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Early Waking


Guest Zoopy

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Guest Zoopy

My new grey wakes early, starts whining as soon as the birds start waking, still dark outside. He doesn't go toilet and doesn't really seem to want anything, I haul myself out of bed at 5.30am let him out, nothing. He then proceeds to go back to sleep in the sitting room, by then I'm wide awake. On a working day its ok but I'd dearly love a lie in on a Sunday at least, any advice?

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No advice but I feel your pain as my oldest boy has started doing this & after he wakes his brother & they go out he has to come in & start a bark/roo secession with the young one. Some days he want to start this at 4:00 but then I can get him to go to bed if I don't turn lights. This year I have more mocking birds around & they sing all the time so the other song birds wake up when it is still dark. I love the birds & my boys I just wish they would sleep until 6:00.

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Guest Cilla

My grey used to do that the first period I got him, I tought it was because he was stressed by the new situation and maybe he was used to that schedule during his racing career.

 

I just petted him and told him to go back to sleep, he slowly began to wake up later. Now, after three years, he sleeps until 7 if I let him so be patient!

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Guest Izzy2

Biffo wakes me up early i normally try to ignore him but he'll stand at the side or end of my bed looks at me and keeps​ woofing til i get up so i feel your pain lol

Lily on the other hand will not move for love nor money !!! I usually stumble out of bed let him out and then tell him to settle down usually with the immortal words i need sleep !!! Love him to bits but just one weekend would be nice lol 😁😁

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Guest Zoopy

Good to know I'm not alone in wanting a lie in! I should just go to bed at 8pm as once he's had his evening meal he's out for the rest of the night. I look at him sleeping and think no wonder he's up so early! Hopefully it will get later.

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Guest Zoopy

When he woke at 4.10 am I just kept getting up and settling him back down and coming back to bed until 7am then gave in. This morning slept through til 6.30am when my partners alarm went off for work 😁 feel like I had a lie in til 10!!

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After determining that Marvin's early waking was not anything he needed (to go out, etc.) but rather thinking that he could wake up at any wee hour for breakfast, we had to let him tough it out. It was unpleasant for us to ignore him, since we were now also awake, but he did eventually get the idea that he would be on our schedule for breakfast, which means no breakfast before 7. Dark curtains to block out the early sun helped, as did leaving the bedroom door open to allow him to go out to the living room and lay down out there instead of whining in my face. It does get better fairly quickly if you can try to provide some boundaries on what will not happen immediately upon you waking (i.e. eating or going out unless it is necessary). Now, Marvin only whines at us in the middle of the night or super early if he desperately needs to go out (big-D, etc.). Hang in there!

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Guest Zoopy

He definitely doesn't need anything. I do think its probably the light coming in that wakes him. I'm up now, 6am, he's not whining for food etc, in fact he's just lying in living room now. It's my day off today, clearly he doesn't realise that!

I'm realising how lucky I was with my old dog who would just lie quietly til I got up and had no set routine for breakfast time etc.

I'm thinking I'll get some blinds up in kitchen and see how that works.

Admittedly 6am is preferable to 4am but as he doesn't need anything and invariably goes back to sleep its frustrating as I'm wide awake.

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We've had lots of greyhound alarm clocks. My current two always get me up between 6:30-7:00, sometimes they'll start stirring around 6:00. I close all the blinds, which probably doesn't help. I never get up and pay any attention to them until they settle down for at least 5 minutes so they know I'm not getting up because of them - unless I'm dealing with an aging, ill or new hound. By getting up, you're conditioning them to continue bugging you!

 

The worst is when daylight savings starts or ends and I have to either set my alarm because they wake up an hour late, or they wake me up an hour early because their time is all off! Normally the alarm clock helps with this, they start responding to that until I get them used to the time change.

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Guest Zoopy

Thanks for all the tips, I do get up after a period of whining but don't feed straight away or pay attention so I'm hoping over time the novelty of getting up too early will wear thin! Fingers crossed 😊

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Been following along to all of the replies here, so thanks for the thread Zoopy! My new guy has been doing a similar thing, but not consistently. This morning was probably the worst because he started to pace and the whining escalated to howling and then actual barking. And this was after we'd taken him out to pee. I'm hoping it's all part of the adjustment period.

