up, gets bread, hubby goes back into house and walks him out Part of the reason that he's so willing to go with me is that I walk him in areas where he likes to walk, and he doesn't enjoy his walks with DH as much

[Dawnnziggy]

I also get up early but the dogs go out right away. When they come back in, they get breakfast and I get ready for work. They have to go pee so they go willingly. I have to have breakfast ready though. My old guy who will be 12 in a month waits until he hears the leashes.

[locket]

I second the collar + leash combo!

Jack doesn't even need the leash at this point, just knowing he is wearing his martingale is enough for him to follow me

[macoduck]

How did it go this morning?

[Guest Winnie2014]

It went better. I sent an email off to my dog trainer and he suggested lightly tugging on her leash towards her butt which worked. Success!

 

We then worked on our "down" for a few minutes before our walk.

 

I think we've found our solution. Definitely find time for training before our walks and a light tug on the leash to get her out of bed. She gets excited for training and then wants to go out for our walk. I like having the walk the last thing that we do before I leave for work, so I'm not going to change that up.

[NeylasMom]

Glad to give everyone a good laugh today! I just don't want to make the treats the "norm" in the morning. Treats are rewards for doing proper things out on our walks/in the house not for just getting out of bed.

 

Before DST, it was starting to get light out as we were walking..now we're walking in the dark again, which stinks.

What's wrong with rewarding her for doing something she'd otherwise prefer not to do, other than you just think she should comply? I like to get up around 8 or 9, when it's daylight and it's warmed up a bit. If someone came in with the intent to get me up and moving well before my internal clock was telling me to, you better believe they'd need to have coffee waiting for me.

[Guest Winnie2014]

Well she gladly gets up when I do for cuddles/breakfast at 5:15am. It's just the princess behavior of not wanting to get up to go on walks that I don't like.

 

She still gets treats for her tricks - down, take a bow, stay, bed, okay, etc. She has to earn her treats - just getting out of bed is not earning them. She got her treats for working on "down" this morning and was quite pleased/engaged before our walk and was happy to go out once she was on all four feet. So we just gotta keep the training sessions up before our walks (when she fully gets "down", we'll find something else to move on to).

 

Thanks for all the help!

[NeylasMom]

It's not princess behavior. Dogs do what motivates them. Her warm bed is more motivating than going outside at that particular time. So you can arbitrarily choose to deem certain behaviors not worthy of reinforcement and then have to battle her or get increasingly "stern" with her to get her out of bed (which is just as likely to have the opposite effect btw) or you can find something that motivates her and use that as a reinforcer for getting out of bed so that in the future she starts to get out of bed more readily (and which point you can increase criteria - only getting out of bed within x timeframe earns the reward, slower times earn only praise, choosing a timeframe that she is likely to meet the majority of the time, then once she's almost always doing it that fast, you make it even faster, etc).

[Guest Winnie2014]

I haven't been getting stern with her so far. Just a light tug on the leash with a nice "Let's go!" and then we do our short 2 minute training session/review on recommendation with our dog trainer (who is very familiar with greyhounds). The quicker she gets up and we get started on training, the quicker she gets the food treat. The past two mornings has worked quite well.

 

I tend to think it's more "princess" behavior because she is laying down on walks sometimes for me and the dog walker, not hot or panting, and will happily jump up/get VERY excited for food. If it's too hot, I can tell and we rest in the shade (though we have changed our walks to later for cooler temperatures). We've been together 4 months now, so it could be more of her stubborn personality coming out and pushing my buttons. Winnie is very food motivated and very excited to go out on walks/in the car. She is my first dog and I'm trying to do the best for her.

 

The last thing I want is for her to go without pottying from 9pm till the dog walker comes around 11am.