Canine Alarm Clock

The advantage of a canine alarm clock is it cannot be ignored. Gilbert bounds onto the bed in the morning lands on my chest and proceeds to lick my face and ears with his wet sticky tongue. If I try to push him off this is evidence to him that I want to wrestle. If I'm lucky he thinks my shoving him away means I want him to go get a ball to play with. Then a wet slobbery ball gets dropped on my face followed by more enthusiastic licks to face and ears. Clearly the canine alarm clock is highly effective. The principal downside though is that dogs can't tell days of the week. The schedule is fixed and sleeping in on a Saturday or Sunday morning isn't something that can be programmed. The best that can be hoped for is a nap after the ritual wake up and ball play with the clock snuggled close for comfort.