Clocks going back

[Partey]

This sounds absurd I think.

Has anyone else dog struggled to adjust since the clocks went back. Dog sleeps on our landing overnight. Every night from 4.30/5pm he toodles off upstairs and looks down as of to say “where are you, it’s bedtime!”

He’s generally a v good sleeper, he’s lifted out of bed for last wee/poo at 9.30ish and has to be lifted out again at 7am but he’s definitely sleeping more now it’s darker earlier

We are struggling with dinner being an hour later. This is clearly devastating and unfair and I am starving them.

I've always moved dinner to an hour earlier in the wintertime once the clocks change - it is colder weather anyway so they are going to be hungrier earlier than in summer. Therefore, my dog (and the one before her) always dine at the same time year round (IYSWIM). My neighbours in Greece did this too (I probably got the idea from them, now I think about it).

We’re struggling the other way. 7am wake ups have now become 6am and I have no idea how to shift them :-(.

Have tried keeping her up later but that just resulted in an even earlier wake up - joy.

Any suggestions for how to get her back to 7am gratefully received!

I almost started a thread about this immediately after the clocks went back as I too was wondering what other people were doing.

I'm now feeding her an hour earlier, partly because she's absolutely starving when it comes to meal times now - happens every winter - and there's no way she'd hold out.

The earlier waking is a bit of a pain but there's no budging her. I have to get up that bit earlier because I know she'll be waiting downstairs with a hungry glint in her eye. I even get 'poor little starving doggie' whimpering some mornings.

My dog doesn’t seem to notice the difference but that may be because we don’t have a very strict regime , breakfast can be anytime between 8-9:30 and dinner is between 4:30 /5:45 so an hour here and there makes no odds . Aside from if he gets too hot he always stays in bed ( upstairs ) until he hears the first person getting up .

I’m glad it’s not just us. My dog isn’t a huge eater, and doesn’t really have set feeding times so no change there. He’s up there on the landing now, just waiting for us to go to bed

We’re doing okay now, but the first few days were a nightmare. DH was meant to take her out on the first morning after the change, but he was a bit late. Along with the hour, it totally put her out of routine. We had three nights of poo in the house (first time ever), and looking to go for walks early etc. She seems to be sorted now (hopefully), but hates the dark night walks.

I'm also not that strict about when my dog is fed, it is often an hour later than the general time, but for some reason the moving back of the clocks seems to make her need to be fed at the earlier time.

I think she just feels hungrier in the winter so wants to eat earlier.

Funnily enough, my dog's bedtime doesn't seem to be affected. I've actually tried to go to bed a bit earlier - not 7.15 though - but she still wants to have a wander in the garden at around midnight. She does love a frosty night.

We had just got a nice routine going 10-7 and clocks changing buggered it up. She started waking at 6 instead. We've dealt with it by moving her dinner back an hour, so she now eats at 9ish, last wee/poo 9.30-10 and thankfully now sleeps an hour longer in the morning so waking at 7 and some days 7.30.