The dog...

May 21, 2019, 05:00 AM

Oldrider

The dog...

Our older female dog has taken to waking me up at 3 a.m. wanting to first eat, then go outside to maybe, just maybe actually relieve herself. It's 5:55 a.m. EST now and yes; I couldn't get back to sleep. Wife is ok with the dog setting her own hours, but this has to cease. If anyone has any suggestions I'm all ears and will probably still be awake until about noon or so...when I should be doing something constructive.

May 21, 2019, 05:13 AM

whododat

Our dog is an early riser as well, but not that early. The only thing we do is give her the last feeding at around 8 p.m. and let her out for the last time as late as possible.

May 21, 2019, 06:58 AM

joel9507

quote:
Originally posted by Oldrider:
Our older female dog has taken to waking me up at 3 a.m. ..... Wife is ok with the dog setting her own hours....

Couple of weeks of "Wife! Attend the Dog!", then rolling over and playing dead might work. Then the dog gets to set everyone's hours. At least, then, you'd both be on the same side of the issue.

More seriously, it looks like the dog is used to getting fed at 3 and likes it. Maybe a policy of no feeding in the wee hours would be sufficient negative conditioning. Might still have to get up in the wee hours to let her out, but then no feeding before/after to reward the behavior.

May 21, 2019, 09:13 AM

henryaz

Back when my wife and I were working, she was a K9 officer working a 6pm-2am shift. Sure enough, about 2:15 I'd be getting a slurp in the face from the GSD. I adapted by convincing my employer to let me work 4am-2pm. The 10 hour work day was a nice trade-off for not having to deal with rush hour traffic on Rockville Pike.

May 21, 2019, 09:43 AM

tsmccull

Ours was doing the 1 or 2am “gotta go outside” deal for a time until we got her to use those piddle pads that are used for training pups. Now she’ll just go on one of those and come back to bed whenever necessary. It probably helped that we’ve had so much rain this spring that she also got tired of getting soaked going outside more nights than not!

May 21, 2019, 09:47 AM

Oldrider

Thanks for the replies to my rant. I've caught up on sleep now and will begin the re-training tomorrow morning.
At one time I arose to get to work at 3 a.m. and did doggy duty while the wife hogged the bathroom, no problem. But been retired for a few years and can recently sleep until 6 before I awake on my own. She (dog, not wife) doesn't understand retirement I guess.

May 21, 2019, 06:11 PM

LS1 GTO

Full moon?

My Brittany does something similar the week following about every second or third full moon

Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

Only in an insane world are the sane considered insane.

The memories of a man in his old age
Are the deeds of a man in his prime

May 23, 2019, 03:21 AM

Anush

Its 3:20 & my Beagle has been fed, we played keep away, & now he is at my feet asleep. I am awake & will nap at about 5am & take him for a walk at 6am. Its hard to break the habits for me & for him.

May 23, 2019, 05:35 AM

Rinehart

Yep, I feel your pain. Happens all of the time.
Somehow she knows when the deer are outside.
This ensues (but occasionally at 2:30am)-

May 23, 2019, 06:12 AM

Oldrider

quote:
Originally posted by Rinehart:
Yep, I feel your pain. Happens all of the time.
Somehow she knows when the deer are outside.
This ensues (but occasionally at 2:30am)-

Great picture. And apparently a well trained dog. Congratulations; our dog would be in hot pursuit!

May 23, 2019, 11:22 AM

08 Cayenne

Mine is bad at this as well. He was born in May and was raised in an outdoor kennel. So the pups slept all day during the heat and played all night. A year later and he still wants to do this. I get very little sleep as it is let alone letting him go outside and play a couple times a night. I let him out for an hour before we go to bed. I get up 6 hours later, he can go that long without peeing. I've been just letting him carry on in the middle of the night and ignoring it. After a couple weeks he's getting better.

May 23, 2019, 02:46 PM

YooperSigs

Mine is Feline related. Animal get quite bored around 0600 and relieves it by walking around on my face.

May 23, 2019, 04:19 PM

V-Tail

quote:
Originally posted by YooperSigs:
Mine is Feline related. Animal get quite bored around 0600 and relieves it by walking around on my face.

I have trained the cat to "go talk to the woman."

May 24, 2019, 03:20 PM

Rinehart

quote:
Originally posted by Oldrider:
quote:
Originally posted by Rinehart:
Yep, I feel your pain. Happens all of the time.
Somehow she knows when the deer are outside.
This ensues (but occasionally at 2:30am)-

Great picture. And apparently a well trained dog. Congratulations; our dog would be in hot pursuit!

With deer she is great. She will just sit and watch them for 30 minutes or more. Rabbits, on the other hand...

One of our friends back in Western NY had another herder breed (ours is an Aussie and his was a Border Collie) that gave him a surprise one day when he came home.

They had some acreage and the perimeter was wired with invisible fence. They could leave the dog out when they went out for short times.

So one day (according to reviewing their security cameras) their herder found three deer up by their back yard so he rounded them up and herded them up onto the deck (which had railings and one opening). When they got home the dog was sitting there proudly with those deer penned on their porch.

May 30, 2019, 10:14 AM

Oldrider

I want to thank everyone for the suggestions. I started "training" the next morning. Last night I got a full night's rest! Thanks again!

May 30, 2019, 10:24 AM

nasig

quote:
Originally posted by Rinehart:
quote:
Originally posted by Oldrider:
quote:
Originally posted by Rinehart:
Yep, I feel your pain. Happens all of the time.
Somehow she knows when the deer are outside.
This ensues (but occasionally at 2:30am)-

Great picture. And apparently a well trained dog. Congratulations; our dog would be in hot pursuit!

With deer she is great. She will just sit and watch them for 30 minutes or more. Rabbits, on the other hand...

One of our friends back in Western NY had another herder breed (ours is an Aussie and his was a Border Collie) that gave him a surprise one day when he came home.

They had some acreage and the perimeter was wired with invisible fence. They could leave the dog out when they went out for short times.

So one day (according to reviewing their security cameras) their herder found three deer up by their back yard so he rounded them up and herded them up onto the deck (which had railings and one opening). When they got home the dog was sitting there proudly with those deer penned on their porch.

LOL. that's a great story

May 30, 2019, 11:11 AM

kz1000

I don't need an alarm clock, I have a cat.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Yidn, shreibt un fershreibt"

"The Nazis entered this war under the rather childish delusion that they were going to bomb everyone else, and nobody was going to bomb them. At Rotterdam, London, Warsaw and half a hundred other places, they put their rather naive theory into operation. They sowed the wind, and now they are going to reap the whirlwind."
-Bomber Harris