Our dogs have always been relatively early risers, but over the last year or so it's gotten ridiculous. It started last summer when the older of the two dogs needed to go out much earlier than he had been needing. I guess that's the burden of a geriatric bladder.
In any case, their internal alarm clocks have slowly inched earlier from around 6 am (which coincided to my usual wake up time) to 5:30. I was thinking it was because it was getting light so much earlier, and hoped that things would return to normal as we headed back into the winter months.
Well, not only did that not happen, but their wake up time now averages 5 am. That's not a bad thing since I'm working again and need to be at work at 7:30. This morning (and a handful of times over the past few weeks) he was making it known that he needed to go out at 4:30. This is unacceptable, but since I didn't want him to pee on the bed (he can't jump down on his own to pee on one of the training mats), I reluctantly cast off the blanket, put on my socks, and let the both of them outside to do their business.
Unlike weekdays when they're up at 5, I did not immediately feed them breakfast when they came back in. Instead we all went back to bed and slept to a much more reasonable 8:30 am.
My dogs almost always go out around 5, though on days when he's really tired, Big Seig will go back to bed after his bladder is empty.