The trick I learned to make dogs honor Daylight Saving Time
For dogs 8 months or older, this trick may help you gain that extra hour
Whether we blame Benjamin Franklin’s “An Economical Project,” the Englishman builder William Willet or Germans during World War I for Daylight Saving Time, the fact is it sucks twice a year — we lose an hour and gain an hour. Meanwhile, I feel like the day is going too fast or it’s dark too soon. It also takes a few times before I remember when to switch from CST or CDT for out-of-town clients, and I really just want to crawl back into bed before noon either way.
I’m not a morning person, so I lose regardless. I hate the “anh anh anh” sounds of alarms and anyone trying to talk to me before coffee. I purposely dodge chatty morning dog walkers by wearing headphones, and I made a point of re-routing my walk to avoid loud children on their way to school.
But guess who doesn’t care about any of this? Dogs. My parents were morning people with my first two dogs, and I never thought much of Daylight Saving Time after I started working from home. I set my own schedule and wasn’t rushing out the door to jump on anyone’s train or bus. The only time I’d wake up before 8:30 a.m. was when I was dog boarding or dog sitting, and minus a couple of dogs, most were just fine waking up at the same time I did. I lucked out!
Then came my own early bird dog, who paces back and forth, jumps on my back, and stares in my face making grumpy growling noises at 11:30 p.m. on the dot. In her mind, everyone should go to sleep at 11:30 p.m. because that’s when she does. And — after a month of crate training and many, many late nights of waking up two to three times during her early puppy years — we settled on 7 a.m. walks. But how was I supposed to pull off a 6 a.m. walk when I could barely operate at 7 a.m.?
It turns out that my sunrise alarm clock did the work for me.
ADVERTISEMENT ~ Amazon
As an Amazon Affiliate, I earn a percentage for each purchase with my referral links.
I hate the sound of traditional alarm clocks so much that I even mute commercials when the sound is in them. Since childhood, I have gritted my teeth at that “anh anh anh” sound, and I don’t care for radio clocks either when the host is unbearably loud. But sometimes I need to wake up earlier than usual, and I had to find an alternative.
Interestingly, a copywriting job on “Best Travel Alarm Clocks” last year resolved all of my problems. I bought one of my own choices, a sunrise alarm clock with warm, LED lighting. Thirty minutes before the alarm starts, the lights turn on — dimmer and slowly getting brighter like a sunrise. (It doubles as a night light in an emergency, and it can change to eight different colors.) But what really drew me to this clock were the alarm sounds: ocean waves, birds chirping and a lullaby sound. (I could turn on the radio option, but I absolutely will never do that.)