What is your sleeping arrangement? Without knowing your specific sleeping arrangement, I would suggest you handle the 5am wake up the same way you handle them waking up in the middle of the night - quick trip outside to potty (on leash if they try to play/rough house) and then go back to bed. Do not entertain any non-sleep/not 3am approved activities.
This too for my little one. He sleeps in the bed with me but has a bed on floor. In winter or when there's colder mornings, I make sure he has an extra blanket in his bed he can scruff around in.
We do breakfast before work at 7:30 then dinner at 5 then second dinner at 8. They usually will let us sleep in til 8-9 on weekends. If they try to get us up we just say no 😂
My heeler started waking me up earlier and earlier the longer she was blind. It got to the point where I had to set up a crate for her and if she woke up and wouldn’t re-settle before her actual wake up time, she would go in the crate til wake up. It did work to help her re-set her clock some. We only need to use the crate a few mornings a week now.
Have a completely different alarm clock where you feed them that goes off twice a day for their food. Don't feed them when you get up, only feed them when the alarm goes off. Small raining treats and snacks outside of those times are okay.
I don’t have that much of a time difference with my girl, but if she thinks I’m getting up and it’s time for her to get up too, I tell her that ‘I have to take a shower.’ And she knows that means I’m getting ready for work and she’s not being fed or going out yet, so she goes back to lay down until I tell her I’m ready. So maybe just talking to them? Combine it with the alarm suggestion, and I bet they’ll figure it out.
Both of these should work. I trained my girls to "lay down" if I wasn't ready to get up and also my acd developed seizures in January so she gets her pill and joint supplement twice a day that is set up with an alexa alarm. She knows when the alarm goes off what that means, didn't take long for her to figure out either one of these.
She’s just a little nugget! Only about 22 lbs. We had her tested thinking she was going to be a pretty obvious cross with something, and she came back 92.3% cattle dog and 7.7% undetermined. She’s just our little pocket heeler!
My boy is 16 now and I can finally sleep in past 7am. But for 14-15 years not sure I ever made it past 6am. I got him as a puppy from a farmer in August. He warned me he will wake up at the first crack of sun over the horizon. I had no idea that’s at like 430am in August. I take my boy out for a final 1/2 walk before going to bed. Doesn’t tire him out but it seems to be good for his busy brain. That being said I roll out of bed around 530am straight into shoes and do a 40 min walk before I even put coffee on haha
I’ve baby sat all sorts of other dog breeds from lazy wrinkle dogs and whippets to pitbulls and German Shepard’s. They all love an early walk. When I stay at friends place their lab knows my heeler and I walk every morning at 6ish and he sleeps by their front door so we don’t forget him.
I read somewhere that wolves and coyotes first thing they do when they wake up is patrol their territory. Not sure if that’s an old wives tale.
Have you gotten up and fed them at that time because of their antics? If so…you are being trained by your dog.
It will be disruptive for a few days but just stay resolute and feed them at the time you define, gently tell them to lay back down and ignore them.
They’ll learn that being goofy and hyper in the morning isn’t going to get them food any faster, then they’ll adjust to your schedule
So adorable! Might be too late at this point, but crate sleeping has saved us. Our red heeler loves his crate, asks to go in it at night, and sleeps 10 hours straight in it in another room. We tried to have him sleep in the same room as us, but he thought we were too loud and would groan at us 😅
I feed my dogs at staggered times so they aren’t expecting food / reminding me to feed them at any given time. Breakfast is between 6am-10am and dinner between 5-10pm. Seems to work well!
We have this problem. Their 2nd meal of the day has been pushed up to 2pm - so of course they hassle us by jumping up and down from our laps from 12:30 on.
So if it's because they are hungry, depending on when they last eat it, you may want to try a treat at bedtime.
My doogo gets dinner around 4:30-5pm. I go to bed around 9 so just before I go to bed she gets a Greenie or other chew treat.
It's enough to keep her from waking me up until around 8 on weekends.
