Meet the Canine Alarm Clock

There will be no sleeping late in our household thanks to this guy. I can turn all the alarm clocks off and I'll still be alerted to the fact that it's 4:30 AM. It's just a couple of short barks and then he'll get quiet again unless he doesn't hear me stirring around the house. If I don't stir, I can expect a long series of barks at 5:00 AM and if he hasn't been let out by the usual 5:30 AM time, the wounded animal noises start. No matter how hard I try, I can't get my sleep brain to realize that he's not actually wounded or on the verge of having to pee in the corner, but just an anal-retentive dog that likes to keep a set schedule. It's like having a snooze alarm that you can't turn off - I wake up enough to realize there's nothing really wrong with the dog, go back to sleep only to wake up again 10 minutes later. Eventually I give up because who knows, maybe this time he really IS about to pee in a corner and if I don't let him out, then I'll have to clean it up. That's usually motivation enough to get me out of bed.