11 month old puppy wanting to be fed at 3am (my fault)

[FranAndFern]

She used to wake up at 6am and bark to be fed, which I didn't mind too much. Then ist started slipping back to 5:30, 5 etc. Then it jumped from 4 to 3. She is a spaniel and has a loud bark, I live in a semi detached house and my attached neighbours have children aged around 2 and 5 and both parents work.

I feel so guilty about the barking that I have to feed her. The neighbours must hate me, quite rightly. Its also killing me. I will need to find a job soon, and then it will kill me even more.

If I don't feed her she just barks and barks. She doesn't need the loo or want attention, she just wants food. If I let her out and go back upstairs she just carries on barking.

I think what I need to do is speak to my neighbours and apologise, but tell them I'm going to have to start ignoring her so it may get worse before it gets better.

Does that sound like the right thing to do?

Thanks for any help or advice you can give.

Well, I put in earplugs and didn't hear anything last night. I think I would have done if it had been as bad as the night before because I wasn't completely deaf.

Oh I hope that's this problem sorted for you OP!

Try and find out if your neighbours are going on holiday soon as a good opportunity to sleep train the dog.
If They're not, it might still be a good opportunity to get them on board for a few disrupted nights, depending on how understanding or well you get on

Send the pup over to a dog behaviourist for a week if you have the means? I know you could fix it yourself but I would personally feel too sorry for my neighbours. It seems like the pup has learnt that asking for food by barking works, and this needs to be relearnt. Or perhaps you have relatives in the country, where noone else is disturbed?

My dog did this cause he worked out my step mum was a soft touch. It took 2 nights for him to get the message. I put him in my room to sleep and refused to feed him any earlier. It took 2 nights to get the message.