Is It Normal When Your Dog Sleeps All Day?
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Different animals have different sleeping patterns at different stages of their life cycle. As a result, it should come as no surprise to learn that dogs don’t sleep for the same amount of time as we do. Instead, dogs are supposed to spend more of their lives in slumber, though the exact number can see a fair amount of variation.
Generally speaking, a dog can be expected to spend between 12 and 14 hours sleeping on a daily basis. However, this is for adult dogs in their prime rather than, say, puppies and older dogs, who can spend between 16 and 18 hours sleeping on a daily basis. Besides this, it should be mentioned that different breeds have different tendencies in this regard, with an excellent example being how working breeds tend to be much more active than others.
Is Your Dog Sleeping Too Much?
There are a number of potential explanations for why dogs spend so much of their time sleeping. First and foremost, most dogs don’t have much reason to not be sleeping so much. Simply put, most dogs have their basic necessities met for them. For example, they don’t need to go out to find either food or water. Likewise, they already have a source of shelter where they can remain safe and secure from a wide range of potential threats. As such, while there are plenty of dogs that have to fend for themselves, pet dogs don’t have to do anything along those lines, meaning that they are going to sleep more just because they can.
As such, some dog owners are bound to have concerns about whether this will make for a happy and healthy dog. If so, they might want to look into various ways to stimulate their dogs on a physical level as well as on a mental level. The simplest and most straightforward solution is for dog owners to spend more time with their dogs, whether by playing with them or by taking them out on a walk. This can be difficult because of dog owners’ other obligations, but one particularly good option would be waking up a little bit earlier in the morning to take their dogs out on a morning walk before heading out for the rest of their daily routine. Not only will this help them get some more exercise of their own, but it should make for a calmer dog throughout the rest of the day, which can be particularly important for dog owners whose dogs are showing signs of boredom while they are away. Besides exercise, dog owners might also want to look into dog puzzles that contain treats to encourage dogs to work at them. However, they need to have some supervised time with their dogs with the dog puzzles beforehand, which is necessary for making sure that their dogs understand the basic concept of the dog puzzles.
With that said, it is important to note that dogs can start sleeping more because of some kind of disease. Unfortunately, it can be very difficult to tell when a dog is sleeping more because of advancing age and when a dog is sleeping more because of some kind of disease, particularly since older dogs tend to have higher chances of getting a wide range of diseases. Due to this, dog owners need to pay very close attention to their dogs to see if there are any other symptoms when they notice them sleeping more, with one excellent example being weight gain without additional consumption of food that could be a sign of hyperthyroidism. If they notice signs for concern, they might want to bring their dogs to their veterinarians for a check-up, which should provide them with the surest results.
Summed up, it is perfectly natural for dogs to spend more time sleeping than humans. Moreover, it is perfectly natural for dogs to start sleeping more and more as they get older, whether because they are just getting less active or because they are starting to experience joint issues that are making movement unpleasant for them. However, there are also cases in which a dog is sleeping more because of some kind of disease, meaning that dog owners can’t be complacent if they notice that their dogs are suddenly spending more time in slumber.