# Any tips/tricks to get my dog to sleep just a tiny bit longer?



## Puppy0226 (Jun 7, 2012)

we have a 7 month shihtzu. Her crate is covered at night and about 6:15a she is up making wimpering noises, moving around in her crate looking to come out. We get up at 6:40 for work. She has slept until 6:40 or later at times but that is once in a blue moon so I'm not really ask for to sleep till 10am or anything lol. Yes I know I have a puppy and this is how it'll be but I still would like to at least try to get her to sleep longer. When she is up we "Shuuush" her and she is fine but then at that point, we are already up. She does not need to go out. We put her in her crate at 10:45 every night after her walk so we do try to stay up late. We can't really stay up much later. thanks!


----------



## Canyx (Jul 1, 2011)

If you waited for her to stop whimpering, how long does it take for her to stop?
Or have you just gotten up shortly after she whimpers?


----------



## elrohwen (Nov 10, 2011)

I would set your alarm for 6:00 or so, before you know she'll wake up. Each morning (or every couple of days) set your alarm a couple minutes later if she hasn't whined before the new time. She'll gradually get conditioned to wake when the alarm goes off, instead of on her own schedule.


----------



## Puppy0226 (Jun 7, 2012)

I don't know how long the light whimpering would go on. We shush her the second it begins. We have our alarm set to music and we r in the bedroom and she is in the living room. We're in apt so not far away from her but don't think she hears the alarm. There r no plans to move her from the living room. She knows she sleeps there and is fine.r u saying set an alarm by her so she hears it and then we get up right after the alarm?


----------



## elrohwen (Nov 10, 2011)

Puppy0226 said:


> I don't know how long the light whimpering would go on. We shush her the second it begins. We have our alarm set to music and we r in the bedroom and she is in the living room. We're in apt so not far away from her but don't think she hears the alarm. There r no plans to move her from the living room. She knows she sleeps there and is fine.r u saying set an alarm by her so she hears it and then we get up right after the alarm?


Yes, teach her that the alarm predicts you getting out of bed and that whining before the alarm is useless.

Also, don't shush her when she whines - negative attention is still attention and that's what she's looking for.


----------



## chubby (Aug 18, 2011)

Trust me, she can hear the alarm  Dogs have amazing hearing. The alarm is the most effective way; the other option is that she's so tired before going to bed the night before, that she snoozes longer.


----------



## Canyx (Jul 1, 2011)

If you ignore the whimpering it might stop after a few minutes (or not, if you're already taught her whimpering gets you guys up). And then you can wait for a few more minutes of silence THEN get up, so that she learns whimpering will get her nothing and she is rewarded with attention and being let out only when she is quiet. It'll take a while, and it might get worse for a bit before it gets better (extinction burst), but she'll get there.

I also like elrohwen's suggestion of just waking up BEFORE she starts whining and gradually wake up a little later each time. I personally would not use the alarm, but that's because I don't like setting up ANY triggers for my dog (ie, they do not know the word Treat, Cookie, Walk. An alarm does NOT mean I'm about to give them attention, etc.) There is absolutely nothing wrong with teaching her to predict your waking up with an alarm. But for my own dogs I just don't want to deal with setting up a predictable reaction and then having to deal with if the alarm goes off by accident at 4 am one day, or something like that.

So if I were in your shoes, I might use elrohwen's suggestion of getting up before the whining. But I would just get up and let the dog out. 

Of course, there is NO WAY I am able to wake up without an alarm so there


----------



## RonE (Feb 3, 2007)

Here's what we do if we want our dogs to sleep until 4-5 a.m.

I, or more often, my wife takes them to the beach the day before and lets them run and swim for maybe 60-90 minutes. 

The timing is tricky. If you take them too early, they'll sleep all afternoon and evening and be ready to get up at 2 a.m. If you take them too late, you'll have a couple of wet dogs in your room all night. Some people (I'm not one of them) find the smell of a couple of wet dogs objectionable.

This won't work with all dogs, but I do think that exercise helps.


----------



## Shell (Oct 19, 2009)

If you're willing to let the alarm be the signal to wake up, it will work.

I didn't want the alarm to be a signal since sometimes I want to hit snooze and because I use my phone for the alarm and didn't want a phone call to signal "wake up" either. So sometimes I let the alarm go off and didn't get out of bed or turn on a light. The dog would wake up and look to see if I was getting up, when he saw nothing was happening, he learned to go back to sleep (an adult dog though- so he isn't in urgent need of a pee break).

Unfortunately, I ended up with an inadvertent trigger- my dog now thinks the sound of me picking up my eyeglasses from the nightstand (since I can't see worth crap without them, it has to be the first thing I do when actually getting going in the A.M.) is the signal that its morning. He will sleep till 9 am easily if I don't touch my glasses (I can get up, move around, check my phone whatever) but the second I pick up the glasses, there he is ready for breakfast.

The point is that you either have to create a signal OR vary your routine enough that there is no signal other than you getting the dog out of the crate. 

I also make morning not very exciting for the dogs so they have less incentive to bug me to get up. I wake, feed them (in separate rooms) and they stay there while I get showered and ready and THEN they get to go outside. So after they eat, they usually lay back down to sleep another 20 minutes since there's nothing better to do.


----------



## cookieface (Jul 6, 2011)

Geez, most mornings I need to lure my dog out of bed with liver treats.


----------



## Hambonez (Mar 17, 2012)

Our puppy would sleep in his crate from around 10 pm until about 7 am every morning, which was around when my husband got up for work. Over the summer it was hot, and we let him sleep in the bedroom because it had a/c... and he never left. When he sleeps in bed, I end up dragging HIM out of bed in the morning at 8:30... 9:00... 9:30... I'll get up, finally, go to the bathroom, brush my teeth and he's still yawning and stretching and taking his time getting going. (He's 10 m/o, btw)


----------



## hanksimon (Mar 18, 2009)

Way outta left field:

When do you feed the puppy his breakfast? A dog's cycles are fairly regular, and some dogs will wake up from hunger about 30 min. before breakfast. This can be a problem if you feed the dog when he wakes up... successively 30 min. earlier every morning  ... Instead, trying feeding him breakfast a little later ?


----------



## Jacksons Mom (Mar 12, 2010)

I'm no help, the minute I started letting him sleep on my bed was when he began sleeping through the night/sleeping in. I pretty much just sternly say "shhh, go lay down!" if he gets up too early. Now that he's older, I know for sure he can hold it and I can tell the difference between his "I have to pee" whine and just his... I'm getting up to get up whine. He'll usually hop back in the bed for another hour.


----------



## Abbylynn (Jul 7, 2011)

Jacksons Mom said:


> I'm no help, the minute I started letting him sleep on my bed was when he began sleeping through the night/sleeping in. I pretty much just sternly say "shhh, go lay down!" if he gets up too early. Now that he's older, I know for sure he can hold it and I can tell the difference between his "I have to pee" whine and just his... I'm getting up to get up whine. He'll usually hop back in the bed for another hour.


Lol! ... This is the same with Eddee and I. Only I have to completely hide under the covers so he cannot get to my face ... then he will go lie back down for a bit.  If I do not do this I am up before the sun rises.

I also try and let him wear himself out right before bedtime with a walk or some really rough play. I also give him a very small snack so he does not get so hungry before morning. Then in the morning after he goes potty ... we wait about an hour before I serve breakfast.


----------

