# Will I ever be able to sleep in again?



## mycutiepatooties (May 10, 2010)

Hello Hav Lovers!

I am hoping that you'll be able to give me some advice on this. This is our first dog and I don't really know what to expect. Our male hav, Bentley, will be 2 yrs. old in January. He is a creature of habit, for sure. 

The issue I'm struggling with is selfish. I know. I'm just so tired all the time. Bentley is whining in his ex pen in the mornings and wakes me up to take him out. He got me up every day of summer between 7 and 7:45 which is do-able and I'm fine with it although I'd prefer waking up on my own...who wouldn't. But now that school has started up, my oldest daughter rides the jr. high bus and it comes early...at 6:30. So we are up at 5:30am getting ready. He hears us upstairs and I come down around 6:00 and take him potty and then feed him. Well he has started his wake up call whining on weekends earlier now that his schedule during the week has been changed. I don't want to wake up at 6:00 am on Saturday and Sunday. I tried letting him go to see what happened--he progressively got louder until he was barking LOUD after 15 mins. The whole house would've been woke up, so I didn't wait beyond that. I am a stay at home mom so I just always voluntarily get up with him so my hubby isn't tired at his stressful job. I guess I'm just wondering if I'll always be getting up early 7 days a week for the next 15+ yrs.? Don't other dog owners get to sleep in a bit? 

He pottys around 9:30-10pm and is definately in his bed before 11:00 pm. So he is holding it 9 hrs. Is anything longer than that out of the ordinary for a smaller breed dog? 

When he whines and wakes me up I do not go down and get him out while he is in the act of whining. I get up out of bed and use the bathroom and he stops all the whining when he hears that I'm up and moving around. He does wait quietly. When I come down he is perfectly quiet but if I don't go to him right away and maybe instead I start some cofee--then he'll whine again. He goes out with us on a leash (no fence) and after I walk around in cold wet grass and redirect him several times to "go potty" because he wants to sniff everything and wander a bit too much...well I'm too awake to be able to go back to bed. Bentley goes back to bed though on weekends. He eats his kibble then promptly jumps up onto the back of the couch and snoozes while I check email etc.

I know that I have reinforced the behavior by responding and getting up. I just always worried that he was in pain because he had to go really bad. I was never one that let my kids "cry it out" either. 

Any advice is welcome!


----------



## pjewel (Apr 11, 2007)

What a cutie pie he is. Is there any chance you could take him into bed with you in the morning on the weekend, to possibly give you more time to rest? For the most part, mine respond to when I start to stir, rather than at a set time, when they're in bed with me.


----------



## Pipersmom (Jul 27, 2009)

Bentley is a cutie! I was going to make the same suggestion as Geri. Try letting him come into the bed with you when he wakes up on weekends. That way he gets a special treat and you get some extra sleep.


----------



## HavaneseSoon (Nov 4, 2008)

Yea! You know Hav's can't tell time, but they do know routines. Owning a Hav is a new way of life. I vote for letting him sleep in the big bed all the time! I can hardly tell the boys are in the bed at all.


----------



## Flynn Gentry-Taylor (Jan 17, 2008)

yes, I agree, put him in bed with you, that is the only way I know of to get a longer sleep. I think 9 hours is longer than mine have ever slept..don't know about others. Sir Winston will stand beside the bed and bark at me, and he is NOT a barker. My little girl IS a barker and she will come and join him...Once they have been fed, and walked the mile and half, back home, they go back to sleep..and if I could go back to sleep I would. 
Sir Winston is beinning to take HIS big bone with him all over the house. He really loves that bone. He sleeps with it between his front paws or under his nose.
Good luck and I will follow this to see if you get any better answers..


----------



## Luciledodd (Sep 5, 2009)

I know Sir Winston saw the headliner about the cat burgular. He is hoping "everythings gonna be alright." But until you get the proper insurance, he has to guard that bone.

Rosie sleeps with us and gets up when we do or if her daddy gets up last, she stays with him. I have always had a dog in the bed with me and the older they get the longer they will sleep. That all the advice I can give. Now a cat on the other hand can tell time and she wants to go outside now at 4:30 am. Or if she is ourside she wants to come in at that time. This morning she was on the roof and meowing at the open skylight over our heads.


----------



## Flynn Gentry-Taylor (Jan 17, 2008)

Oh yes Lucile..I can picture that!! My cats are all now older..past 10 I think, and they are finially sleeping, but for years they all loved to wake me at 4:30 am. What in the world is it about that hour??? I did not even have to look at the clock.. LOL...


