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Boxer waking up really early

3K views 17 replies 12 participants last post by  cpudinski 
#1 ·
My wife and I have a boxer (Brandy) who's about 3 years old. Brandy has been with us for about 6 months.

Brandy has her own bed in the living room where she sleeps. For the first several months, she would generally sleep till 6 or 7 in the morning.

A few weeks ago, her pattern changed and she started scratching on the bedroom door around 5:30 am. No big deal since I'm a morning person.

Then, two nights ago, she was outside the bedroom door at 3am wanting to get in. I took her back to her bed and an hour later she was outside the door again. So I took her back to her bed again.

Last night was pretty much the same thing. She was outside the bedroom door at 4 am.

Any idea what might be causing her to wake up so early in the morning or why her sleep pattern might have changed?

Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks!!!
 
#8 ·
Hi everyone -

Just getting around to reading the replies. Thanks!

Not sure about her sleeping in our room. There are two issues. One is that she snores really loudly. The other is that she'd probably want to sleep in THE bed, not in her bed. And there's simply not room for her in our bed.

BTW, it's definitely not a summer thing....we live outside the US and we've actually had a cold spell the past few weeks.

Happened again this morning...she was at the door at 4:30 am.

Any other ideas on what we can do?

Thanks again!
 
#9 ·
Other ideas if you aren't open to leaving your bedroom door cracked is crate training & buying a crate. My dogs both sleep in their crates at night - next to our bed in our bedroom. They do great & we don't have issues with them waking us up. Tyson is a 3 yr old boxer & Kristin is a 10 yr old Schnauzer. I can't trust Tyson to be out by himself yet without us, and I'm darn sure not leaving him out at night. They actually do very well sleeping in their crates. Because his crate is right next to the bed, he knows when we are there or not. Sometime I have issues sleeping so I will go to the couch in the middle of the night - and he gets restless. - so I guess that is my suggestion- crating at night.
 
#10 ·
Thanks Mgibs. I'll talk to my wife about that.

BTW, I just thought of something.

A month or so ago we put Brandy on a diet because she was quite overweight. As part of the diet, we cut the amount of food she receives. My wife also wanted to try a "diet" dog food. Unfortunately, it's Dog Chow. Which means Brandy's eating lower quality food. And, I've been taking her on longer walks.

So...I wonder if the reason that she's waking up so early is because she's really hungry? (less food, lower quality food, more exercise).
 
#11 ·
Try the crate in the bedroom.

Brandy probably is hungry too. Between the increase in exercise and the low quality food this may be true. Also, more walks means more thirst so she could be drinking more and has to pee. Lower quality food has more salt in it which contributes to thirst as well.

I say use a better quality, low fat food, keep up with the increased exercise and crate train her (with the crate either in your room or the part of the house she is used to sleeping in.) Best of luck!
 
#12 ·
You can put your pup on a diet and still use a quality food. I feed both of mine Taste of the Wild - Lamb. Max is on a perpetual diet, so he is fed at the bottom end of the suggested amount. At 80 pounds he is fed the same amount twice a day (am and pm) as our 55 pounder. If I feed him anymore he will gain.
 
#13 ·
I have found that some of the "weight control" or diet food sometimes has more fat that regular food. Perhaps adding some cooked carrots or green beans to the food will help fill your dog up but won't add calories. I still think you should feed a better quality food though. Try checking out dogfood advisor. Look up 4 or 5 star food and go from there. You can go to the foods website and check the amount if fat etc. I would say stay with the amount to feed a 70 lb dog and then add the weight comes off, then switch to the 60 lb amount til your dog is eating the desired amount for the weight it needs to be.
 
#15 ·
She defiantly could be hungry.... Yea not the best kibble, but you know that.... Are you in Canada?

We tried the crate training at night, but my fiancé likes him in bed at night... Not sure where that came from lol :doh: I on the other hand would prefer him on his bed, I like my space.
 
#16 ·
Thanks appreciate all the great feedback! We live in Bogota, Colombia so our food options are a bit limited. They do have Taste of the Wild but it costs about twice what it is in the US. We had found some 3-4 star kibbles on sale so hopefully we can upgrade soon and she'll start sleeping better (and be healthier!).

Will have to look into a crate. No idea what options are available here.

BTW, a question re: carrots...I offered her raw carrot the other day and she wasn't interested. Would cooked carrots work better?
 
#17 ·
Try cutting the carrots into smaller pieces the size of baby carrots. If the dog gets hungry enough, she'll eat them. Also try no salt cooked green beans. Some dogs like them frozen.
 
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