Hi,

I have had my 6 month old Welsh Springer for a month now. She seems to have settled well after initially finding it very hard to be separated from us at bedtime - she sleeps in the kitchen. However we persevered, and by sitting out of sight and talking to her gently she got into the habit of going to sleep at bedtime.
She whines to wake us up at about 4am, we take her out and she always wants to wee, so thats fine, then she settles back down. At 7am, she whines again, we take her out, but then that's it, she's awake and there is no going back to bed for anyone, and I know 7am is not early, but on the odd occasion it is nice to go back to bed for an hour!
Any ideas why she is so intent that the whole household get up at that time, when normally she will just settle back down?


Thank you

Bailey was the same, she settled on half 5 for a while (Jase aka up@5 will tell you a similar story about how he got his name), then she got a bit later, but eventually settled on about 7-7:30. HOWEVER!!! Not sure why, but all of a sudden, about 2 or 3 weeks ago, she stopped crying to wake us up in the mornings, one day we got a weekend lie in till 9:15!!!!!!!!!

It's fab, it doesn't happen every day, but it is so much better.

We have wondered how it came about, and we put it down to a spate of OH getting up very early for work, before she's woken up, so she didn't get the chance to cry to rouse us, then a couple of mornings of being ignored if she woke up too early (she's 9 months now, I wouldn't have done this when she was younger, we always got up to let her out) and it seems to have worked.

Also, she's just getting older, which helps!

Life is kind of getting back to 'normal' whatever that is when you have a Springer, and I never thought it would happen, I thought we were destined for early mornings with us taking it in turns for a weekend lie in, now we sometimes get a lie in together!!

With Vinnie sleeping outside, we don't get any early morning wake up calls! In fact, I have to wake him up most mornings - he usually dozes off in the house at about 8.30/9.00, I have to wake him up to take him out to bed. More often than not he is still asleep when I go to let him in at 7.00. Even if he is up, he justs sits there quietly waiting. Hard as it may be, ignoring her is probably the best way to go to start with. Only go to her once she has settled. Try and increase the time 5 minutes or so at a time. Does walking her later in the evening, or keeping her awake later make any difference?

That said, we have had my nieces here this weekend, and they don't do lie-ins.

I have no tips for getting a pup to sleep later I'm afraid - no dog/foster dog/foster pup I've ever had has slept later than 7am until much older, think they just need a wee and wake up for the day early by nature normally. Another reason why people say having a pup/dog is like having a child! But just had to ask if you've got any photos of her?!

As you can see from my signature, we're eagerly awating ours so would love to see your photos. Although as you can also see from my signature, we're usually up from 6/6.30am anyway thanks to small children so we'll probably be awake before the pup!!

Don't have experience of an older Springer as ours is only 9 weeks now, but our greyhound is up by 7.30 and there is not settling her back down. It is breakfast time and wee time. Luckily she is soooo lazy I could have gone back to bed after she's eaten as she just chills on her duvet, but with 2 kids - no chance!

7am....now thats what I call lie in

It really does depend on the dogs to be honest...
Molly (age 4ish) for instance likes to get up at 5am and is hard to settle back down
Finn (aged 14 months) is a real sleepy head, rolls over in bed, wags his tail but doesn't get up

firstly, ahem, PICTURES

Mr B Welshie was still getting up for widdles at 6/7am and then he was up for the day He's now almost 9 months old and taken the lead from Star who isn't a 'morning' dog . . . so it's back to bed for snuggles with mum at the weekend . . and leave mum to use hairdryer in peace on schooldays

Agree, wanna have pictures

To be honest, when Fippy was that young I always stayed up with her, since she was such a good pup all night not bothering us I thought it was only fair not to expect more from her. And it seemed to work, she slowly slept longer and longer.

Oliver gets up for a wee (well really he wakes up for breakfast but i let him out for a wee instead!) at between 6 and 7. I feed him at 7 and on weekends he comes up after breakfast and lies on the bed so we have a lay in.

M & M get up with OH at about 5.30am during the week. Unfortunatley, they don't distinguish weekends from weekdays so more often than not, I have a wet nose shoved under the duvet at the same time on a Saturday and Sunday morning.

They go out for a wee and a wander for 5 mins then go back to bed until the kids are up! That could be anytime from 7.30am to 9.00am! Murf loves bed almost as much as I do! But once he's up............. !

Zack my 7 month old springer sleeps until 11am sometimes! He always goes to be around 10, although he's lounging around the house napping from about 9. He's never been a problem waking us up during the night because right from the start i woke him up to take him for loo breaks, he never woke me to ask.
I started off taking him at 2am every night, then moved it gradually until it was 6am, then removed the break totally but got him up for a wee at 8am. He's only ever wet his bed (in his crate) twice, and that was when we first got him so he was still learning.
Lately though he's learned to ask to go outside if we're sat in a room together, by sitting next to the door and pawing it a few times. Quite useful in some situations, in others i worry for the doors! hehe.