Waking Us Up At 3Am

[NeedlenoseJake]

Jake sleeps in bed with DH and I. He usually waits for us to get into bed and then jumps up there with little to no enticement Then, he will sleep until sometime in the early morning, usually around 3am. At that point, he will get up, go outside (dog door), eat whatever is left in his bowl, then lay down on his bed in the bedroom and whine! Sometimes he will even start barking. He usually won't jump up on the bed again and settle down until DH gets up and lifts the corner of the dog bed. Then, he will happily jump on the bed and sleep until morning. It's like he wants an official invitation to jump on the bed again I'm not sure about the best way to train him out of this habit.

 

Ideas I've had:

- keeping treats in the nightstand to lure him up (that still means us waking up every night)

- training "on" and "off" during the day and seeing if it works at night

- taking away the dog bed in the bedroom

- letting him whine it out (which sounds great now but at 3am I just want to go back to sleep!)

 

The weird thing is that during the day he will jump up there without encouragement. Do you think it's because it's dark? I love this silly boy, but he is a little crazy!

 

Who me?!

 

Edited March 15, 2016 by NeedlenoseJake

[Time4ANap]

What is it with these desert dogs?

 

Rocket has been waking up between 3:30 and 4:30 AM, then proceeds to "talk" until I get up with him. He wants nothing but will happily accept Milk Bones, canned food and lots of pets if you have any. We usually go back to bed after an hour or so, but I am exhausted when I get up after having to have playtime in the middle of the night.

 

May I suggest some benadryl in his ice cream before bedtime?

[Hawthorn]

You could try leaving a night light on to see if it makes any difference. We use the ones that plug into an electric socket - they don't give out much light, but enough to see where you're going.

[greysmom]

Have you tried not letting him get up? Close the bedroom door so he can't get out. A normal, healthy dog will usually sleep through the night unless they get woken up from something else - to cold, hungry, too hot.

 

But really, to get him out of the habit is going to take a week or so of sleepless nights while you tell him to be quiet (once) and ignore him. Greyhounds can be *very* stubborn when you try and change their schedule.

[smurfette]

He seems to be a very polite young man. You just don't jump on somebody, especially not when they are sleeping and you can't see where they are.

A little light may help but perhaps he needs the permission to get into your bed again. Than you either close the door and keep him in your room or you learn to interact with him half asleep.

 

Paddy used to go out in the middle of the night but he came upstairs again, racing along the hallway and jumped on the bed.....80 pounds of pure energy and muscle. Good morning....

[Greydawg]

A landing strip?

 

Sometimes on cooler nights, Alex will wake up in the middle of the night and "ask" permission to come up. He comes to my side of the bed, not hubby's, because he knows I am the softie. I either say 'OK' or 'No, go to your bed' (he knows the difference). If it's ok, he moves to the foot of our bed and waits for me to clear some space for him to jump up, which entails moving our legs out of the way for him. We have a subtle night light in our room.

 

Um, then over the next several hours, he proceeds to take over our king size bed.

[racindog]

You are his pack leaders. It is a breech of etiquette for him to jump up on your bed without an invitation if you are on it. It is an honor thing-he is submitting to your 'authority' even though you don't want to exercise it at 0300 hehe. JMO.

[DesiRayMom]

IMHO it's a "retired" thing. Only in our home, it is myownself that wakes up at 3-4 am, tosses & turns, gets up, hits the bathroom, kitchen for a drink,

back to bed, toss & turn a bit more, finally back to snooze for the rest of the night. It annoys Desi to no end.

 

 

Edited to add..............I did try the Benedryl for a while, was no help whatsoever. So, if anyone has any wonderful suggestions for humans

waking up in the middle of the night, Desi & I would be eternally grateful.

Edited March 16, 2016 by DesiRayMom

[NeedlenoseJake]

He seems to be a very polite young man. You just don't jump on somebody, especially not when they are sleeping and you can't see where they are.

A little light may help but perhaps he needs the permission to get into your bed again. Than you either close the door and keep him in your room or you learn to interact with him half asleep.

 

Paddy used to go out in the middle of the night but he came upstairs again, racing along the hallway and jumped on the bed.....80 pounds of pure energy and muscle. Good morning....

 

 

You are his pack leaders. It is a breech of etiquette for him to jump up on your bed without an invitation if you are on it. It is an honor thing-he is submitting to your 'authority' even though you don't want to exercise it at 0300 hehe. JMO.

This is true, and I'm glad he doesn't jump on top of us in the middle of the night. However, I think we will try teaching on and off so that DH doesn't actually have to get up. That is the biggest problem. Last night he slept through the whole night... except he barked in my face for 5 minutes at 10:30 before bed! He has turned into a high-energy dog! We do more with him and tire him out on the weekends, but then he isn't satisfied with a good 45 minute walk during the week! Need more ideas for stimulation... I might try a laser pointer in the yard!

[smurfette]

You might try something for his little brain. If you have no problem with confetti in your living room, you can wrap treats in newspaper-paper and let him unpack them. I make some of these packages with treats and some without.