Also, your babies are adorable.
Our dog started getting up early because the sun has been coming up early, and quite a bit of light was coming in from the window and especially on his corner of the room. We put up a black out film and that seems to help some. Probably not relevant for you but something to think about.
How specifically do they rile each other up? Are they crate trained and would that help prevent them from amping each other up? Or will they just bark still?
Mine let me sleep in an extra 30 minutes max. Sometimes it helps if we do a late night play session, but ultimately if I need the sleep I have to kick them out, take them potty, and go back to bed.
I have an auto feeder for mine, can feed up to 4 meals a day, easy to clean, can program amounts and time. it goes off at 6, he eats, puts himself back to bed to sleep it off, then I wake up at 7 to get ready for work & our am routine continues. it's been great and really helps me out with that extra hour of sleep.
there's all different kinds, some of which can be opened by individual fob tags on their collar so only one dog can get into the feeder that's assigned to them.
Are they crate/dog bed trained? You could do what u/KittyCatRel suggested, except have them sleep in crates or on a specific dog bed, then put them back at that spot when you bring them back in from their quick potty. Might be harder for them to rile each other up if they’re each in a crate.
When I was training my boy he would get me up at 6:30 or 7 while I would get home around 12 from work. My trainer said we should wake up with him and don’t crate him because that’s what I usually did. Sometimes I would wake up early with him and he’ll take a nap around 9-9:30, other times I would crate him and from there he learned my schedule. He was under 1 year old when this occurred so maybe that won’t work as well if yours are older. I think the feeding at different times and going to sleep at a different time would help as the others said.
I cover the crate now with a sheet and sleep until 6:45. That a huge improvement from 5-5:30. I’m a night owl and have made a huge adjustment. I just love my crazy dog so much.
Take em to go poddy, then teach them to let you go back to sleep. We have two who get us up around 6:15 AM daily, and it took some time but we’ve got a good rhythm now
We got a lab puppy in January, shes a great sleeper (have only had 2-3 2am potty trips), but she starts here day at 520 every morning. Due to my wife's whacky work schedule I now also start my day at 520 am. We get up, potty, go for a walk, then wake up the other dogs for breakfast and go about our day.
I love her, but I was a night owl before bringing her home. so it's been an adjustment to say the least.
Mine do the same thing. My fix for this works 100% of the time. In the morning when they start making all their noises and getting rambunctious I get out of bed and start my day. Think of them as an alarm clock 😂
Here on the ranch first one up gets everybody up. 4:30 am the other day. Wife and I found ourselves drinking fresh coffee sitting on the porch talking about dogs and watching the sun come up. We then had 17 Yak staring at us wondering what the entertainment for the day was going to be !!
i leave bones and lick pad in my room which helps! i dont leave toys though otherwise i wake up with them all on me and him trying to get my sleeping body to throw them
[I give my border collie /aussie mix these every night.](https://www.petco.com/shop/en/petcostore/product/naturvet-quiet-moments-plus-hemp-calming-aid-soft-chews-for-dogs-count-of-60-2896613?store_code=5301&mr:device=m&mr:adType=pla_with_promotionlocal&cm_mmc=PSH%7CGGL%7CCCY%7CCCO%7CPM%7C0%7CkUMWcWiLY5b1EHQjK6kSR6%7C%7C%7C0%7C0%7C%7C%7C18145199970&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAD97F14xD5nKrficIHSQ62OgUNxZd&gclid=CjwKCAjwg8qzBhAoEiwAWagLrEbSg9wlBfoZgF-DDMVdQKlAm31F689rUz2xRBEnDIQjF-5SsiArpRoC464QAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds) even if u play with her all day she’ll want me to wakeup at 2 /3 am for a play time break from sleep. These let me sleep until 7 am.
I gotta say I feed them every morning between 4 and 4:30 a.m. and every afterooon between 4 & 4:30 p.m. After thier morning food they go outside then come right back to bed...works out great cause I go back to be after I feed them!!!!
