Barking alarm clocks

My husband and I have two German Shepherds. When it is time for me to go to bed, they both know. When I get up and close the entertainment center doors, they know it is time for them to go to their beds. My two dogs sleep together in the gated kitchen.

Two nights ago, I got into bed around 9:15 am, about a half hour-later both dogs start barking. It was still early, so I really wasn't mad. I hoped they would just calm down and be quiet. After a couple of barks, they both stopped. Not even five minutes later, both of them are barking again. They didn't stop after a minute or two, so it irritated me. I got out of bed and opened the door and yelled at them to be quiet. Once they heard my voice they stopped. I closed the door and layed back in bed.

Right after I got back to sleep the dogs started barking again. Besides barking they were jumping all over the back door. Usually when they jump on the back door, it means that my husband is home. I got out of bed and walked over to a window. No sign of my husband or his car. So I didn't know what they were barking at. I walked downstairs to try to calm them down. I walked up to the gate and Kelly is wagging her tail. I look at Blitzkrieg and he started growling at me. I turned on the light and he continued growling. I told them to quiet down and finally Blitzkrieg backed away and stopped growling. I went back up to bed and fell asleep. I stayed asleep until my alarm woke me up the next morning.

When I walked downstairs to let the dogs out, I had a surprise at the end of the staircase. Both Blitzkrieg and Kelly were sitting at the bottom of the steps. I walked over to the kitchen and turned on the light. They both escaped by knocking over the gate. I'm sure when the gate fell over it was loud, but I didn't hear it.

This morning, the dogs woke me up with their barking. This time it was 2:45 am. I got out of bed and told them to be quiet. I shut the door and crawled back into bed. That didn't stop the barking. Blitzkrieg continued. His bark was quiet, not as loud as his regular bark. I knew what that meant. He needed to go outside. When I walked downstairs, Kelly and Blitzkrieg were wagging their tails near the gate. I said, "Do you want to go outside?", and they both ran to the door. There is nothing like waiting for dogs to finish there potty break at 2:45 am when you need to get up for work in an 1.5 hours.

I guess that I shouldn't be mad when the dogs wake me up. I would rather have the dogs wake me up with their barking then my loud neighbors. With the dogs, I can tell them to be quiet or take them outside to calm them down. With the neighbors, they don't quiet down unless someone leaves or if the cops are called on them.