Do dogs change sleep patterns as they get older?

[Jeni1206]

Hi all, novice dog owner here, and was wondering if any more experienced owners could let me know what to possibly expect.

We have a 6 month old pup who always start the day at 5:30am, needs a wee but is also ready to start the day. He goes to bed at 11 and sleeps through till 5:30 so I know this could be a lot worse, but I'm not going to lie - the early starts are catching up with me!

As he gets older, will he likely last a bit longer, or is it the case of by now, if he's an early riser, he probably always will be?

I know every dog is different, but I was just wondering of other people's experiences. Btw, he is up in our room, not crated. Also, he doesn't have breakfast till about 7 when kids wake up so I am not reinforcing it with an early meal.

Mine was a pain in the backside for sleeping through the night (he didn't).

But for the past year he has suddenly changed and it quite content to sleep 8 hours through but he is 7 this year. I hope you don't need to wait that long 😁

Our pup has generally slept from 10pm to 7am since day 1. We obviously had toilet breaks in that time when young, but they were just toilet breaks, she'd go straight back to sleep. She'd normally already had a couple of hours sofa snoozing before bed too.

Mine started to sleep from 11 - 7 after maybe 9 months, I honestly can't remember. He's now 6 and barks once we're asleep every few nights without an obvious reason which is a strange one.

Loads of weird puppy behaviour is a phase so don't worry too much about things.

We wake ours up 1.5 hours before bed, give her a puzzle toy (with part of her evening meal in) and then she has a play, and starts to go down again then we take her to bed with us. She sleeps 8 - 9 hours in her crate in our room and has done since 3 months - she is 7 months now.

Sometimes they wake early hungry, or anticipating a walk or they have had enough sleep. So things to try if you've not already. It's worked very well for us from early on but all dogs and pups are different.

i got my rescue dog at 2 yo (him, not me🤣) & he used to wake early & and only nap for short periods before being ready to play again. From age 4 he slept a bit more.

He’s 11 now & sleeps most of the day bar his walks/mealtimes/catching 1 throw of the ball!

Mine gets up when we wake up now, in the week we’re up at 6am, the weekends are more relaxed and we’re up from anytime up until about 9am, she’s never desperate to go out even then. She’s 7, but been like this for a good few years.

Mine is five and will sleep until from 8pm until 10-11am if we let him 🤣

As a puppy he got up early but we were also up early for work so it's hard to say if that was his age or our routine.

We started taking ours back to bed with us when she'd had her first wee of the day. She'd go right back to sleep.

She loves bed though and now she's 3 will happily do a last wee at 8pm and last through till about 10 am the next morning - sometimes she won't wander downstairs till about 11am.

Thanks for replies all, it sounds like things could still improve a little then. I'm going to hang on to that hope!

I have tried setting an alarm, so that he associates that with us getting up rather than jumping on the bed until we give in. I thought then we could gradually set the alarm later and later - but he is like a clockwork at 5:30 - 5:45 on a very rare good day!

Like babies-sleep breeds sleep. Have you tried putting him to bed earlier?

My 17 week old puppy does 7pm-7am. She’s on the go a lot during the day and often by half 6 I’m ready for her to go to bed lol 😂

No I have not tried an earlier night, I've been fixed on trying to make his last toilet trip as late as possible. But I could certainly try, at least then I'd be getting to bed a bit earlier too and not having to wait up.
7-7 sounds an absolute dream!