I’ve often heard stories of dogs who get their owners up like clockwork in the morning. The active dog who must get going and gets their owner up to go with them. Up every morning for a 5 mile run at 4 AM. Rain, shine or in the snow.

Those are not my dogs.

In fact, I consider it a training triumph that both dogs will often remain curled up and asleep despite the snooze button being pushed a couple times.

Because I am not a morning person. I start my days slowly and give myself about 20 minutes to get up after the alarm first goes off.

Kenzi is perfectly happy with this set up. In fact, after a quick trip outside in the morning she makes a beeline back to bed and snoozes for a few more hours. She’s obviously missed the “requirements for a high energy dog” memo and I’m just fine with that.

Kolt would love to get up. In fact, he’d love to bounce out of bed the minute the alarm goes off. But he likes a happy person better. He occasionally tries to paw the blankets off after the alarm goes off the first time. And he usually gets a sleepy, slightly irritated “Kolt, that’s enough!” for his trouble. Upon which he melts back into bed and tries to snuggle. With me. He has better sense than to try it with Kenzi as she can be even grumpier than the resident person when waking in the mornings. Despite his thoughts on the matter, he has pretty much learned to go with the flow and keep that gals happy.

This “sleeping in” behavior doesn’t happen overnight – for either dog. Training it takes persistence, consistency and time. Knowing that I’m training a behavior that is important can really helps justify pushing the snooze button a couple times in the morning – I’m not being lazy, I’m training my dogs from the comfort of my bed. And it’s wonderful!!! Especially at 8:30 on a Sunday morning.

* Disclaimer – your breed may differ. Which is why I’m probably going to be plenty happy sticking with Border Collies for a long time. As much as I’m intrigued by, say, a Malinios, I’d hate ending up with a dog who really must have that 4 AM run.