My boys love this play but my living-room looks like parade went through it afterwards. But then again my vacuum cleaner doesn't mind.

[NeedlenoseJake]

You might try something for his little brain. If you have no problem with confetti in your living room, you can wrap treats in newspaper-paper and let him unpack them. I make some of these packages with treats and some without.

My boys love this play but my living-room looks like parade went through it afterwards. But then again my vacuum cleaner doesn't mind.

I tried this once- he was too lazy to work to open the paper so I ended up opening them He will do puzzles and I made a snuffle mat.

[Feisty49]

IMHO it's a "retired" thing. Only in our home, it is myownself that wakes up at 3-4 am, tosses & turns, gets up, hits the bathroom, kitchen for a drink,

back to bed, toss & turn a bit more, finally back to snooze for the rest of the night. It annoys Desi to no end.

 

 

Edited to add..............I did try the Benedryl for a while, was no help whatsoever. So, if anyone has any wonderful suggestions for humans

waking up in the middle of the night, Desi & I would be eternally grateful.

 

I don't often have sleeping issues, but when I do, I take one Tylenol PM to sort of reset my sleep habit. It works very well for me.

[Guest Noosh]

Had this problem of waking at 2 am, under the guise of a bursting bladder.

We are learning slowly but surely after having newly adopted our girl Emma, 6 weeks ago.

After being let out,sometimes she mooched around the yard, sniffed the breeze, had a taste of the bird bath water, checked out if there was any food left over from dinner, maybe a bit of a zoomie, not coming in when called... this went on for a few nights. It's not fun!

So now, it's a late let out, on the lead; straight to bed, and ignore pleas of going outside and sending back to bed if starting to wander around. It's worked for a few nights so far. I keep the conversation very brief- it's "Emma - bed" even if it's over and over for 3 or 4 times. She gets the message. Maybe just be short and sweet with what you want him to do. And close the door!

[claudiav]

I tried this once- he was too lazy to work to open the paper so I ended up opening them He will do puzzles and I made a snuffle mat.

what is a snuffle mat? how do you make one?

[NeedlenoseJake]

So the funny thing is that I made this post a few months ago and Jake has since stopped waking us up... until this week! Great timing to revive the thread!

 

http://www.allpetseducationandtraining.com.au/snuffle-mat-mayhem.html This is how to make a snuffle mat, except I used some rubber matting because I couldn't find that kind of mat they used.

[Guest katie_dog]

I've been lucky with my dog Katie so far. She only whined a little the first couple of nights and now she is quiet all night until 6AM, when I usually get up. She doesn't want to let me sleep past 6AM though. She starts making noises like she wants me to get up and take her out at that point. I have no idea how she knows what time it is, but I swear she is pretty accurate... always 6AM.

[sarabz]

Had this problem of waking at 2 am, under the guise of a bursting bladder.

We are learning slowly but surely after having newly adopted our girl Emma, 6 weeks ago.

After being let out,sometimes she mooched around the yard, sniffed the breeze, had a taste of the bird bath water, checked out if there was any food left over from dinner, maybe a bit of a zoomie, not coming in when called... this went on for a few nights. It's not fun!

So now, it's a late let out, on the lead; straight to bed, and ignore pleas of going outside and sending back to bed if starting to wander around. It's worked for a few nights so far. I keep the conversation very brief- it's "Emma - bed" even if it's over and over for 3 or 4 times. She gets the message. Maybe just be short and sweet with what you want him to do. And close the door!

 

 

 

Bella likes to readjust and flap her ears at 4 am but we keep her crated at night so she doesn't have a choice but to go back to bed. Sometimes she'll whine at 5 am because she wants to come up and sleep on the bed until DH gets up.

[racindog]

The issue is not the bed imo-its you guys. He is respecting his pack leaders by waiting for an invite. In the dog world you don't just jump in bed with your leader unless you are invited. When you go to bed together you are awake and it is clear he has your "permission." When you are laying there still and quiet at 3AM he defaults to dog ettiquette. He is deferring to you-it is a good thing actually that he respects you so but I don't know if it would even be a god thing to try and change it. JMO.Many if not most of my dogs -no matter how close we were or how long they had lived with me-they would always ask permission before just willy nilly jumping in bed with me.

[NeedlenoseJake]

The issue is not the bed imo-its you guys. He is respecting his pack leaders by waiting for an invite. In the dog world you don't just jump in bed with your leader unless you are invited. When you go to bed together you are awake and it is clear he has your "permission." When you are laying there still and quiet at 3AM he defaults to dog ettiquette. He is deferring to you-it is a good thing actually that he respects you so but I don't know if it would even be a god thing to try and change it. JMO.Many if not most of my dogs -no matter how close we were or how long they had lived with me-they would always ask permission before just willy nilly jumping in bed with me.

Well lately he's been whining at 2am regardless of whether he's on the bed at all. But we started giving him rimadyl at night again (healing broken leg) and that seems to help. I don't want him to jump willy nilly, but he sometimes won't take an invite... he needs to DH to physically get out of bed