----------



## Ricolove (Aug 28, 2011)

Rico always slept in his crate in the bedroom, but if he woke up before I wanted to get up I would just let him out and into the bed and he would sleep for another hour or two

the door to the bedroom has to stay closed and the cat has to be inside or she would never let us sleep, the middle of the night is the only time she wants anything to do with people, if she is outside she climbs on the roof and meows outside the window


----------



## gelbergirl (Jun 9, 2007)

He needs to potty in the early morning hours and then jump back into bed with you.
That's a long time for him to be holding it.

I prefer to know his bladder was empty - it's healthier all around for the dog and then you can all get back into bed and sleep and cuddle.


----------



## Jplatthy (Jan 16, 2011)

I've been up at 6am every morning including weekends since I got mine...I was actually thankful it was 6am because for the first few weeks with each of them it was about between 2 and 4 am...so 6 am is great lol.......they wake me up even on the weekends and trust me I am not stirring around...........but the good news is once I take them out and they go potty I put them back in bed with me and give them a toy to chew on and I can usually get another hour or so of sleep which is great..........


----------



## Thumper (Feb 18, 2007)

I think he is crying for companionship, not the need to go potty, They call them velcro dogs for this very reason. Gucci sleeps in bed with us so I haven't had this problem, I think if you did give in and put a blanket on your bed for him to sleep on, you'd probably be able to sleep however late you wanted to after you take him out for the morning potty. I know its probably not the advice you want to hear, but these dogs do not like being alone in their waking moments.

Kara


----------



## davetgabby (Dec 29, 2007)

Hi Traci, I think you answered your own question , when you said " know that I have reinforced the behavior by responding and getting up" . Two options, one of which the others mentioned, and that is taking him to bed with you ,or at least putting his crate in your room. For the second option ,you have to determine if he is actually needing to go out to eliminate. If he is going right away, then you're stuck with his hours. And the only way to alter them in your favor is to take him out later at night and see if that helps. 
I also think this might be request or attention barking. And if you want to break the habit ,you have to be willing to go through hell for a while. With request barking you have to ignore it. But be willing to have him bark longer and louder. If you give in and get up when he's barking ,it will not work. If you keep doing this ,he will learn that his barking doesn't work,and the barking will become extinct. But in the learning process he will go through an extinction burst where it will get worse. The key is not to give in, if you do it won't go the way of the dinosaurs (extinct). This idea works with any attention seeking barking so maybe you can kill two birds with one stone. But you have to learn to ignore all request barking. That includes EVERYONE. If one person "reinforces " it by acknowledging him in any way he will then start trying it again. These guys are smart.


----------



## heatherk (Feb 24, 2011)

Ceylon is a lazy boy and loves to sleep all day if I stay in bed. One time I was sick and basically stayed in bed for about 40 hours straight, except for getting up every so often to get some water and to let Ceylon out. And, he stayed right by my side in bed for the rest of the 40 or so hours!

That being said, yes he does sleep with me (or my daughter) and I really do think that helps. On weekends, I do exactly what people said above: I take him out when I first wake up, then we go back to bed and he sleeps again until I am ready to get up 

Also, he fully understands our weekly schedule, not just a daily one. On weekdays, he gets up when we get up, and except for the days when I take him to doggie day care, he generally just sleeps happily all day when my daughter is in school and I am at work. On the weekends, however, he expects to sleep in with us AND for us to take him with us all day long, and he gets very upset if we don't!


----------



## Becky Chittenden (Feb 4, 2009)

Our SOX and Wendy sleep in the bed with us. They attach themselves to our back or legs like velcro (not surprising). I have 2 pee pads in the room, one by the bedroom door and one by the outside door. If they need to go, they hop down and use these. SOX occasionally wakes my husband up for attention by barking and he responds so she does it pretty often. I am a sound sleeper and don't even notice. He's an early riser, but the girls aren't and just attach themselves to me. If I sleep late, SOX will wake me and give me loving kisses and hugs, but normally they let me sleep until I'm ready to get up. All our other dogs sleep in crates and we don't hear a peep out of them until I get up and ready to let them out.


----------



## Lizzie'sMom (Oct 13, 2010)

Lizzie sleeps with us, too. She is so lazy. This morning we woke up and she gave us her little "leave me alone growl" as she still wanted to sleep. This was 9am!!! My husband leaves for work before 6 am and as soon as he is out of bed she has claimed his spot. It is so funny!! Sometimes I have trouble getting her to go to bed at night, though!


