Anyone else have a hound(s) who has never lost their “track time internal alarm”? Over the years, we have spoken to several adopters who say their hounds sleep in late, some have even said that they have had to make their hounds get up and go out as late 10:00 a.m. Not our hounds! They wake us up every morning between 5:45 and 6:00 a.m. and the latest they have ever let us sleep in was 7:30 a.m. Not really sleeping in by my standards. 😉 During the week we take them out between 9:30 and 10:00 p.m. for their last potty break and we are okay with getting up at 6 a.m. during the week, since it works out great for both our work schedules. On the weekends, we have taken them out as late as 12:30 a.m. in hopes they would allow us to sleep in, but nope! They still got us up early. They are so reliable that we have not used an alarm clock in our house in 4 1/2 years. We have 4 very trustworthy alarm clocks who wake us up by either coming over to the bed and sticking their cold, wet needle noses on us; whining and whimpering until we acknowledge them; letting out a loud, screeching bark ; or by squeaking a toy. We should not allow toys in the bedroom at night, I know, but Maggie Mae loves to bring a toy to bed with her each night. She lays with it. I guess it is a comfort to her. She looks so happy and proud coming up those stairs each night with a toy in her mouth that I just don’t have it in me to take it away from her.
Anyone have any suggestions on what we can do differently to get them to sleep in a little later or are we just stuck with our four early risers?
Loving Life With Hounds 
I don’t have dogs myself, but I know my sister has change the dinner time of her dog so that she (the dog) doesn’t need to wake up early to go potty. Just a hint.
I have cat myself, and for years I could rely on them just as you do, but as they grow older, they stop being early riser, and I need an alarm clock again. And my daughter used to spray some water at her cat when she woke her up too early. Now the cat knows to wait for the alarm clock during the week, and to keep quiet during the weekend…
Your dog is so cute with her toy, I could not take it away either:-)
She looks like a puppy in that pic. Very cute! Luckily, our guys only get up when we do. Sometimes, I will get up and play on the iPad for an hour or more before anyone stirs. Fosters and boarders are usually on board too. Do they at least go back to sleep after their morning potty break?
They will go back to sleep once they are fed. 🙂 They will drive you nuts until you feed them. We feed at 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. and they know if they run, they don’t eat for at least an hour so they go out to potty and come straight back. I do give them an evening snack, but they still act as though they are starving in the morning. Nope, not spoiled, not spoiled at all! 😉 What is that saying?, oh yeah, they have us wrapped around their little paws. LOL!!
Ha ha ha ha ha ha! Well, we’re living with Canine Cognitive Dysfunction with our almost sixteen year old Greyhound, so I’m not the person to ask. She gets us up about every two hours through the night. The rest of ours are pretty routine oriented, and will want to go out early every morning, but they will come back in and go back to sleep, too. I’m afraid I’m no help!
Sounds just like our house…I thought it was just us, lol. Eat at 6 am and 6 pm, last pee at 10 pm. I’ve tried taking them out later at night on the weekends, but it is only me that ends up tired in the morning. And after they eat they immediately go back to bed for a couple hours.
I just don’t let mine get me up. I get up between 4:30 AM and 7:30 AM depending on the day. If they do start trying to get me up, I’m ugly about it and will squirt them with water from a spray bottle.