The importance of sleep and safe havens

We all get grumpy if we haven’t had enough sleep or rest, it can really impact on how we deal with other people and situations, and well the same applies to animals.

Unlike humans who generally stay up all day and then sleep for one long stretch at night, dogs spread out their sleep. Dogs can sometimes appear to sleep for days at a time, and you might think they’re just being lazy. Sometimes this can be natural, or a symptom of something else.

Dog sleep: what is normal?

Adult dogs should roughly have between 12 and 14 hours sleep per day. You may think this is a lot, but canines in the wild also spend their days snoozing, only waking properly to play and hunt for food when required. Larger breeds are also known to nap a lot!

Puppies, despite being a ball of energy when they’re awake, sometimes need up to 18 hours of sleep per day! From exploring to learning, puppies use a lot of energy when they’re young and rest is necessary.

Your dog’s daily activity

Surprisingly, your dog will only spend around five hours a day being active, half their day sleeping, and the remaining parts of the day resting. This is because a dog’s sleep cycle isn’t as routine as ours, meaning that dogs do not reach the deeper, more restorative stages of sleep.

However, activity of dogs also depends on the environment. For instance working dogs such as farm dogs, police dogs, sporting dogs, and guide dogs naturally have a duty to fulfil and therefore don’t have time to sleep as much as their lapdog counterparts. Dogs that go to doggy day care centres can be playing and alert all day and miss out on value rest time so it is important to check they get a safe resting zone during their stay.