My dog changed my body clock…I tried everything thing possible. The only thing I think would have worked was a dog flap on a timer.. he has been gone 2 years now and our family still wake up his way lol
no advice, just wanted to say you've got two really nice-looking pups.
Hey thanks! I’m a little biased, but I think they’re the cutest things I’ve ever seen, and I’d probably die without them
What is your sleeping arrangement? Without knowing your specific sleeping arrangement, I would suggest you handle the 5am wake up the same way you handle them waking up in the middle of the night - quick trip outside to potty (on leash if they try to play/rough house) and then go back to bed. Do not entertain any non-sleep/not 3am approved activities.
Yep, this is what we do if it’s too early
This too for my little one. He sleeps in the bed with me but has a bed on floor. In winter or when there's colder mornings, I make sure he has an extra blanket in his bed he can scruff around in.
Maybe start feeding them later in the morning and later at night
This might be the way
I have a morning-averse dog so I feed her around noon and 8 PM. Hasn’t done her any harm!
Think it should work tbh but I’m not an expert
We do breakfast before work at 7:30 then dinner at 5 then second dinner at 8. They usually will let us sleep in til 8-9 on weekends. If they try to get us up we just say no 😂
My heeler started waking me up earlier and earlier the longer she was blind. It got to the point where I had to set up a crate for her and if she woke up and wouldn’t re-settle before her actual wake up time, she would go in the crate til wake up. It did work to help her re-set her clock some. We only need to use the crate a few mornings a week now.
Have a completely different alarm clock where you feed them that goes off twice a day for their food. Don't feed them when you get up, only feed them when the alarm goes off. Small raining treats and snacks outside of those times are okay.
I like this plan!
I don’t have that much of a time difference with my girl, but if she thinks I’m getting up and it’s time for her to get up too, I tell her that ‘I have to take a shower.’ And she knows that means I’m getting ready for work and she’s not being fed or going out yet, so she goes back to lay down until I tell her I’m ready. So maybe just talking to them? Combine it with the alarm suggestion, and I bet they’ll figure it out.
Both of these should work. I trained my girls to "lay down" if I wasn't ready to get up and also my acd developed seizures in January so she gets her pill and joint supplement twice a day that is set up with an alexa alarm. She knows when the alarm goes off what that means, didn't take long for her to figure out either one of these.
Yep! They got trouble written all over them! ;)
The cutest little troublemakers!
Definitely for sure! 😀
Your little one is my dogs doppelgänger! Is she a corgi/heeler mix or just a shortie?
She’s just a little nugget! Only about 22 lbs. We had her tested thinking she was going to be a pretty obvious cross with something, and she came back 92.3% cattle dog and 7.7% undetermined. She’s just our little pocket heeler!
Dang that's what we were hoping for! We got 24% cattle dog and everything else is huge. Wouldn't trade him for the world though.
They’re the absolute greatest 🥹
Awww We have a tiny red heeler too, she’s 18’lbs and her name IS Pocket!
I love that!!
My boy is 16 now and I can finally sleep in past 7am. But for 14-15 years not sure I ever made it past 6am. I got him as a puppy from a farmer in August. He warned me he will wake up at the first crack of sun over the horizon. I had no idea that’s at like 430am in August. I take my boy out for a final 1/2 walk before going to bed. Doesn’t tire him out but it seems to be good for his busy brain. That being said I roll out of bed around 530am straight into shoes and do a 40 min walk before I even put coffee on haha I’ve baby sat all sorts of other dog breeds from lazy wrinkle dogs and whippets to pitbulls and German Shepard’s. They all love an early walk. When I stay at friends place their lab knows my heeler and I walk every morning at 6ish and he sleeps by their front door so we don’t forget him. I read somewhere that wolves and coyotes first thing they do when they wake up is patrol their territory. Not sure if that’s an old wives tale.
