# Puppy Begins Crying at 5:30am Every Morning



## CrazyBoxerPup (Jul 20, 2017)

Our 5 Month Boxer pup sleeps in a crate at night. For the most part, he doesn't cry unless he sees either my wife or I leave the room (go to restroom) and he does a slight whine until the person comes back. Then he'll fall back to sleep. At times, he may start to whine in the middle of the night and one of us will get up to let him out. He normally B-Lines it to his water bowl looking for water but when he sees there is none there he'll go to the door to be let out. Once he's done we put him back into his cage and he lays down and goes back to bed. This we are perfectly fine with and are happy that he at least does that. 

But when the sun begins to rise in the morning he gets up and starts to cry. We tell him "down" and point to his bed and he'll lay down but that is only for 5, maybe 10, minutes before he sits back up and begins to whine. 

I put up blackout curtains up in the room hoping that it would buy us another hour or so of sleep but no go. Once he notices the room begin to light up, he thinks it's time for everyone to get up. 

We've tried the frozen kong/favorite toy but that just means he is crying into a kong while he chews it which makes an echoing effect. While it may be funny to my wife and I at the time, ultimately we just want to sleep until we have to get up for work. 

We are at a loss of what we can do. I wanted to see if any members here experienced this. I know he is a very energetic breed and I know he just wants to play with our other dog. But I'm looking to see if there is something we can do to get that extra 1 to 2 hours of sleep before we need to get up.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!


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## Shell (Oct 19, 2009)

Probably needs to pee about that time. And, like people, dogs can go longer without needing to pee whilst sound asleep but once awoken a bit, far harder to go back to sleep until having had a change to toilet. 

I'd set an alarm for 5 am, take the pup outside to pee before he starts whining (so he doesn't make whining a habit) and go back to sleep for 2 hours. Do not let him play with you or with your other dog during this potty trip. It is boring and practical only. As the pup gets older, move the potty break time closer to wake-up time and most likely by the time the dog is 10-12 months, he will be able to sleep through the night.

Also consider using a crate cover instead of (or in addition to) blackout curtains. I have blackout curtains from back in the times of working nightshift and they sure help make a room darker but a crate cover blocks a lot more light.


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## RonE (Feb 3, 2007)

You get to sleep in until 5:30?

We have 3 senior dogs that get up at 4 a.m. Sometimes they get up during they night. Sometimes 4 a.m. is already too late and I break out the Spotbot.


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## LeoRose (Aug 20, 2015)

My GSD was well over a year old before she quit needing an early morning potty run. If you didn't take her out when she started fussing, you could pretty much guarantee that you were going to need to clean a crate and/or dog later on.


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## CrazyBoxerPup (Jul 20, 2017)

Shell said:


> Probably needs to pee about that time. And, like people, dogs can go longer without needing to pee whilst sound asleep but once awoken a bit, far harder to go back to sleep until having had a change to toilet.
> 
> I'd set an alarm for 5 am, take the pup outside to pee before he starts whining (so he doesn't make whining a habit) and go back to sleep for 2 hours. Do not let him play with you or with your other dog during this potty trip. It is boring and practical only. As the pup gets older, move the potty break time closer to wake-up time and most likely by the time the dog is 10-12 months, he will be able to sleep through the night.
> 
> Also consider using a crate cover instead of (or in addition to) blackout curtains. I have blackout curtains from back in the times of working nightshift and they sure help make a room darker but a crate cover blocks a lot more light.


I read your entire response to my wife and all she did was point at me and nod her head in agreement... almost as if she had an epiphany....

I can't believe we didn't think of that before!

We both agreed to set our alarms around 4am and let him out. That way he doesn't think that his whining is getting him to get out. Instead, we wake him up and he is confused as to what is going on. And then, we'll begin to slowly change when we let him out. 

As for his cage, we did cover it. But I ended up pulling the corner closest to me up so he could see me. Then he would stop whining. We were a bit confused because we did the same for our older dog (puggle) to get her crate trained. My wife read that boxers would rather have an open area to sleep in than a covered area. How true that is I don't know. But for our boxer it appears to be work. So that is how he sleeps now which we won't change. 

Bottom line is Thanks! We never stopped to realize that even though they are our pets, we all ultimately operate the same in terms of bathroom and sleep! 

Thank you!


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## Sydneyrocky (Jul 16, 2017)

Same to all suggestions, I use a crate cover that also has a front flap so no light goes in, also agree it's potty time. Molly is a year old now and still is up at around 4 to go out, but now the crate door stays open at night and she uses the doggy door to go out but she always jumps on the bed after to wake us up !!


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## Francl27 (May 4, 2017)

My 6 month old puppy wakes me up between 4 and 5.30am to go pee. Typically if I wake up during the night I take her out and just go sleep in the recliner downstairs and lets her roam free though, and she will let me sleep a bit longer that way (record is 6.20am in the 4 months we've had her). I just don't leave her free upstairs or she'd just on the bed and wake us both up, and for some reason she doesn't jump on the recliner.

I've just learned to be in bed by 10pm.


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## mustluvdogs66 (Mar 30, 2017)

Agree with the above posters. A couple more questions though? Do he pee or poop (or both) at 5:30am? When is his last feeding? Do you leave water out until he goes in his crate at night?
He's not whining because he sees daylight. He's whining because it gets him out of his cage. Set your alarm for a time before he starts to whine. Let him out, then back to bed. Good luck to you. He should be sleeping through the night in no time.


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