Sarah with P Kay Ruger "Rogue"

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Guest Zoopy

Mine gave a pathetic bark this morning and I must admit I then got up as I was worried that the barking would escalate and it's too early to be waking my neighbours up! I try to ignore the whining for as long as I can stand (not that long) but I really don't want him barking at that time in the morning 😞

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Mine still manipulate me into getting up early sometimes, too, haha! And I know it's manipulation as I recently had to go overseas on a business trip and my husband said he had to set him alarm because the dogs didn't wake him every morning. Now, is that because he sleeps like the dead or because they knew I wasn't there? Who knows! :flip

Edited by Sundrop
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Guest Zoopy

A minor breakthrough, possibly a one off but it was my alarm clock that woke me today and not the greyhound type! I'm working today so still 6am but no whining to be heard, until he heard me up and about, which is fine.

If I can push that slowly to 7am on a weekend I'd be happy 😊

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A minor breakthrough, possibly a one off but it was my alarm clock that woke me today and not the greyhound type! I'm working today so still 6am but no whining to be heard, until he heard me up and about, which is fine.

If I can push that slowly to 7am on a weekend I'd be happy

Congrats! I had a foster that thought 5 am was the PERFECT time to wake up, and wake me up by barking in my ear. Whoever said greyhounds don't bark never met this guy. I assumed at first that he needed something so I took him for an "out". Nothing. I gave up and just stoically ignored the 5 am bark. One bark - in my ear - then he learned to just go away. I think if he'd been with me long enough, he'd have given it up, but he got adopted fairly quickly, and luckily his adopter was an early-riser so it was a non-issue.

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Guest Zoopy

6am feels worse when you don't have to get up for work, like this morning. He's up, I'm up, he doesn't want anything, infact he's lying on the sofa while I'm very tired. Unfortunately I'm not a natural early riser and I'm inwardly frustrated that I'm awake at this time 😞

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How much exercise is he getting? I had a foster that would wake up at 2:00 AM every night. I found that a very fast paced walk at about 9:00 PM would let her sleep a little later :) My own dogs get up super early but that's because I have to get up super early to go to work (our alarm goes off at 4:30-ish, but they're generally awake before). Of course, they do not understand weekends. If they are not walked in the evening, they will also get up in the middle of the night (and wake me up <_< ).


Meredith with Heyokha (HUS Me Teddy) and Crow (Mike Milbury). Missing Turbo (Sendahl Boss), Pancho, JoJo, and "Fat Stacks" Juana, the psycho kitty. Canku wakan kin manipi.

"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." - Voltaire

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Guest coffeekhaleesi

Do you feed him first thing when you wake up? My husband always fed our greys first thing in the morning, and eventually they came to associate him waking up with them getting food, so they would wake him up earlier and earlier each day! It was a huge pain but we trained them out of it by getting up, going about our business, and not feeding them until 7 AM.

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Guest Zoopy

He's walked up to 3 times a day but I'm treatment a corn issue at the moment, he was lame after 3 weeks with us so I'm careful not to over walk him at the moment. He's not fed straight away, I try to wait between half an hour to an hour. I think 6am is his wake up time and I'm just grateful its not 4am!! 😂

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Do you have a boot for him? I had a greyhound with a horrible corn issue - it was really, really painful. We used a combination of a Therapaw boot and tramadol and he could usually take normal, long walks :)


Meredith with Heyokha (HUS Me Teddy) and Crow (Mike Milbury). Missing Turbo (Sendahl Boss), Pancho, JoJo, and "Fat Stacks" Juana, the psycho kitty. Canku wakan kin manipi.

"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." - Voltaire

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Guest Zoopy

Do you have a boot for him? I had a greyhound with a horrible corn issue - it was really, really painful. We used a combination of a Therapaw boot and tramadol and he could usually take normal, long walks :)

I've bought a therapaw boot which he hates, makes him walk really strangely. Others have suggested getting 2 so he's more balanced! At the moment he's walking fine, I've been soaking and moisturising the pad which seems to have helped a lot.

He didn't wake til 6.20am today, bliss! 😂

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