Friday, April 18, 2008

Dog tired

My two redheads, Bullock and Pippi, having fallen asleep
while watching TV(well, Bullock was watching anyway)



This is how we all feel around here these days. The last two weeks have been utterly exhausting and there's still more exhausting stuff to come, in addition to the usual end-of-the-semester / getting-ready-for-Kalamazoo craziness. And Bullock and I are particularly exhausted because Pippi has decided she's a morning dog. A very early morning dog. She wakes us up at 5:30 now. Anyone have any hints for getting a dog to sleep in later?

13 comments:

Jeffrey Cohen said...

Yes, change your schedule so that you start getting up early -- before the dog. Then keep at it until your sleep pattern has permanently changed and you are incapable of sleeping late.

I guarantee that at this point your dog will become a late riser. You'll be screwed, but your dog will have a life of morning languidness.

Anonymous said...

Oh man, Pippi looks so COMFORTABLE! :-)

Steve Muhlberger said...

JJC has got it.

Dr. Virago said...

Jeffrey and Steve - Crap. I'm screwed, aren't I? I'm thinking of at least changing to match Pippi. We started running together this morning and she *loved* it. And I found out that I'm a faster runner than I thought I was, at least when I have a canine motivating me. So maybe I'll finally become one of those early-morning runners I've so far avoided becoming.

New Kid -- I know, seriously! She *loves* napping next to or on top of Bullock on that couch.

Thoroughly Educated said...

JJC is correct. Also, beware the end of daylight saving time, when 5:30 will turn into 4:30. This winter, I managed to work my dogs back around to 5:30 and then when we Sprang Forward that became 6:30, for a while at least, until they caught on.

Anonymous said...

our dog wakes up sometime between 4:30 and 7:30am, depending on how much exercise he's gotten the day before.

we finally learned that he's not getting up because he needs to go out, but just because he's restless, so now we throw him out of the room and shut the door until 7:30. He gets to go watch the traffic or try a new sleeping place and we get to sleep a little more.

it works.

on vacation, we let him sleep with us. then, he sleeps until we get up.

Dr. Crazy said...

This is totally unrelated to the gorgeous puppy Pippi, but you and I own the same couch! It's so strange seeing a puppy on it instead of a Man-Kitty!

The Pastry Pirate said...

My hint: rum-soaked liverwurst the night before. Works every time.

Seriously though... I always felt I was fortunate to have two dogs that were so not into the "bark at the dawn" thing.

good luck!

Non Tenured Assistant Professor said...

Our dog became more flexible with age. At the beginning he needed to go out very early (and Husband and I were exhausted.....) but with a little patience, after a year, he is now comfortable to wait until almost 7 o' clock. During weekends if he cries then he gets in the bed with us, and he does sleep!!!! I guess he just wants company.

Have you tried with a long walk at night too?

TheCrankyProfessor said...

C has my strategy down. I finally learned to (firmly) tell the late Argyle to go back to sleep. It tended to work. At least she went out to stir around the kitchen or something.

TheCrankyProfessor said...

And go read this for life with TWO dogs:

textism

And stay for the typography

Dr. Virago said...

C, your methods worked like a charm! We still need to let Pippi out to heed nature's call when she wakes up at 5:30 (or this morning at 4:45!), but then she goes back to sleep or otherwise leaves us alone until 7am if we give her the run of the house. Yay!!! Thanks so much for that suggestion!

And thanks everyone else, too.

theswain said...

Our answer was to get a different breed! We own pugs. They sleep sixteen hours a day on average. We just have to make sure that 8 of those hours are the same as our sleep cycle, and we're good (other than the fact that we live in the heart of a city that sometimes doesn't know that we're sleeping---nothing like a trio of pugs standing on your throat at 3:30 AM barking at someone yelling in the building across the alley).

Most dogs are social. If they sleep in the same room as you do, separation will usually result in changed behavior after a few days of putting dog outside room when barking in the morning.