Puppy gurus - How do I convince this little darling that 5:13 is not morning?

[621mum]

Today is the 4th morning in a row she has started yelping at exactly 5:13. I let her fuss until 6:00 the first two mornings (she had been out at 4:20 or so, so I was pretty sure it wasn't about that). But, the last two days have been work/school days for the 8 humans in the house, so I felt bad letting it go on for that long. I don't need her to stay in crate until noon or anything; she's a baby (11 weeks). 6:30 would be nice though : )

[skittledoo]

Puppies generally have to go to the bathroom a lot more often than older dogs. Other then that I'm not sure...

[lizzybeth727]

You could try taking her out at 4:45-5:00 instead of 4:20 (is she crying at 4:20, too?). Keep it very calm, and calmly put her back in bed. Maybe there's a big enough difference to her that she'll go back to sleep at 5:00 where she wouldn't at 5:13.

Also, letting her continue to fuss in this situation, while a good idea in theory, is probably just getting her more worked up. So the longer she fusses, the less likely she'll go back to sleep.

[Buddy'sParents]

Heh.... 5:13 IS morning!! Time to adjust your schedule! Maybe she needs to go potty? When is her last break before bed? Is she crated at night?

[maxfox426]

With Morgan, we split his one nighttime potty break into two. When we started out (we got him at 10wks), I think we put him to bed at 10pm, took him out again 12:30-1am, then again about 4am, and then I get up again about 6am. During the nighttime potty breaks, I never really talked to him or acted all that excited. (Granted... I was tired!) I just took him out, praised him when he did his business outside, brought him back to his crate, and then I would go upstairs back to bed for a few hours.

Gradually, we moved the potty breaks later by 15-20 minutes every few days/week or so, until he was down to one potty break around 3am... and then kept moving that later and later until now he sleeps through the night.

Occassionally, he will still wake up and bark at 5:30am... but now we know he doesn't need to go out (he's 21wks now) and he quiets down after a few minutes if nobody goes downstairs to get him. Then he will wait until one of us comes downstairs in the morning.

Hope that helps... I know to start there is not a lot of sleep involved, but it seemed to work on Morgan.

[621mum]

Thanks, all. She is still getting up every 3-4 hours to go out (last night at 1 a.m., and at 4:20). When she needs to go out, she whines softly and I get up and take her out and put her right back in and she goes back to bed. But, then at a little after five she is just up up. It's not that she needs to go out (if I take her, she won't do anything). She just wants us all to get moving and start the day and get her some breakfast. LOL

[corgipower]

When I got Nyx, she would wake up just at an odd time, and usually the same time every day almost to the minute. I believe it was changes in the lighting as the predawn sky changes. Try moving the crate or changing something else in the lighting.

[Ilyena]

You could try increasing her exercise or let her run off-leash for a while just before bedtime to help her sleep better. I know you aren't supposed to overexercise puppies but I know I would've gone insane if I had not taken my pup out on a late night walk with a training session mixed in before bed. Without his nightly walk he woke up at 5am every night ready to start the day and with his walk he slept happily to 7am (with a pottybreak once a night for a month).

[Angela's mom]

Could it be that the paper guy comes by at 5:13 every morning or a neighbor with a loud vehicle leaves for work at that time every morning? Maybe if you turn on a radio or something that would drown out any sudden noises that are waking the baby up.

Good Luck!

[621mum]

The blinds are closed, the sound machine is on, and I'm being sure she gets a potty break at around 4. Still.... 5:13 is the magic moment Hopefully, she'll just grow out of it.