If your dog won’t let you sleep, in the morning, you might be wondering why and what you can do about it. This post will show you a number of possible causes and what you can do about them.
So, why won’t my dog let me sleep in the morning? Possible reasons why your dog won’t let you sleep, in the morning, are that it is hungry, needs to pee, has separation anxiety, has learned that the behavior is rewarded or you have started waking up at a different time.
There are actually a number of possible reasons why your dog does it and it might be due to a combination of reasons. However, there are a number of things you can consider when figuring out the main reason and there are a number of things you can do about it.
Reasons why your dog won’t let you sleep in the morning
Below are a number of possible causes and what would make each of them more likely to be the main reason.
Hunger
It could be the case that it has learned that it gets food at a certain time in the morning.
This means that if you regularly give your dog breakfast at 7 am then it’s going to cause your dog to expect to get food at 7 am. This will cause it to wake up at this time and to get excited at this time.
This would be more likely to be the issue if your dog wakes up when you want it to during the week but it wakes you up on the weekend when you might sleep in for longer.
A change in its schedule
If you usually wake up at a certain time, but you have started waking up at different times, the cause could be that it is used to waking up at a certain time. Dogs generally like having a routine and it can cause them to behave abnormally when their routine is disrupted.
In this case, it would be likely that it is used to getting to pee and eat at a certain time in the morning and it is waking you up because it hasn’t been getting to do those things at the time it is used to. One option here would be to gradually wake up at a certain time or to continue waking up at the new time and to wait for it to get used to waking up at the new time.
It needs to pee
The reason why your dog does it could also be that it needs to pee in the morning. This would be more likely to be the cause if it wants to go outside straight away to pee, if it is a puppy or if it is elderly.
In this case, it would be important to continue letting it out to pee quickly. It would also help to let it out to pee just before bedtime.
Separation anxiety
The cause could also be that it has some separation anxiety. This is where it does not like being left alone and the prospect of being left alone causes it to become anxious. This would be more likely if it starts showing signs of becoming anxious when you are about to leave it at night.
Encouraging the behavior
It could be the case that you have inadvertently trained it to do it by giving it rewards when it wakes you up in the morning. If you tend to give things such as extra attention, toys, treats or food, when it doesn’t let you sleep in the morning, it will likely do it more in order to get more rewards.
Things to consider
Below are some things to consider when figuring out the main reason why your dog has been doing it.
If it has always behaved that way
If it did not always stop you from sleeping, in the morning, it would help to consider what else happened when it first started doing it.
If it started doing it suddenly, it would be more likely to be due to things such as you waking up at a different time than normal, illness, injury or a change in its normal routine such as if you stopped letting it pee before bedtime.
What is different when your dog does let you sleep
If it does not stop you from sleeping every morning, it would also help to consider what is different when it does not do it.
For example, if it does not stop you from sleeping on mornings when it has gotten a lot of exercise the day before, it might be a sign that it needs more exercise.
How old it is
It would also help to consider how old your dog is. If it is young, it would make it a lot more likely to be due to things such as needing to pee. If it is elderly, it might also be the case that it needs to pee. Whereas, if it is an adult, it would be more likely to be due to one of the other reasons mentioned above.
What to do about your dog not letting you sleep in the morning
Below are a number of options you have when dealing with the behavior.
Avoid encouraging it
As mentioned above, it might be the case that you have been encouraging the behavior by giving it attention or other rewards when it does it. Instead, try to reward it when it does not try to wake you up, to wait for it to stop bothering you for a while before rewarding it and only to give it what it wants if necessary when it does it.
Let it pee before bed
As mentioned above, the cause might be that it needs to pee in the morning. The best option for you here is to try to give it water a bit earlier in the evenings and to let it pee just before going to bed. This way hopefully it won’t need to pee as much in the morning. It would also be an option to let it pee quickly in the mornings and then to quickly go back to bed.
Get up at around the same time
Another thing to try would be to try to wake up at around the same time daily. Doing this should help to get your dog into a routine and allow it to know when it expect to be able to pee and eat.
Get help
If you can’t get it to stop or it has been bothering you excessively, another option would be to get help from a dog behaviorist. By doing so, you should be able to see why it has been behaving that way and how to get it to stop effectively.