<p>We have two dogs. Let’s call them Big Dog and Little Dog. We’ve had them two-ish years. They sleep in our kitchen. Mostly nights have been fine. Recently, Big Dog has been waking up early and giving these little barks (which sometimes progress to pawing at the door). He does <em>not</em> need to go out. I think he’s just kind of awake and wanting company. DH has some fairly serious sleep issues so I’ve been coming down to the kitchen. He quiets down as soon as I do.</p>
<p>We’re pretty sure we’re training him that we will come to him in the mornings if he barks. How do we break this cycle? This morning I tried coming down, being cranky, and putting him in a small bathroom. (Maybe some negative reinforcement?) He did get quiet for a while (yes–I probably should have gone to him then), but after 20-30 minutes he started the little barks again. I sprung him (I know–bad idea) so DH could get try to go back to sleep.</p>
<p>He really does not. He has a very clear “need-to-go-out” signal (he taps at the doorknob with his nose), but when I come down in the early mornings he’s very content to hang out with me for several hours in the kitchen.</p>
<p>Our 10-year-old collie has been doing the same thing! I should probably take him to the vet, but I can’t afford to right now. He’s waking up my daughter - not good.</p>
<p>This is a very healthy 3-year-old dog. I think he’s just done sleeping for the night and wants to have some company. (And, again–until this morning I’ve been reinforcing the behavior by going to him when he barks, just so everyone else in the house can stay asleep.) Both dogs happen to be going to the vet this week for shots, etc. Will definitely ask the vet about it, but I know I’ve seen some really good dog advice on CC!</p>
<p>Is someone in the neighborhood getting the newspaper delivered at that time? Maybe the delivery person needs a new muffler? We had that happen to us. We couldn’t figure out why our dog was getting up at that time every day until one day hubby happened to be up and saw the dog go to the window and watch the delivery guy drop the paper across the street. They have stopped getting the paper and the dog no longer gets up then.</p>
<p>You are probably right that you are reinforcing the habit. Can your DH wear ear plugs or something for a few nights until you break the dog of that habit? Would it work to have the dogs sleep in your bedroom?</p>
<p>How about some play right before bed or a walk? I think sometimes we expect our dogs to be very inactive: quiet in the day when we work and then to sleep all night.</p>
<p>Actually–it might have something to do with the newspaper guy, although both dogs have a more robust bark when they hear something outside. This is a very meek woof–more of a “Hello? Anybody up?” Would rather not take the dogs into my room–I’ve thought about putting him in the basement. We actually got Little Dog as a puppy (adopted Big Dog when he was about a year old) and had him sleep in the basement specifically so he’d know we wouldn’t come to him in the middle of the night if he barked. I have a feeling we’d <eventually> hear Big Dog even from the basement.</eventually></p>
<p>nj–that’s probably a good idea. My dogs are outside a fair amount, but we’ve noticed that they “play” <em>much</em> more (even with each other) when one of us is out there with them. I think when it’s just the two of them they mostly lie around/sleep outside just like inside.</p>
<p>A nice long walk or a game of ball in the evening will have your two sleeping later in the morning. It sounds like they just don’t get enough exercise. My two hike with my husband on the weekend and are still tired 2 days later. As a matter of fact, they are still asleep at 11:30am; that is after going out to potty and having breakfast at 5:30 before my husband left for work. The point is, they are content to sleep for days after their weekend hikes. I still walk them during the week, especially at night, but they are whipped after their weekends!</p>
<p>ingerp, my dogs are inside dogs, but we do have a fenced back yard. They will go out for all of 5 minutes before wanting to be back inside. If I go out there with them, they would stay all day! </p>
<p>As my two are bigger dogs and pull on their leashes when they see other friends, I have been taking them to our subdivisions tennis courts some night after dinner to run around. For some reason they love the courts and run and chase each other for a good 10-20 minutes; this is enough that we don’t hear a peep out of them for the rest of the night! When I go in the yard with them, they seem to eat sticks or just hang out; the tennis court allows both of them to have a huge free area to run. Just don’t tell my neighbors I do this as I am pretty sure it isn’t allowed ;)</p>
<p>Also… if you successfully Ferberized your kids (love that phrase, and I did the same), you really need to do the same with Big Dog… if the extra exercise doesn’t eliminate the bad habit which is developing.</p>
<p>I get that you don’t want to disrupt DH’s precious sleep during the “ferberizing”. Maybe DH can sleep in a different bedroom (with ear plugs or whatever) for the 2-3 nights it should take to totally ignore the barking/clawing at the bedroom door. 25 years later I still remember <em>exactly</em> how many minutes DS cried the first night we decided he was ready to sleep through (didn’t need feeding/changing) … 21 minutes… and the second night…12 minutes (pretty much exactly as advertised - ie half the time), and then he started sleeping through. So let’s hope that if you need to do it, you will only have to do it for a few nights.</p>
<p>My friends who didn’t wean their babies of nighttime attention when it was no longer needed, had… of course… horrendous experiences trying to do it with 4 year olds (or older). So it really is best, as we know, to do it young. I found it helpful to think of it not as ignoring my child but of giving him the gift of being able to self-comfort and return himself to sleep. I don’t see why we can’t think of it that way with our pets (admittedly, we never had to deal with this with our dog, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work just the same).</p>
<p>I’ll try the exercise, and now that I think about it, DH is out of town all next week. Good time to ferberize if necessary. (And not to hijack my own thread, but ferberizing with my kids worked well and quickly for me. What I’d read is that if you’re going to do it, you really have to do it. Worked like a charm.)</p>
<p>My dog would never dare bark in the morning when my H is home but the tricky little devil tries to wake me up when he’s out of town. I just shout at her that I am The Decider, not her, and she gives up and waits until I want to get up. Even if I want to get up around the time she barks, I deliberately wait awhile so she doesn’t think she has the power.</p>
<p>My toy poodle would do something similar if she heard someone up or if she heard a noise… Then she would want in bed with me (because she is a bed hog).</p>