Seriously, don't you hate it when . . . .

You realize the damn dogs have trained you so well it's ridiculous?!



Kayla was my alarm clock - always knew when it was dinner time, always tried to get breakfast earlier and earlier. And the last probably 6-9 months of her life, we were up anywhere from 1-4 times a night, including her middle of the night meal. Apparently, Grace has decided she'd like to continue in Kayla's footsteps. We now let Grace sleep out of her kennel at night - she typically needs a potty break during the night and if she's in her kennel, Mommy has a mess to clean in the morning, but if she's out of her kennel, she'll normally wake me up to put her outside. So, we now get up for breakfast anywhere from 3 to 5 a.m., depending on how Grace feels on any given day. Sometimes, like last night, she tries for 2 a.m. breakfast, but we make that a potty break instead and she'll go back to sleep until around 4ish. Seriously, only pugs would wake up in the middle of the night wanting to eat!



Then there's Diesel - who has now trained me to give him a treat in order to get him in the house. All Josh has to do to make Diesel listen is whistle a certain way and D comes running. I can call him until I'm blue in the face and he ignores me. Out of desperation on the really hot days, I'd taken to bribing him to come in the house with a treat. Now, he refuses to come in until I offer treats. He goes outside, goes potty and then proceeds to sit in the middle of the yard and wait to see what treat I'm offering to lure him in the house. Yesterday morning after breakfast (at 4 a.m.!!), I waited him out. I sat at the kitchen table for half an hour until he walked up to the step and asked to be let in. However, I don't normally have half an hour to wait him out, so I inevitably end up giving in and offering treats. This morning, he was waiting for my offering and got tired, so he laid down to wait me out. Really?!



I'm not whining, mind you - I know these are things that can be trained out of them, but I normally don't have the time and/or patience for it, so this is how we live our lives - the pugs are the boss!!! Honestly.

Yeah I hear you! Mine have been getting me up in the middle of the night. I don't give them food, but they go out to potty, and I know the only way I can get them to sleep later is to wait them out, but I don't have the patience.

At least once they get me up, they don't get to come back to bed so I have a few hours of blissful uninterrupted sleep.

We always joke that Sophie is the boss of all of us. Only it's not a joke.

Hahaha, yes, only pugs!

Thankfully, I don't have any that wake me up at night for food. But, they do get me up to go potty.

*LOL* Man oh man, I can relate! There are too many pugs (and the lab) here to work on individual training. But that doesn't me they can't train ME!



It is easier to just give in (Who has that kind of time?) than to work on getting them to do what I want.

Glad to know I'm not the only one well-trained by her Pugs for the middle-of-the-night "we're up, you're up" routine! Imi would happily sleep until mid-morning, but I am so into this damn routine now _I_ wake up sometimes before Pearl does - it's she who started it! I let them out and put their brekky down and while I wait for them to finish, check my emails and then we go back to bed. Luckily I can manage a few more hours kip. Pearl is the first Pug I have had who tried it on.

Saira wrote: We always joke that Sophie is the boss of all of us. Only it's not a joke.

This made me laugh! Lacey gets more leeway than the other dogs because....well, just because. She knows that everyone gets a treat for going in their crates at night at bedtime so she races in her crate, gets her treat and she's quiet until she hears me turn the music off and then the whining starts, I take my meds, the whining cranks up, I go and wash my face and she's squealing like a stuck pig. I let her out, we go to bed because that's the routine!

Karen. She sure has you pegged.
I don't feel so bad now being the trained instead of trainer.
Milo has a thing where he won't come back in once he's finished potty (I don't know when exactly this started) but instead wants me to come out and get him. When I do, he HAS to run off and get in that one last tinkle. Human just waits and then begs profusly for him to hurry up and go inside.In my own defense he will growl (and probably bite me) if I try to physically herd him in.
Remi CAN get on our bed by himself , I've seen him do it but ooooo not at night, it just can't be done. The routine is sleep a bit , get down and get a drink , then run around to Moms side of the bed and squeeeak till I wake up and get him back in the bed.
Yes, small cute little bodies covered in fur have turned me into a sucker.

Oh yes, Tilly has dh and I trained very well. We often talk about it and wonder how in the heck it got that way. No other dog we've ever had trained us so well.

Thank God for dogs that sleep all night through. They have me trained in other ways, but they don't interrupt my sleep. They know that a sleepy mommy is a cranky mommy.....

As I was laying in bed this morning trying not to flinch a muscle in fear of letting Mac know I was awake, I was thinking that there should be a book titled "What they don't tell you; The Truth about Pugs".
Chapters could include:
Crazy Internal Alarm Clocks
Selective Hearing
Blocking the TV While Cuddling on the Couch
subchapter: Stepping on the Remote to Change the Channel
Stretching out on the "Big Bed"
etc...

I am so glad that Ms. Thang has always slept through the night. She must have the bladder of a camel. And Becky, I can add some things to each of those chapters!!!! Penny's Crazy Internal Alarm Clock is set on food. If she doesn't have her brekkie within 30 minutes of my getting out of bed, all the neighbors and, probably, folks in Sacramento hear all about it. Same thing for dinner. Dinner is promptly at 5:30 pm, and heaven help us all if it is even 5 minutes late. And if she doesn't get a cookie immediately on coming in from a walkie, well, I shudder to think about it.

Suckers....



I can't hear mine if they are awake. With my horrific commute nad new job, I cannot sacrafice the sleep I desparately need.



Note to self: in new house, make sure that there is a room far enough away from my room for the pugs to sleep.