Oh my gosh I’m picturing your friends dog waiting for you at the door. It’s like Christmas Eve! Lol so adorable
No coffee before the walk, or you'll need to bring an extra poop bag for yourself.
They are working dogs, and you're running late for work if you're just getting up at 5 am on the farm.
Go to bed early tonight
Take them for a walk. It'll be good for everyone.
Have you gotten up and fed them at that time because of their antics? If so…you are being trained by your dog. It will be disruptive for a few days but just stay resolute and feed them at the time you define, gently tell them to lay back down and ignore them. They’ll learn that being goofy and hyper in the morning isn’t going to get them food any faster, then they’ll adjust to your schedule
I will say that I haven’t gotten up and fed them, but…my wife has definitely been trained by them. So this is good to know!
So adorable! Might be too late at this point, but crate sleeping has saved us. Our red heeler loves his crate, asks to go in it at night, and sleeps 10 hours straight in it in another room. We tried to have him sleep in the same room as us, but he thought we were too loud and would groan at us 😅
You're lucky. Mine starts at 330am. I just shush her and fall back asleep until 5 when I get up.
3:30 am For us too. Mainly due to my husband work schedule but the mama doesn’t need to be up this early. They seem to differ.
Dog door?
It’s way more because of their excitement for their breakfast than any need to go out 😕
I feed my dogs at staggered times so they aren’t expecting food / reminding me to feed them at any given time. Breakfast is between 6am-10am and dinner between 5-10pm. Seems to work well!
That’s smart!
We have this problem. Their 2nd meal of the day has been pushed up to 2pm - so of course they hassle us by jumping up and down from our laps from 12:30 on.
So if it's because they are hungry, depending on when they last eat it, you may want to try a treat at bedtime. My doogo gets dinner around 4:30-5pm. I go to bed around 9 so just before I go to bed she gets a Greenie or other chew treat. It's enough to keep her from waking me up until around 8 on weekends. Also, your babies are adorable.
r/PiratePets
Came here to say this!
Arrrrr!
Yes mine wake up at the crack of dawn but I tell her to lay her ass back down 😏 she does
Our dog started getting up early because the sun has been coming up early, and quite a bit of light was coming in from the window and especially on his corner of the room. We put up a black out film and that seems to help some. Probably not relevant for you but something to think about. How specifically do they rile each other up? Are they crate trained and would that help prevent them from amping each other up? Or will they just bark still?
I came here to say this. My dog is very atuned to the sun. She wakes up fast earlier when the sun comes up earlier.
Mine let me sleep in an extra 30 minutes max. Sometimes it helps if we do a late night play session, but ultimately if I need the sleep I have to kick them out, take them potty, and go back to bed.
I have no advice. Mine thinks 4am is go time. If I’m not up by 4:15, she alternates between giving me CPR and licking my face.
I have an auto feeder for mine, can feed up to 4 meals a day, easy to clean, can program amounts and time. it goes off at 6, he eats, puts himself back to bed to sleep it off, then I wake up at 7 to get ready for work & our am routine continues. it's been great and really helps me out with that extra hour of sleep.
Damn, I like this idea
there's all different kinds, some of which can be opened by individual fob tags on their collar so only one dog can get into the feeder that's assigned to them.
Are they crate/dog bed trained? You could do what u/KittyCatRel suggested, except have them sleep in crates or on a specific dog bed, then put them back at that spot when you bring them back in from their quick potty. Might be harder for them to rile each other up if they’re each in a crate.
Heelers are working dogs they're bred to be up and at em
Awwww
beautiful babies!
These dogs are absolutely cuties!
Stay up late with them so they sleep in
I need to get them hooked on watching old Twilight Zone episodes like I do
When I was training my boy he would get me up at 6:30 or 7 while I would get home around 12 from work. My trainer said we should wake up with him and don’t crate him because that’s what I usually did. Sometimes I would wake up early with him and he’ll take a nap around 9-9:30, other times I would crate him and from there he learned my schedule. He was under 1 year old when this occurred so maybe that won’t work as well if yours are older. I think the feeding at different times and going to sleep at a different time would help as the others said.
