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** wrong forum - please can this be moved? ***
We have a 4 month old Sprocker Spaniel who sometimes sleeps through until 6am, however recently she's been getting up at 530 (last 2 nights previously) then 430 this morning. She can sleep until 6 as she has done in the past.
She goes out for a wee and a poo, but decides she wants to play and barks. I give her a stroke and try to encourage her in to bed, this may be the problem and it needs to be more matter of fact with no interaction. The last 2 nights she's decided she wants to stay up. This can often result in our daughter getting up earlier than she should.
She has a crate within a larger playpen. Her crate has her bed in but we don't close the door of the crate. We have done when camping or in the caravan and she sleeps much later, although on those days she's been much more active.
She's walked for 30 minutes in the morning, at lunchtime and evening, then a quick 10 minutes in the evening. Guidelines say 10 minutes of exercise per month of age twice a day - vet says that applies to larger breeds and she'll let us know when she's had enough so should we walk her more, or play more (e.g. fetch) rather than just walking?
Food is 3 portions per day of quality dry puppy food based on guidelines, however we are giving her quite a lot of treats on the walk as we're trying to get her recall sorted. We may be overdoing the treats but she is in good shape and her sleeping less due to too much food seems counter-intuitive.
She dozes in the evening from about 830pm until bed time at about 1030, when we take her out for her final wee.
Any advice much appreciated, we only need her to sleep a little longer, until 6am!
IF she's looking for attention in the morning, then you getting up and stroking her isn't discouraging that - you're basically rewarding her for waking you up.
Go to her, don't speak don't fuss. let her out. then back to bed.
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Deploy the tranquilizer sausage
Is she waking up early and barking to go out? Does she need to go out?
Just thinking you need to be careful about doing what she wants when she wants you to. Exercise routine is fine, feeding fine, maybe she just wants the company. Tricky one, but as HG said above, rewarding them for undesirable behaviour is a slippery slope!
What tends to happen is she jumps up at the side of the playpen, which makes a rattling sound. Trying to pre-empt the inevitable whining / barking I go in, take her outside for the toilet. Might try ignoring her and see what happens.
A friend recommended a ticking clock wrapped in a blanket to comfort her, or white noise thingamy
Tricky one. Any chance of her being allowed upstairs to sleep with you? At least it would give you a cast iron guarantee of a decent sleep.
After a decade of forcing our dog to sleep downstairs I've finally relented and he sleeps on the upstairs landing. It's just easier.
Deploy the tranquilizer sausage
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No further advice should be issued until OP shares puppy photos.
Tis the rules.
No further advice should be issued until OP shares puppy photos
Not the OP but....look who came to live in our house on Saturday. 🙂
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It's a tricky one when you have kids in the house. Mine was OK until May, tucked away in the spare room downstairs. She started getting up earlier and earlier, so I was going down and sleeping on the sofa. If we let her bark, she barks for hours, keeping the kids awake.
Anyway...what started with me going down at 5.30 in the morning, went to 4,3,2,1 and once or twice I was down there from around 11.30 pm.
A couple of weeks ago she started barking at 1.45. This was a Friday night so I let her bark. At 4.15 I'd had enough, so went down to let her out for a wee, and then went back to bed, giving her the run of the whole downstairs.
Since then she's gone through the night twice and other nights is happy with being let out and given the run of the whole downstairs.
My wife isn't happy with her sleeping upstairs, so at the moment this seems the best solution.
EDIT: I don't give her any attention when I let her out
Beautiful dog PP. We have an almost identical one (13 months old now)
My dog was crate trained but at about 9 months she started barking at about 4am. Got rid of the crate and gave her the run of kitchen and conservatory and she seemed happy. Now has stroll around a couple of times a night (we hear her claws on the wooden floor) but doesn't call us down until 6.30am.
Here's the cuplrit
Any tips on linking to Google photo's?
Running the dog through the dishwasher seems a little harsh.
[i]Any tips on linking to Google photo's?[/i]
Copy image URL, then tinyurl it, paste the tinyurl betwixt [img] brackets.
How come Sandwhich can see the pic but I can't?
Our cockerpoo was a nightmare - wouldn't settle at all at night. We then moved her crate into our bedroom and she's been fine ever since (over 9 months).
99% of the time she sleeps shut in her crate in our room - easily sees the night through. Occasionally when we're feeling soft we leave her out and she's equally as settled.