Early riser pup

[SweetieSnowball]

Our 5 month old pup sleeps in a crate at night. Goes in it no fuss ever since we brought her home. Trouble is she cries and barks to be let out from 6am every morning. This isnt too bad in the normal working week but at the moment when all on Christmas hols we have to get up to entertain her.

Is there anyway we can train her to sleep in a bit? obviously she has a very set body clock but even in week we dont get up until a bit later. We thought as she grew bigger, getting better bladder control, she would sleep longer. No such luck yet.

This is light hearted as she is a really sweet dog and no problem at all, just us being lazy owners really

[Zavi]

We had exactly the same thing when our dog was little. The only reliable way we could get to have a lie in was if we took her out for a longish walk late in the evening.

If I remember rightly the rule for puppies is 5 min exercise for every month of age, so your 5-month old can be walked for up to 25 mins (twice a day).

Of course sometimes the walks were deliberately accidently stretched out to more than 25 mins. Especially those late evening ones where we really wanted a lie-in the next day

That would usually give us an extra hour in bed in the mornings

[peckforton]

I would say take her out for a late evening walk to make sure she has done a poo and as many wees as she can.

[PartridgeInASpicyPearTree]

We had this so we started putting him out for a wee with minimal fuss or attention then straight back in the crate. He cried a few times then got the idea and started waiting until later to get up. He's four and a half months and on a weekend will go through from 11pm to 8am ish. He does have a lateish evening walk every day though.

[SweetieSnowball]

I will give a late evening walk a try. She currently gets a mid morning and early evening walk every day. Some days she also gets an afternoon walk too. We usually put her in garden before bed, she always does both business no problems.

I will see how we get on with the later walk before trying to put her back in the crate. I dont want her waking the neighboura by barking, or getting fearful in the crate.