# A very scheduled dog: waking up too early



## metaranha (Jul 5, 2010)

Hi everyone.
I'm sure this is extremely well tread territory but all of the posts that I have found on the subject have mainly dealt with dogs much younger than ours. Our problem is that our 1 year old Dachshund wakes up at the same time every day. This ends up making our weekends exactly like week days as you can imagine which as far as sleeping routines go is not the most enjoyable thing. 
I've read that crate training is the best way to fix this problem, but she didn't have any of that. 
The way she tends to wake us up is by whining and walking around on the bed. We usually wake up and take her outside when she does this and it gives us about a half hour of extra sleep before she starts whining for food. 
Any ideas on this one?


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## sassafras (Jun 22, 2010)

This is what I have done with my cats. Not sure how it will work with a dog, but in theory it should work the same. I'll walk you through the cat bit because I'm better at explaining it that way:

Dogs and cats are very good at learning cues, what follows what in our routines, and what behaviors get them what you want. So if the first thing you do when you get out of bed is to feed the cat, the cat is highly motivated to get you out of bed when they feel like eating. If the routine is 1. Get out of bed 2. Feed the cat 3. Take a shower 4. Eat breakfast 5. Brush my teeth, then the cat expects to be fed right after you get out of bed and will do things that get you out of bed (i.e. bugging the crap out of you). 

If you can establish a routine that teaches the cat a different cue for getting fed, they may not be as driven to actually wake you up. If the routine is 1. Get out of bed 2. Take a shower 3. Eat breakfast 4. Brush my teeth 5. Feed the cat, then many cats will relearn to expect to be fed after you brush your teeth rather than when you get out of bed. So they may start to bug you as you're brushing your teeth but hopefully not before you've gotten out of bed.

I would think that with dogs the principles should be the same. Since your dog has learned that if she whines and walks around the bed you will get up and let her out or feed her, if you can establish a routine where the dog gets let out somewhere in the morning routine but not necessarily right after you get up, maybe she'll relearn the cues. 

Of course, this all depends on whether your dog HAS to go out right that second or whether she can comfortably hold it for another half hour or hour -- the last thing you want to do is set her up for accidents in the house. So I'd delay the time taking her outside in very small increments, like 10 minutes at a time, until you're sure she won't have accidents.


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## metaranha (Jul 5, 2010)

That would actually make a lot of sense. We end up having to take her out as soon as we get up because she's such a small dog and needs to go potty that quick, but after that on weekdays, she sleeps for an extra 2 hours. We really only have the problem on weekends.


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## Bordermom (Apr 28, 2010)

Ditto. Change it by 10 minutes at a time, so she learns that she doesn't 'have' to get up at that time. If whining means you get up and let her out, then you have to reteach her. Even setting the alarm and using that as the cue (unless she learns to turn on the alarm) will work, but don't make it a huge change at first either. Same with meals, vary the time she gets to eat, so she's not whining about being fed (and getting fed). 

With our cat we had to retrain the food thing, she started to assume everytime I went into the kitchen, she was going to get fed and would scream and run in front of me the whole time. So, I started a new routine, using the spray bottle if she acted like that, and putting her up in the bedroom with the door shut and then hiding her food. Later she'd get let out, and it did take her a few weeks of standing there screaming at me before she clued in that I didn't hold any food. Stopping the noise and scenting for where her food was did get her fed though, so she learned eventually that begging didn't work and is a lot quieter now overall.

Lana


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