I took on this gorgeous 3 yr old St. Bernard, and I love him dearly already. The only issue that I am having with him is that he wants the entire house awake at 5am, a whole hour before the alarm goes off for school. I put him to bed in the kitchen with my shih tzu, who he loves! I give him a blanket and his bone. Im not sure what else to do, he is waking everyone (including the baby) before we are all ready to wake. I can't let him sleep in my room because he snores! And then I really wouldnt get any sleep. HELP! Need some tips to keep him content all night!

As a rule... . I am an early riser, but my older dog is much like your St. Bernard. Once in awhile she is awake super early and she sits in the bedroom door making nearly inaudible noises (just enough to torture us awake...LOL). We affectionately call it her "whale song". As she has gotten older she was getting into the habit of doing that more and more. For nooooooo reason other then wanting to be fed, or to cruise the backyard extra early to see IF the resident raccoons and other things that go bump in the night have been through. She'd bound back in alll happy happy from the yard cruise...and GO BACK TO BED... grrrrr.....lol I don't believe she was desperate to relieve herself as sometimes she'd come back in without doing so.

I hated to do it, but after years of her having FULL house privileges at night (do to her being a first rate house guard) I began closing her crate door at night. It actually broke her of it the habit, but if she regresses and wakes us up two mornings in a row... the crate door goes closed again for about a week...and she forgets about it...and goes back to sleeping in until she hears us rattling around getting up.

For your sanity... I'd get a big crate and break your dog to the crate. After that final potty run at night I would just teach your dog that he goes "there" until you get up in the morning. If teaching him to crate at night with bait works well for you...then use it. Make his crate a positive thing...not a negative.

If you do this (crate break him) don't make a big deal about it in the morning when you let him out (No super excited talking - Goooood Morning Babiesssssssss.....Howwwwwwwww are you???). Just unceremoniously let them out...and don't do any high pitched greeting of them when you do it. Just open their doors...and take them out to potty. Once they are back in.. then you can do your morning "hellos". My dogs are super quiet in their crates, and I am a firm believer it's because I don't get them all "happy to see me instantly" when I get up or when I first walk in the door.

I believe crate breaking for you will be the way to go. Finding an indoor area for a crate that size will be a challenge, but we have TWO of them in here. My husband built a TV table over one...and we have office supplies on the top of the biggest crate. It's not high class furnishings, but our dogs are our family.. and their crates are just part of the deco....lol

Basic Crate Training -
http://www.inch.com/~dogs/cratetraining.