Something to know...Dog sleep🐶🐕

Sleeping a dog is not trivial, because it is a common cause of many behavioral problems, hyperactivity, anxiety, or aggression.

🎯 1. The dog's sleep is "inefficient."

The average adult dog needs 12-14 hours of sleep a day, not because he has nothing to do, but why a dog needs to sleep nearly 2 times more comes from the nature of his sleep being inefficient.

The main difference is in the so-called Rapid Eye Movement, which is when the body and brain regenerate. Humans spend about 25% of their sleep. That means that in eight hours of sleep, we humans live in REM for two hours, but dogs spend only 10% of their time in this phase. With eight hours, dogs only live in REM for 48 minutes.

That requires dogs to sleep longer to achieve a REM range that is closer to our human counterparts.

🎯 2. Dogs "shallow sleep" and "easy to wake up."

The sound of gently opening a bag of candy from another room can wake up a seemingly sleeping dog to rebound in a split second. This phenomenon is the sleeping properties of dogs designed to survive. It is an evolutionary legacy from wolf ancestors in the wild. Sleeping too deep means death. Wolves develop a sleeping system that must always be awake. They sleep shallow enough to rest, but are ready to wake up immediately when there is a threat or a chance of preying.

Despite domestic dogs being safe in our homes, Deep Brain still has this "surveillance guard" program installed.

🎯 3. Training dogs to work... happens when dogs "sleep."

The practice doesn't end when we give candy and compliments, but the most important process begins when the dog closes his eyes.

A 2017 study from Hungary conducted an experiment teaching a new command to a group of dogs. It turned out that dogs who slept after school could remember and follow it significantly better than those who were taken for walks or fun.

This means that if we train a dog hard but do not let him get a quality sleep, that training can be wasted because the brain has no chance to record what it has learned.

🎯 5. "Stubborn dogs" may just be "dogs that don't sleep enough."

This is the key that many dog owners overlook. We often blame aggressive behavior, Hyperarousal, or anxiety for poor training or species habits.

But often the real culprit is Chronic Sleep Deprivation, because sleep is the process of resetting the brain. It balances the chemicals that control emotions, both the stress hormones and the calming neurotransmitters (GABA and serotonin).

When a dog does not sleep enough, this balance breaks down. The brain is constantly in a state of "stress" (high cortisol), causing emotional control and restraint to fail. A dog that looks "stubborn" or "hyper" may be a dog that is tired and can no longer control itself.

🎯 6. Sleeping because of boredom is not equal to "sleeping and resting."

The dog will sleep when he is bored. This is an energy-saving strategy inherited from the predator ancestors, who had to rest when nothing was done to store their strength for the hunt.

The problem is that the owner sees the dog sleeping all day thinking that he is fine, but Boredom Sleep is not Restorative Sleep.

⚠️ The way to observe is to watch when he wakes up:

🐶 Bored / stressed dogs: tend to sleep a lot, but when awake, they look anxious, walk around, or have destructive behavior.

🐶 Enough Resting Dog: Will Wake Up Calmly, Relax, and Ready for the Next Activity

The dog sleeps a lot, so it may be a sign that he needs more brain activity, not more rest.

🎯 7. Puppies, big dogs and old dogs don't want to sleep "equally."

We can't apply the same standards as all dogs. Sleep needs change dramatically with age range:

🐶 Son of a bitch (less than 1 year): 18-20 hours / day

His brain and body are developing at a high speed. Sleeping is the main task needed to grow and learn the new world.

🐶 Adult dogs (1 year and over or 2 years for big dogs): 12-14 hours / day:

is the standard average to "compensate" inefficient sleep (as Article 1). In addition, giant breeds of dogs (such as the Great Dane) may need more sleep (to 18 hours) because large bodies use more energy to maintain.

🐶 Older dogs (7 + years): 18-20 hours / day

They go back to sleep a lot like puppies again, not only because the body needs more repair time, but also because sleep efficiency decreases with age, they spend less time in deep sleep, so they have to sleep longer to compensate.

Dog sleep is a complex biological system that has been refined by tens of thousands of years of evolution. Seriously protecting their leisure time (i.e. providing a quiet and safe place) is one of the keys to building good mental health and calm behavior for dogs.

♫ ♫ ♫

CR.dogology