2 Yorkies and Sleeping Problems

Question
Hi Cindi,
 We have 2 Yorkies.  A male that is 10 yrs and weights about 12 lbs. and a
female that is about 5 and weights about 6 lbs.  About 3 months ago, our
problem began.  Both dogs have always slept in bed with us.  The male
alternates between his bed on the floor and ours.  The female has always
slept in our bed.  They can not jump up on the bed, just down.  Well, about 3
months ago, they started taking turns waking us up.  The male would get out
of his bed on the floor and go to the door.  I then  take him outside (which we
do with both before we go to sleep).  The female then hears that I am up and
wants out too.  We go back to bed and an hour or so later (2:30/3:30) the
female is up, walking on the bed, snorting, scratching her ears, and in our
face.  Anything to get attention.  We take her out, and she does not need to
go and she stands by her food bowl area.   She wants to eat!!  Then the male
hears us up and he wants the same thing.  I have now gotten desperate, @
3:30am---wanting to sleep a few more hours--so I have just been feeding
them.  I know they have just gotten used to :"breaking us".  I was going to try
just leaving both of them downstairs w/their beds and shutting our door. I
thought that would probably cause some sort of other problem.  We
desperatly need a good nights sleep.  Also they eat twice a day.  Once now
anywhere from 3:30-5:30am, (it used to be 7am when we got up) and then
again anywhere from 4pm-6pm.  We have even tried feeding them shortly
before bed, in hopes it would get them to sleep through the night (like they
used to).  Both my husband and I are home during the day to (we work from
home), so they are rarely alone.  HELP--we need our sleep back!
 Thank you for any help on this matter.
Vicki

Also, if we have friends over till midnight and go to bed late, they are still up
@ 2:30 or shortly after.

Answer
STOP feeding and rewarding them for waking you up. Do not get up and let them out, Feed at the last time around five PM, water for the last time around 9. It's going to take some time and more lost sleep but you are only going to continue to make this worse if you keep rewarding them for waking up. Completely and totally ignore them from now on after sleeping. You can do this. Stick to your guns no matter what. Don't even SPEAK just play possum when they wake up or try to no matter what they do!
Hang in there!
Cindi