that's what I was thinking

There is nothing like being woken up with a sausage

Could you change the routine a little and send him out for his wee around 9pm, instead of waking him at 11pm.
What time do you get up in the morning? Could he last from 9pm til you get up?

I agree, wake him up with your voice first, then treat him when he wakes nicely.

I'm obviously a 'horrible' dog owner! She'd only have to do that once and I wouldn't bother with the treats and coaxing - I'd have that collar and lead on her and DRAG HER out of her pit and outside!

I often have to retrieve her from my bed for the last late wee walk. She doesn't want to go and will try diving under the covers or just sitting there looking at me - I tip her off the bed and put the lead on and take the unwilling little bint out to pee.

Have to say she has never growled at me or shown any signs other than 'WHAT? I'M SLEEPING HERE!'

It was the same when she first experienced RAIN in Cyprus (having lived the first 9 months of her life without any. We stopped saying 'taking the dog out for a walk' and said instead 'taking the dog out for a DRAG' and you DID have to drag her!

I think she is grumpy because you are disturbing her.

Training is the key.

In the meantime I would use a lead. Wake her gently and use the lead to gently lead her outside. I would follow that with an evening snack - sausage?

That sounds sooooooo wrong!!!!! Ha!!!

I always growl when woken up from a deep sleep too

thank you all for replying
I wondered if any more terrier breed owners would reply with a similar problem...

What kind of basic training? Ted is coming along brilliantly during the day. He is only 14 weeks but has learnt sit, stay, come, lie-down, leave-it, and roll-over . He has learned the verbal commands as well as hand signals and whistle signals too. I mostly use a clicker to train him and he is a fast and willing pupil. He does not resource guard at all. His growling and snapping is only when he has been woken up out of deep sleep.


I am sure you are right! He does wake up better if I waft a treat in front of him but will I always have t o do this?

I agree it is not good, which is why I am here asking for help. I believe our relationship is excellent but am willing to be proven otherwise if we can stop this problem with positive methods.

We do speak to him first, gently and calmly calling his name. May be we are not giving him enough time to wake fully? I have 4 children and 2 of them have had sleep related issues growing up - night terrors where they appear to be awake but only part of the brain wakes up and they often saw us as something scary, but they would not remember it in the morning - I wonder if puppies can have anything like that?

I tried that and he goes out OK at that time but then wakes up at about 1pm asking to go out. This avoids the problem but doesn't really address it if you see what I mean? I could avoid waking him up in the night time but what if he snaps at someone during the day when he is asleep?

That is what I am now doing

On the occassion that my dh did tip Ted out of his bed after he took ages to wake up, he got snapped at when he touched him.
I have been working at holding his collar and treating, putting leads on and treating etc during the day and he is fine with it - not at all hand shy, but it is a different matter when he is curled up in his bed. I could put a lead on earlier and leave it on I suppose, mmmmmm, that might work.

ITA, grumpy at being disturbed, but is this normal?
and what training do you suggest??

Actually I am not so good at being woken up either!

Rosie (BT) is eight months now and we've not had this problem. She does like to be carried outside for her last we of the day (we call it her 'princess time' ), but although she sometimes feigns being sleepy, she has woken first.

Does Ted like being picked up and carried/handled this way during the day. Rosie does (she loves it) and I'm wondering if that may be where the difference lays as many small dogs really hate and resist it.

One thing we did from the day we got her was that if she got ansty at any time while she was up on the sofa or on our knee (ie getting over-excited and doing the terrier growl/mouthing) was to hold her gently facing away from us, supporting her bum on our knee and holding (gently) both hands under each front 'armpit' and saying nothing until she calmed (usually less than a couple of seconds). Something that's far easier to show than explain. Within two or three days, she learned that you don't get tetchy when being held or played with or it stops the game/cuddles until you are calm. It's a very gentle technique and about the only hands-on one I use during training.

Well done! The training sounds to be coming along very well

No, you are both breaking a habit and at the same time building a positive association to replace the negative one. Once that's achieved, the treat can be dropped.

Just my opinion, but I believe they can.

One other thing to look out for though is that his bed is in an area with no traffic, ie he isn't regularly disturbed. Put it in a quiet corner and put that corner off-limits to the kids.

Imagine that every time you had drifted off to sleep someone giving you a knock or bumping into you just how tetchy you'd get. Dogs are no different. The only difference with dogs is that they can't voice their objection so show it in other ways.

I agree with you. One thing that dogs have to learn is that it's not acceptable to threaten people. Ted is just a baby so stopping it now is setting him up for a good future.

Waking him up with a treat is not setting him up for a lifetime of needing treats - but it isnt such a bad routine

I had a similar thing with my girl, when I first got her I wanted her to come up to bed with me at night
She was settled and happy on the sofa
When I asked her she froze and staired at me and I have no doubt she would have snapped

I went to the kitchen and got some treats - one to get her off the sofa, one to get her to follow me and some to have in the bedroom with me

in less than a week she was running up the stairs to get her 'bedtime sweety' which was just a tiny bit of kibble
I could have faided it out no problem - but it was a routine I was happy with


lol at the sausage - dirty ladies