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Post by bester1 on Mar 6, 2007 10:13:17 GMT -5
Bit of background first...
Was in a long-term relationship that went sour. He was around 24/7 before he moved out. Popcorn loved it. But when it was just us, he seemed to love it too.
Fast forward a bit... I've met and settled down with someone who's right for us. But he's gone away right now temporarily for 7 weeks to New Brunswick attending school.
Now, here's my problem; Popcorn will not let me sleep. We go for our regular walk every night around 10 or so. We're back home and settled in for 11. Things are great. All of us are sawing logs until that darn clock strikes 4:30. Then it's no holds barred. Popcorn suddenly wants to play and there's no way he'll play by himself. This morning he pulled all the covers off the end of the bed so there's no way I can lay there ignoring him. I get up with him, go downstairs, and just sit there. I don't play with him. I'm still in my post-sleep fog for quite a bit and pray to myself that he'll just settle down so I can get back to bed. He does his zoomies in the living room for 5 minutes, goes back upstairs to his bed, and sleeps like the dead. Meanwhile, I'm stuck there, wide awake staring at the ceiling.
My question: What can I do to stop this or at least making it better? He's fine while Marcel's there but he's not going to be back til April and I'm a non-functioning zombie during the day because I haven't slept enough.
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Post by jiffer on Mar 6, 2007 13:18:35 GMT -5
Oh Popcorn, you devil you. No advice other than he may need a bit of a longer walk. I'd wonder if his behaviour isn't related to the colder weather. I know ours have been getting a little cabin fever on days when we can't go for a walk because it's so darned cold. How are you guys doing otherwise?
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Post by bester1 on Mar 6, 2007 14:10:38 GMT -5
I walk them quite a bit but we're going for a nice long walk tonight... and we'll keep walking until the dogs are so tired they can't put one paw in front of the other. Anything so I can get a good night's sleep.
Other than the sleeping thing, everything is good. You know who is gone finally and Marcel's awesome. You'll need to meet him when he comes back.
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Post by tara on Mar 7, 2007 8:09:45 GMT -5
I wish you a good night's sleep. I have no advice sorry.
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houndsrus
Grey Puppy
Lady, Squirt, Tasha & Tabou
Posts: 64
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Post by houndsrus on Mar 8, 2007 7:44:00 GMT -5
Don't have any advice either, but I hope the long walks have resolved your problem and you are able to sleep
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Post by GreyPoopon on Mar 8, 2007 11:12:06 GMT -5
I hope the walks are working.
I have to say that my own inclination is to take a hard line: by telling the culprit to "go and lie down". But I've been living for almost 8 years with Minnie, who is on duty 24/7. When she was a puppy, she thought we should get up 1 1/2 hours earlier than the alarm. It took over a year to convince her that I was not going to oblige. She sometimes still runs down to bark at something in the middle of the night. The episodes can occur daily for weeks if a car delivering a newspaper changes.
My rule is that unless an animal is sick or desperate to go, they'd better wait until the alarm.
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Post by brandynt on Mar 12, 2007 22:52:22 GMT -5
As hard as it is I would try to not indulge the behaviour by getting up. If it gets to be a routine now it could stay that way after Marcel comes back. Does Popcorn like rawhides or a treat? What about a kong with peanut butter in it to keep him occupied. Get something ready before bed and give him something irresistable as soon as he wakes up.
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Post by rocco's parents on Mar 15, 2007 9:42:25 GMT -5
Don't know what your daily routine is like, but when we first got our hounds they would wake up early mornings and want to play as well, what we do now is, and this might sound cruel, but after dinner (the hounds not ours) they usually like to go back and sleep, well that aint happening anymore, we keep them awake by making them stay with us in the living room and when we turn in than they turn in. Never slept better in our lives since we started doing this, hey they got all day to sleep when were at work anyways.
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Post by rikker on Mar 23, 2007 10:35:01 GMT -5
Is there some noise or a clock that chimes or does the furnace come on? Our guy was doing the same thing at 4:30am -- man that sucked -- I realized the terrarium light would come on at 4:30 -- forgot to change with the time change -- I changed it an it worked -- till the furnace would turn on in the morning -- so we put the humidifier on at night and would drown out the extra sounds.
Check the house sounds
Hope it works
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Post by bester1 on Mar 27, 2007 7:53:40 GMT -5
About the kongs... can't really do anything with peanut butter. My mom looks after the dogs while I'm at work and she's severely allergic to nuts so that's out. And Popcorn turns his nose up at most treats.
But.... I think I've figured it out. I didn't sleep much sunday and was sitting up unable to sleep almost all night. Around 4:45 am, a train went by (we live around a block away from the tracks and you can hear them pretty clearly in the house). Popcorn immediately stood up and went to the window. I didn't go to work yesterday and we were all lying on the couch in the afternoon. At around 4:30 pm, another train went by. Popcorn got right up and went to the window. His ears were perked up and his tail was wagging away. I usually get home around 4:30 from work so I'm thinking that he associates the sound of the train with someone coming to see him.
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