Any greyhound experts around?

[Eddielzzard]

I adopted my gorgeous ex-racer 6 months ago and she's settled down very well, except that she wakes us between 5.20 and 6am. I'm just not getting enough sleep.

This wasn't an issue in winter, it's just in summer with the warm weather and early light.

She normally sleeps downstairs, so last Friday night I made a bed for her outside our room and that worked for 2 days. She didn't get up until 8.30 when I wafted her breakfast under her nose! So it seems she's not desperate to go out. But this morning we're back to 5.55.

I do let her out when she wakes us, and she doesn't go straight to the grass to wee, but sniffs out the favourite squirrel haunts first, so she's not desperate. I take her for a walk last thing at night just before I go to bed. I can't take her any later.

I have tried putting her bed in our room but she's so noisy. Snuffling and licking, settling, huffing etc. I couldn't get to sleep.

Help! Any ideas?

No answer, but our adopted lurcher is exactly the same. After years of owning Staffies, who invariably had to be turfed out for a wee after 9 it came as a bit of a shock to the system. At weekends we take the dog for a walk and then go back to bed, I normally sleep another 2 or 3 hours after the 5.30am walk. during the week we take it in turns, not ideal but as dog is 10 I think she is set in her ways on this point and cannot change.

So once she’s been for a wee do you stay up or go back to bed?

*dpuppy has a greyhound dgp - - sleeping downstairs, wee at 630, back to bed(mine) til 1030. I needed to be up for ds going to school (after 13 weeks of lie ins ) . Wayyy to early for dpuppy. She lifted her head and went back to sleep.
Like this..

I try to go back to bed but invariably she'll whine outside the kids' bedrooms wanting them to play so I have to get up with her to stop her waking them. I also struggle from insomnia and am a light sleeper, so don't find it easy to get back to sleep.

Given that she lies down for 20 hours a day not moving an eyelid, surely it must be possible to make her most active hour NOT 5 - 6AM!

What times do you feed her?
When is last wee?
How often and what sort of walks are you doing?
Puppy slept in until 6:40 today. Felt like a lie in.

Last wee between 9 - 10pm
Many daily walks. Sometimes more than 2 hours worth. She likes those.
I feed at 8 - 8.30am and 4 - 4.30pm

The early waking seems to be for attention, as she isn't desperate to wee when I do let her out.

6.40 is BLISS! a proper lie in.

I may forgive dpuppy for eating my wallpaper as she sleeps so well!!
Maybe...
Dh has taught her that napping on the upstairs ddog free sofa is great also.

But I get more bed to lie in at the week ends!!
Unsupervised I would have no home left...
Anyone got any wallpaper to give away?

She sounds like she has learnt that she controls the timetable and you are going to have to go through a certain amount of disruption to fix it.
If she wakes up, put her on lead, silently take her out to a spot where she can see. No sniffing the wildlife patches, playing or engaging. Just out for business, then back in, lead off go back in your room and ignore her.
She will huff,puff and whine. Too bad, ignore her. Whether you are wide awake or not, ignore her and get back in bed. Leave her back in her night time spot, wherever that is. The kids will get woken. Too bad, they have to ignore her too. Pick a time when no one needs to get up (lockdown finally having an upside?), grit your teeth and get it done.
You come out when YOU decide. At first just a short while after the whining stops (and you MUST wait for the whining to stop) get up and get on with your day. Don’t make too much of a fuss of her when you first all get up so she doesn’t associate that as the’ best part of the day’
Gradually you can shift the balance to her going by your preferred timetable rather than the other way round

Where she can wee obviously, not see

Damn I wish there was an edit function here!

How long has she been doing this? Our grey did similar with the added extra of whining until someone got up! She probably still feels a bit unsettled - keep to a routine and don’t change it so that she has some consistency to follow. Moving her bed frequently will seem confusing to her! Don’t forget rescues can take a long long time to really get used to a home. We’ve had ours for 2 years now and she’s really coming out of her shell but it took quite a lot of patience!

Can you make where she sleeps any darker?

I would feed her later in the evening

Does she sleep on your bed? We have a lurcher and he sleeps on our bed (I know, I know...) and he is generally the last one up, and never the first up! He lies in until we do (and if it is raining, might stay there all day!)

Whoknowswhocares that's EXACTLY how it feels. She knows she controls us and dictates the time table. She also whines when she wants her walks, although I have to ignore that because of work / kids.

I feel that I can work with training her to wait. I'm going to do exactly what you suggest. Wish me luck!

piggychicken I reckon the last 2 or 3 months. I think we have been so eager to help her settle that we've bent over backwards too much. The kids adore her and she gets a lot of fussing. I've only moved her bed once, last Friday night, but I think I will revert it back to downstairs tonight.

I would make the last wee a bit later but not walking her just let her go in the garden and then find the darkest place in the house to put her bed and try to ignore any early morning whining . That said my dog ( terrier ) is quite happy to get up and come downstairs on his own and doesn’t care if he’s not let out until 10am an she has his last wee at 10pm .

Last wee here not before 10. I feed after 5pm. They also get a snack before bed. And they have blackout curtains.

I'd be happy to let her wee after 10pm if she wasn't waking me up at 5!

But maybe she won’t wake you then if she has a last wee later??

I've tried many times... All sorts of things.

Try and move last wees later
Make first wees lead on and very, very boring
Feed later, even if that means splitting her feed so she gets a tea time feed followed by a supper.
Can you make her sleeping spot darker?

Thank you all, lots of great suggestions which I'll try tonight. Will report back tomorrow

Good luck!

Racers are used to being fed early but maybe try and push it back a bit later. Could be waking up through hunger?
Mine don’t eat their evening meal till between 7/8pm and although I walk them at 6am, that’s me getting them up! They would happily lie in.

Interesting ButDoUAvocado! That's a very late dinner. What time do you take them out for their final walk? I've just taken my routine from what the rescue kennel did, so I guess there's a fair amount of flexibility.

So... I fed her at 5.30 instead of 4 - 4.30. Took her for her last walk at 9.50, about as late as I could. She woke me at 5.50 and I took her back to her bed and went back to bed. DH had to get up at 6.30 to finish some work, and she was still in bed. It's 7.45 now and she hasn't asked to be let out yet.

Day 1 good! I know the battle is not won. Let's see how Day 2 is...

They have their last wee when they eat in the evening, they rarely go out after that and didn’t even when they were younger.

Hope it improves for you soon!
I think because mine have tiring days helps too. In the Winter they’ll be walked 3 times a day and in Summer they’ll be in the garden most of the day and don’t really nap that much. The Poodle must be on guard and protect her land at all costs so she’s shattered at bedtime.