Pup (5 months) goes to crate/bed around 9 each night. Around 4:30 A.M. I wake up upstairs to him whining. I come downstairs only when he is quiet (which is generally right away)

Once in the kitchen, I wait a bit and do my thing (ie: coffee, feed cat etc...) He is not whining during the time I am doing this, sits quietly, watching me from his crate. I don't look at him. After about 2 to 5 minutes, I will then get him out on leash to go outside.

Is he calling the shots here? (IE: by waking me in the first place) or am I "regaining control" by not cowtowing (sp) to his initial morning whimper and running to let him out...(which I did do for the first month when I had him and was potty training)

Tough Call on that one ...

My pup has a very specific whine while crated that means I have to go potty. If I ignore the whine, it becomes a very desparate barking. Since I don't want to promote barking, to go potty, I take him out immediately. However, with that said, he goes right back into the crate, until I decide it is MORNING and Time to get up.

My pup has another noise ... not a whine, more like a groan/sigh that to me indicates that he is ready to get up and get moving. I do not respond to that sound, although it might wake me up. And I'm sure that he can tell the difference between when I am sleeping versus awake.

And I have noticed that as sunrise gets earlier, he is awake earlier. Of course, I wake earlier and easier in the summer months too.

So, if you're pup didn't wake you up at 4:30 each morning, when would you choose to get up? If it 4:30 then perhaps he is tuned into your schedule. If not, then he might be calling the shots.

On work days when I am up at 4:30am, my then-5-month-old would hear the alarm and start whining. I did as you do...leave him in the crate and do other stuff until he quit whining.

On non-work days, when I sleep in, he would still wake up early and start whining. I ignored it and let him whine and didn't get up or let him out until I was ready.

I was having a similar problem. I adjusted his feeding and water so that his body functions came a little later in the morning. I have to be up at 6am so he wasn't getting me up at 4. He's only 11 weeks old so when he starts his potty speak I take him out right away or he'll go in the crate. Its working so far.

Howard

I really don't mind (on most mornings) getting up at 0430...I am just wondering if I am empowering the dog BY getting up when he first whines. He does stop, it's not like I am running down and letting him out during his whine..(although did initially with potty training...--"potty speak" . you GOts to hear that...thank god I did, no accidents for this pup) but now that he IS potty trained, just wondering if he is feeling "power" by hearing my footsteps upstairs when he cries...I *think* I am counteracting it, regardless, by essentially ignoring him for the first bit when I get downstairs.

4:30am!!! All my dogs look at me when like I am NUTS at that time when I get THEM up to go work because its hot....hee hee

Seriously though, I get up at around 4:30/5:00 daily and my dogs start rising and getting restless about 6:00 to 6:30, occasionally they will sleep until 7 am.

Puppies I get up with if they were restless and they went out, "did their business" and went right back to bed. Or if one of the adults (crated in the house) absolutely HAS to go...(there is a completely urgent sound to their whining or bark)

Since we put the kennels up, it has been great. Only thing is that my Mal and my Bloodhound will not go in their outdoor kennels either....only in the large dog yards. So I have to make sure I get them out first.
The other dogs go in the outdoor part of the kennels but no one goes inside.


BTW, Cato looks great!!!! The more I think about it the more I love that name

When Carbon was a younger pup, he got up early...around 6 or so. He was a VERY loud whiner and it was harsh to wake up to, as I am most certainly NOT a morning person. But I figured it would pass eventually as he matured.

It didn't. It started around 6 or 6:30, then it started getting earlier and earlier with every day, and he didn't even do anything when he went outside.

I finally figured out that he was associating me getting up, not with being let out, but with breakfast! Oh yeah, he was training me! (Smart dogs are always the biggest butt-pains! )

So, I started getting up, but not feeding him until I had had my coffee and read the paper. I can't tell you how quickly and how well this worked. The first few days he bugged me to feed him right away, but would give up and take a snooze next to me. In just a few more days his wake up time started getting later and later.

Now he's on our schedule, we're not on his. We still have a schedule, but it's closer to 7 or 8 instead of 3 am, and he's even been known to let us sleep in occassionally on weekends!

On SLEEP IN Days, I still get up at the same time and let the pup out to do his business. But I delay breakfast and put him in the Kitchen Crate while I snooze in the Living Room.

If I go back to my bedroom to snooze, then he goes back to his crate in my room. It has worked so far.