----------



## Kathie (Jul 31, 2008)

McGee is only 7 months and he goes all night with no problem. If I want to sleep later he will, too. He seems fine until someone starts to stir. DH gets up early and feeds and lets him out then he comes back to bed. I do know what you mean about getting too wide awake to go back to sleep, though. If I have to go outside with him myself then I am awake for the day! Can you take a nap in the afternoon? 

But, there is still hope for you. Abby, our four year old was up early until she was over two and then all of a sudden she became a lazy-bones (like me!). Is Bentley really hungry in the morning? I believe that is why McGee wakes up early. Abby doesn't eat for sometimes a couple of hours after she's been up!

BTW, Bentley is adorable! Welcome to the forum!


----------



## CrazieJones (May 28, 2011)

Your dog is very cute. I like his colours.
Roshi doesn't sleep in bed with me because I'm a tumbler, and I know I will kick him off!
He sleeps in his crate beside me (it also makes a good night table!). Twice in the last month or two, he woke up at 4:30 barking... needing to drink water!!! He must have been parched or something. Otherwise, only when he was a wee pup, I had to wake up throughout the night and at 6 am for 7 days of the week. Now he gets up when I get up. Sometimes he will whine/sigh early in the morning on weekends, but his last potty break the night before is usually around midnight - 1 am. So... getting up at 7 am is not an option. I just ignore or put a finger on his crate and he'll just go back to sleep.


----------



## Momo means Peach (Jun 7, 2011)

Momo is not a morning dog. Or much of an evening dog either. She usually konks out about 8:00 to 9:00 at night on the couch. We put her in her crate when we go to bed and she will wait patiently awake until we are in bed. Then in the morning, we usually have to drag her out, stretching and yawning, on doggie day care days (around 6:00). On non doggie days, I get up around 7:00 or so, drag her out, let her do the potty thing and then take her back to bed, where she will fall back asleep. She does not eat in the morning, at all. The only times she awakens us any time during the night is if she has issues - vomiting or diarrhea. She runs to the bed afterwards, but, we put her back in her crate until the morning.


----------



## Carter1601 (Mar 23, 2011)

Watson sleeps with us too. He doesn't really like to cuddle but curls up on the end of the bed and checks periodically to make sure we are still with him  He also is still using a liter box at night anyway so he just jumps down does his business and gets back in bed. I sleep late on the weekends and hubby gets up with the kids....Watson has no desire to crawl out of bed until I do in the morning. He loves sleep as much as I do! Maybe getting in bed with you for a morning snuggle would be just what you need to get in a few more Z's. Good Luck!


----------



## Kathie (Jul 31, 2008)

Momo means Peach said:


> Momo is not a morning dog. Or much of an evening dog either. She usually konks out about 8:00 to 9:00 at night on the couch. We put her in her crate when we go to bed and she will wait patiently awake until we are in bed. Then in the morning, we usually have to drag her out, stretching and yawning, on doggie day care days (around 6:00). On non doggie days, I get up around 7:00 or so, drag her out, let her do the potty thing and then take her back to bed, where she will fall back asleep. She does not eat in the morning, at all. The only times she awakens us any time during the night is if she has issues - vomiting or diarrhea. She runs to the bed afterwards, but, we put her back in her crate until the morning.


She does sound like a real peach!!!


----------



## dbeech (Jun 16, 2009)

Wow, Momo sounds like my Zoey, who is a real rack monster. She would love to lay in bed from 8 pm to 10 am everyday. 

My other Hav, Riley, gets up at 6 am every morning...sigh.


----------



## The Laughing Magpie (Aug 20, 2009)

I have been watching this thread and love all the answers!!!! Oh I feel not so over the top about my pups. My guys are at the point I have to get up as I am afraid their bladders will pop. I love everyones advice, my guys don't get on to the bed until 6:00am
Misty likes to get up earlier to get the best spot at 5, they ask to get up, if I don't respond they lay on the floor by my side of the bed and whine periodicly to let me know they are waiting. I would let them sleep in bed all night but DH is afraid of rolling on them in the night. They really are not that tiny.
I use to wonder when my children were young if I would ever be able to sleep in. Now I miss that, go figure.


----------



## Sheila (Sep 17, 2011)

I and my hub have 4 furkids,and all 4 sleep with us!lol.sometimes one of them has to go potty,but its not hard to go back to bed after?get to sleep in a bit.the older they get the longer they can hold it (control)?one of our first firkids used to get up and go by herself on the pee pad in the middle of the night or early morning and then come back to bed without trying to wake me?so i thinks bringing your furbaby to bed is great!


----------

