# Puppy Wakes Up at 4am - Need Some Ideas....



## iamweasel (Sep 29, 2014)

Got a puppy a few weeks ago and she is supposed to be a Shepherd mix. Weighed 9lbs when we got her at 12 weeks old and now is close to 20lbs and she's 5 months old.

Since she's in the crate most of the day when my wife and I are at work we let her sleep in the bed with us. I take her to bed around 11-1130pm but she tends to get up right at 4am. We don't know why. We have not had much luck getting her to give us signals when she needs to go out so we can't tell if it's that or if she just wants to get up for whatever reason. We generally take her out at the same times every day and haven't had many accidents as we think she knows that we'll take her out at some point. (We do 6am, 730am, 12pm, 4pm, 6pm, 730pm. 930pm and 11pm. Something like that.)

At 4am she wakes up and likes to walk up an down the bed and even sits on our heads! Funny now but not so much at 4am.  There is no whining or barking - just seems to want to play or go out, not sure which. So obviously we want these 4am wakeup calls to stop. It's driving us nuts. We're afraid to ignore her just in case she needs to go, and when I take her out and bring her back to the bed with me she doesn't go back to sleep for a while so it's tough. 

So what we did last night was at 4am when she got up I took her out, then put her in the crate (in the other room) until 6am when my wife gets up and lets her out of there. She whined when we did that of course but we just ignored it.

So we appreciate the fact she *might* be telling us she needs to go out, but we're not convinced of that. We hoped by putting her in the crate that she'll figure out if she wakes us up at 4am I will take her out and put her in the crate. (Hoping she relaxes until the normal wakeup time of 6am.) 

Thoughts on the best way to handle this? Is putting her in the crate at 4am an okay method to handle this? (FWIW we haven't really been able to successfuly crate train her where she goes into the crate on command, but we always feed her in there so she goes in there on her own sometimes.)


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## Kyle071785 (Nov 28, 2013)

depending on how long she sleeps in the day she may or may not sleep fully through the night. You have to understand at that age as well that 5-6 hour stretches is pretty average for downtime. 

take her out for a potty break then put her back in the crate. It'll likely end with time. Up until about 10-11 months Jax would always wake up at 5:30am regardless whether I was working or not and regardless of what time we went to bed.

You can try tiring her out more as well, making sure to take a long walk in the evenings. 

Also, if you feel she is potty trained you can try having her outside of the crate at night. We found the main reason that Jax was waking so early (and getting our attention) is that he was getting thirsty half-way through the night. We solved this by putting a small water bowl in the bathroom of our master bedroom (on the tiled floor) for him. Since he was potty trained we also laid out a few of his (non-squeaky) toys and a chew in the room in case he wasn't tired (he isn't allowed to wander the house on his own at night so we still sleep with the bedroom door closed).


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## iamweasel (Sep 29, 2014)

Thanks for the info and sorry if my ramble was not totally clear but she does sleep on the bed with us at night. Typically we only put her in the crate when we're at work. (Or to feed her but the crate door is open.) 

We do take her for a 30-40min walk almost every night. We recognize that since she's in the crate during the day we want to exercise her when we are home. (Either with walks or play time in the house or the yard.) 

I just wasn't sure if putting her in the bed until her wakeup time (4am lately) and then moving her to the crate for the last 2 hours of the night was a good idea or not - especially with the crate in the other room.


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## Kyle071785 (Nov 28, 2013)

maybe someone with a smaller dog can shed some light on the bed to crate movement at 4am. Jax is nearly 60lbs now so aside from coming up on the bed to be pet, there is really no room for him to sleep with my wife and I also there 

Take her out then even try just having her on the floor with a toy and see if she entertains herself?

Anyways, no real other things I can think of...is it possibly a hunger thing (the waking early)? Jax used to wake as well (as mentioned) when hungry (and thirsty). Maybe toss her a small treat just to get her to settle?

No idea


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## CptJack (Jun 3, 2012)

Molly has that schedule, only backwards. She starts in her crate, wakes up at about 4-5 a.m, goes to the bathroom and then comes to bed with us for the last couple of hours. It's fine. I wouldn't do the reverse with her because she's not huge and it's a big bed and I don't want her wandering off to the end of the bed to pee without waking us.


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## Kyllobernese (Feb 5, 2008)

I think moving her to the crate after taking her outside in case she does have to pee, is perfectly alright. I think you will find she will eventually sleep longer through the night and you don't want her wandering around before you get up yourselves.

Kris sleeps in her crate at night and occasionally she will whine to go out at 4 or 5 am. I am a light sleeper so I do get up and let her outside and she knows when she comes back in to go back into her crate and sleep till I get up. She always gets a treat when she goes into the crate, has since she was a puppy, even if it is just a handful of her regular kibble she is happy.


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## OwnedbyACDs (Jun 22, 2013)

I would be apprehensive about having such a young puppy in the bed at all LOL, just too much of a recipe for accidents IMO, but to each their own. if it was me she would be in the crate all night long. But the routine seems to be working ok for you guys, so ... LOL. Maybe move your crate into your bedroom? that's where mine have always been, so I can hear if they have to go out LOL ... even after they grow up (because dogs get sick and accidents happen).


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## hanksimon (Mar 18, 2009)

Kyllobernese said:


> I think moving her to the crate after taking her outside in case she does have to pee, is perfectly alright. I think you will find she will eventually sleep longer through the night and you don't want her wandering around before you get up yourselves.
> /QUOTE]
> 
> I like this. I see no reason against putting him in the crate, after a potty break.


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## InkedMarie (Mar 11, 2009)

Heck, I have an eleven-ish year old who's been waking me up between 4-5 am.


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## Aberhallo (Oct 1, 2014)

She probably just can't hold it all night. I'd take her out to potty, I never talk or play with my pup if they get up during the night, so they know it's not playtime now, just potty and back to bed. 

I think putting her back into her crate afterwards is just fine


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