For the past few weeks, we’ve put Yoshi back out on the glass windowed veranda at night. He had been sleeping inside the living room in a small cage, but as the weeks got warmer, and he started spending the afternoons out on the veranda while we were at work, he tried to sleep there too. He would lay down on his pillow and refuse to get up when we told him to get in his cage.
At first it was too cold, and we’d put him in a sweater before letting stay out at night. Now he gets his t-shirt before we put him outside. If the weather continues to warm up, he’ll just sleep out on his pillow when his hair gets a little longer. Now he’s got a new game he plays with us.
In the morning, when I woke up, the first thing I used to do was feed him. I’d walk over to where his food is, grab a cup of food, and then open the door to the veranda, feed him, and then let him back in the apartment. He’d usually then spend the morning on my lap sleeping, whether I was on the couch or at the computer.
Eventually he associated me getting up with food. This is bad. The problem arises when Yoshi figured out that if he was noisy at around 8 am, he could wake me up. Once I am awake in the morning, it’s very rare that I can get back to bed at all. Thus, I’d wake up early, feed him, and Yoshi would get his first meal extra early.
Yoshi has been waking us up progressively earlier for each meal. What started as a leisurely 9:30 wake up call is now a 7:50 early morning bark or two. If we kept doing this we’d never get any sleep.
Today my wife got up early and let Yoshi in the house, but didn’t feed him. She wanted to break his habit of getting food earlier. Instead, he’ll get fed at the same time when we get up, but we’ll let him in the house if he is too cold. All he does is go to sleep on his spot on the couch when we let him in every morning. He’s as tired as we are in the mornings. She let him in, and when we got out of bed to face the day, he was still there napping. We fed him like normal after that.
For a dog that likes to sleep out of the veranda, he just doesn’t like mornings on the veranda alone.
Yoshi’s also begun to recognize when anyone is planning to go outside. The first time I grab my coat or mp3 player, he’ll get ready for his walk. When I put on my coat after my shower, he knows I’m going to work and will go outside to wait on his pillow for me to say goodbye. He also waits and watches the door when one of us leaves the house for a short time. I think he’s a remarkably smart dog.
