When Rocky wakes up, whether it is after sleeping all night or just a nap, he likes to scratch himself. It’s almost a human cliche - the yawning and scratching of the ribs. In his case however, his favourite scratch is where he sits and uses his hind foot to scratch the back of his front leg. In scratching this way, the hind foot thumps rhythmically on the floor. When he does this in his crate at 4:45am, it is loud enough to wake the neighbours. After this wakes us up, we lie upstairs wondering if this will be followed by a sharp bark, which indicates he needs to poop. It almost always is. Sure enough, that’s why I’m up this morning. I actually see progress in the “midnight run” because he is sleeping longer and only needing to go out around 5am AND the poop is normal, not mushy. But 5am is awfully close to 6am which is when we usually get up during the week and so when I put him back in his crate and we try to go back to sleep, he is restless and wants company. So I have got up and am here, keeping him company. I haven’t let him out of the crate but he is content that I should just be in the room with him where he can see and hear me. When Peter gets up around 6, I’ll let Rocky out and give him breakfast. Then he’ll nod off again between 7 and 8 and I’ll go for a nap.