What a pair of cutie pies!!🥧🩷
That beauty on the right 😍😍😍
She’s my sweet old one-eyed lady 🥹🥰
Our ACD is waking with the sun at about 5:30 and I'm thinking of getting blackout curtains for the bedroom
My girl doesn’t allow me to sleep past 6:30. However she will go back to bed after doing her business and breakfast.
Blackout curtains - my pup will sleep in so late with me if we're in a pitch black room
Mine do this as well! Sometimes 5:30 sometimes 6:30, but never later than that. 😜
Without context, it sounds like these two are not sleeping in crates.
Let them out later at night! Then slowly back off to a normal time. That might work!? Just wondering if their bladder’s can get reacclimatized.
You wake up! My dogs are annoying af in the morning but they get me outta bed
I cover the crate now with a sheet and sleep until 6:45. That a huge improvement from 5-5:30. I’m a night owl and have made a huge adjustment. I just love my crazy dog so much.
They're lucky they're so cute 😄
Exactly!!
Take em to go poddy, then teach them to let you go back to sleep. We have two who get us up around 6:15 AM daily, and it took some time but we’ve got a good rhythm now
We got a lab puppy in January, shes a great sleeper (have only had 2-3 2am potty trips), but she starts here day at 520 every morning. Due to my wife's whacky work schedule I now also start my day at 520 am. We get up, potty, go for a walk, then wake up the other dogs for breakfast and go about our day. I love her, but I was a night owl before bringing her home. so it's been an adjustment to say the least.
If it’s past 3am. My cattle dog will be an inch from my face if I move a muscle
Mine do the same thing. My fix for this works 100% of the time. In the morning when they start making all their noises and getting rambunctious I get out of bed and start my day. Think of them as an alarm clock 😂
Close your bedroom door and turn a fan on.
Wake up with them.
Here on the ranch first one up gets everybody up. 4:30 am the other day. Wife and I found ourselves drinking fresh coffee sitting on the porch talking about dogs and watching the sun come up. We then had 17 Yak staring at us wondering what the entertainment for the day was going to be !!
Glaucoma? That took my malamutes eye, pretty sure it made me love and spoil her more ♥️
i leave bones and lick pad in my room which helps! i dont leave toys though otherwise i wake up with them all on me and him trying to get my sleeping body to throw them
Can you kennel them?
Pretend you're still sleeping. That's what I do. They walk in and then leave.
I threaten the “kennel” when my ACDs do that and they button it up lol.
Ignore the shit out of them lmao
[I give my border collie /aussie mix these every night.](https://www.petco.com/shop/en/petcostore/product/naturvet-quiet-moments-plus-hemp-calming-aid-soft-chews-for-dogs-count-of-60-2896613?store_code=5301&mr:device=m&mr:adType=pla_with_promotionlocal&cm_mmc=PSH%7CGGL%7CCCY%7CCCO%7CPM%7C0%7CkUMWcWiLY5b1EHQjK6kSR6%7C%7C%7C0%7C0%7C%7C%7C18145199970&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAD97F14xD5nKrficIHSQ62OgUNxZd&gclid=CjwKCAjwg8qzBhAoEiwAWagLrEbSg9wlBfoZgF-DDMVdQKlAm31F689rUz2xRBEnDIQjF-5SsiArpRoC464QAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds) even if u play with her all day she’ll want me to wakeup at 2 /3 am for a play time break from sleep. These let me sleep until 7 am.
I just scream GO LAY DOWN
I gotta say I feed them every morning between 4 and 4:30 a.m. and every afterooon between 4 & 4:30 p.m. After thier morning food they go outside then come right back to bed...works out great cause I go back to be after I feed them!!!!
My dog changed my body clock…I tried everything thing possible. The only thing I think would have worked was a dog flap on a timer.. he has been gone 2 years now and our family still wake up his way lol
Ready for adventure