How to stop my dog from waking me up too early
Dogs suddenly shifting their morning routine to demand early-morning attention or food disrupt sleep and leave owners feeling exhausted. Because ignoring the behavior or withholding food often fails to stop the whining, scratching, and crying, owners struggle to restore their previous rest schedule.
What the numbers show
Counted from the threads quoted below. How we count
- People have been saying this in most months since September 2026.
- This comes up 23.3× more often in r/puppy101 than across the site as a whole.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1letting the dog out to go to the bathroom immediately but withholding breakfast until laterDid this help you?
- 2taking the dog out for a final potty break right before bedDid this help you?
- 3pushing dinner back a couple of hoursDid this help you?
- 4leaving the crate or bedroom door openDid this help you?
- 5Ignoring the cat and not rewarding the behaviorDid this help you?
- 6letting him go outside multiple timesDid this help you?
- 7taking him on a walk in the middle of the nightDid this help you?
- 8bringing the puppy into bedDid this help you?
- 9Ignoring the pet and using earplugsDid this help you?
- 10Closing the bedroom door, though the pet scratches and meows at the doorDid this help you?
- 11Giving the puppy a frozen carrot or stuffed Kong to lick and self-sootheDid this help you?
- 12Keeping the middle-of-the-night potty break completely dark, silent, and boringDid this help you?
- 13Setting an alarm to take the puppy out before they start crying to avoid reinforcing the barkingDid this help you?
- 14ignoring the puppy completely until the scheduled feeding timeDid this help you?
- 15avoiding eye contact and movement so the puppy doesn't associate waking with foodDid this help you?
- 16tethering the puppy while preparing foodDid this help you?
- 17Letting the dog sleep in the owner's bed for the last few hours of the morning.Did this help you?
- 18Cuddling with the puppy on the couch to get a few extra hours of sleep.Did this help you?
- 19Ignoring the crying in the crate in hopes they settle back down.Did this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“My boy without fail wakes me up around 3-5am screaming to be fed.”source ↗
“If i don’t feed him, and sometimes still after i feed him, He’s yells and gets into things and i am having trouble finding ways to get that to stop.”source ↗
“Ignoring him and not rewarding him doesn’t seem to deter him.”source ↗
“My 6 month old golden retriever used to wake up at 6:45, has now started waking up at 5:30.”source ↗
“Dying for him to wake up later.”source ↗
“the 5am thing is rough. my dog did the same and i had to just ignore her completely for like a week straight. no eye contact no shuffling around no nothing.”source ↗
“recently has been waking up at 4 am and will bark until we let her out.”source ↗
“We take her out to potty but will not settle back into her crate.”source ↗
“We can’t just let her bark because we live in an apartment and it’s 4 am.”source ↗
“Mine is at the same age and started barking at 5 am”source ↗
“my issue is her waking up at 5am she cannot settle anymore with anticipation of breakfast. i get it she’s hungry, she’s just a puppy. but we really need sleep😭”source ↗
“The only problem is that she is consistently waking up between 5:15-5:45am crying.”source ↗
“Is there some way for me to get her to stretch her sleep so she can at least make it past 6am?”source ↗
“Trying to find out if this is just something that gets better as they get older and I just have to wait it out longer, or if there’s something I can do differently.”source ↗
“he wakes up around 12 and then refuses to sleep though out the night. He will pace the bed and whine, keeping us up.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 5My dog keeps waking me up at night
- 6Why did my dog suddenly stop sleeping in my bed?
- 3How to stop waking up a sleeping puppy
- 6Why does my dog freeze and refuse to move when he sees other dogs?
- 2How to take your dog out when you are sick or injured
- 6Why does my dog bark and whine constantly in public and the car?