*Bloggers note:   I started writing this post this past Saturday.   Right in the middle of writing, we decided we’d take a short Poppy-cation so booked a couple of nights on the Las Vegas Strip for us and a couple of nights in the Las Vegas Dog Resort for the dogs.  I was asleep Sunday night by 7:30 pm and the second night before 9.   I feel much less zombie-ish today.    We got some rest and fun adult time, and the dogs were happy to see us when we picked them up this morning.

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Dogs mature more quickly than humans do, especially in the first year or so.   According to my friend Google, the first year of a dog’s life is equal to about 15 human years.   This would make 5-month-old Poppy the Puppy about the equivalent of a six-year-old human.

My six-year-old equivalent has developed a bad habit of waking up in the middle of the night or before the buttcrack of dawn.  Last night it was 3:15 am, the night before 4 am and the previous night at 4:15 am.   She has to potty, but then she wants to eat and play.   She does not want to go back to sleep, which means none of us can either.   She barks and barks……and barks.

I even tried Dallas’ bark collar on her (it just makes a noise and vibration, no shock or anything).   She barks right through the buzzing.  Dallas can’t understand why his collar is buzzing when he isn’t barking.   He sighs and rolls his eyes a lot.

If we lived in a house with multiple bedrooms, part of this could be solved by sleeping in a separate room with her so at least Dave and Dallas could sleep.   In the motorhome, we have one bedroom.  If one person ( or equivalent) is up, so is everyone else.

Last night, I tried keeping her up and getting her super tired before bed.   We played and walked until 10:30 and she still got us all up at 3:15 am.

I certainly don’t want to foster this bad habit, but I’m not sure what to do with the type of living situation we have.

I hope that as she matures, so will her potty parts and her barker.  I know puppy problems are temporary and I know there are much worse problems in the world.   At least puppy problems also come with puppy humor and puppy love, which balance out nicely.