Dog waking up very early

[Anna713]

Hi. Does anyone have any advice about how I can persuade my 18 month old cocker spaniel to sleep longer in the mornings.

He currently wakes up between 6 - 6.30 am every day and as we are a retired couple who can get up when we want, we are finding it difficult. He sleeps in a quiet dark bed under the stairs. I have a stair gate because I don't want him upstairs. I close the living room doors when we go to bed because he is still a bit of a chewer if left unsupervised and I dont trust him. It's quite a big hall though and he has water. He gets plenty of exercise during the day. He dozes on the sofa next to us in the evenings and he will slope off to his bed sometimes. I try and stop him so he sleeps longer through the night but it doesn't help. If we keep him awake in the evening he just sleeps more the next day but still wakes up very early

I've tried walking him later feeding him later, blackout blinds to make where he sleeps darker, not feeding him when he first gets up . Nothing makes any difference. He does want to go outside when he wakes but I dont think he is desperate, He just scrabbles like mad at the gate and makes a huge fuss until one of us gets up with him. He is then full of beans for 45 minutes or so and then collapses on the sofa and sleeps for a good couple of hours.

Has anyone any suggestions or do we just have to put up with it. Tia

I suspect he just wants some company.

Cocker spaniels are quite clingy as a breed and they generally don't like being left alone for long periods of time - so once he's awake he wants to be with his family.

You could try setting an alarm (it will need to be early at first) loudly enough so it wakes him and you. Then go down and let him out and begin your day as normal. Slowly, set the alarm for later and later so he associates the alarm with getting up - ie. you only come down to him when the alarm goes, not when he demands.

Eventually it should become habit for him to sleep later and you'll be able to phase out the alarm altogether.

I took the lazy option and our dog sleeps on the bed. I have to literally shove him out in the mornings otherwise he'd stay there half the day

What time is he going to sleep?

What time is his last meal?

Our ddog wakes early morning - if he’s at mum’s he sleeps in her room and pops up out of his bed onto hers and goes back to sleep. At home he sleeps in/on my bed. If on in the early hours he’ll get in, snuggle down, sometimes we spoon, I’m the little spoon, and he goes back to sleep. If it’s raining he can sense it and sometimes doesn’t emerge for ages. If you want a lie in I’d reconsider the sleeping arrangements!

Ps. We’ve only just got up!

Thanks for all the responses. I think I'm going to try letting him upstairs with us but ignoring him until we want to get up if that makes sense. He was up at 6 this morning but he has been asleep on the sofa from 7am until just now. 🙄🐶

Let him out first thing if he needs to wee, but then back to bed with you with minimal interaction. A chew on the bed if he needs something quiet to do. He’ll soon start sleeping later, but he needs to be close to you.

Is there something waking him at that time - the central heating coming on or something similar?
We looked after our neighbours dog recently and they couldn’t work out why he woke up at 5.30 at their house but had a lie in til about 7 at ours. Turned out it was the boiler coming on that was triggering him to be up and about so early. Ours wasn’t on a specific time and he was happy downstairs on his own til we got up in the morning.

Our puppy sleeps until 6am and wakes up wanting a wee, I go down, get her out the crate, outside for a wee with minimal interaction, and then straight back upstairs and put her on the bed with us and she immediately crashes out for another hour.

We have young children as well so to be fair we don’t sleep much past 7am / 7.30 but that last hour on our bed just makes it all a bit less painful. There is no way she’d settle back in the crate at 6am

But she happily sleeps through the night in the crate so a 6am pee is not a bad compromise!

What happens if you just let him out for a wee (no other communication) and put him back to bed? Will he settle or will he whine and bark for you?

I have tried putting him back in his bed but he cries and whines and keeps it up for ages. I don't want to be unkind to him if he's had enough sleep but these early starts are killing me. If he comes back to bed with me he just wants to play and won't settle.