I. Why do dogs sleep so much in a day?

Although we humans are used to sleeping in the dark and working during the day, our dogs seem to sleep all the time during the day as well. Why do dogs sleep so much in a day?

Why do dogs sleep for so long?
According to experts from the International Sleep Foundation, it is normal for dogs to spend about 50% of their day sleeping and another 30% resting, while dogs are only active for about 20% of the day. Carnivores do pretty much the same thing, and lions spend 18 hours or more a day sleeping and resting! When a dog has nothing to do at home, most dogs can only sleep if they are locked in a cage with nothing to play with. For puppies that need to grow, it is normal for them to sleep 20 hours a day. Dogs will also spend more time sleeping if they are sick and not feeling well, or if they are overly obese. Some breeds inherently need more rest than others, such as the lazy Bernese Mountain Dog and the energetic Sheepdog.

In most cases, dogs will sleep 12 hours or more a day and have nothing to worry about. However, if the dog is lethargic for long periods during the day, the owner may need to pay some attention. Dogs can also become lethargic when they are sick, so remember to take your dog to the doctor if there are other signs of discomfort.

How can I get my dog to sleep better at night?
Most dogs don't go to work or school, and they can easily get bored and lonely if no one is playing with them. And if the dog sleeps too much during the day, it may not be able to sleep at night and may get up to make trouble, which will make the owner sleep poorly too. It is best to take your dog out for a walk during the day. Depending on the breed, age, and health level of the dog, it may take 30 minutes or 2 hours of exercise before the dog gets tired. Don't look at your poodle as a very small dog, often it is still energetic after an hour's walk. If a walk doesn't burn off its energy, you can use some leaky toys for them to play with, or at bedtime, the owner can play some games like throwing and tug-of-war with the dog to burn off extra energy.

Some puppies just arrived home, often noisy at night, because they just arrived in a new environment and feel very restless. If your dog is wailing in its crate, never let it out if it doesn't have to go to the bathroom. If you ignore him, you are rewarding his crying behavior. To solve the problem of crying puppies at night, owners can play games with them at home to burn off energy, given that some of them are still unable to go outside. At night, if they are still restless and can't sleep, either be ruthless and leave them alone or move their crate to a place where they can see you. This way they feel safe and won't cry all night.

Generally speaking, it is normal for dogs to spend most of their time sleeping or resting. But too much sleep can be a sign of a health problem in your dog.

There are several signs that a dog is sleeping too much if
The dog's sleep patterns have changed, and the dog, which was very active during the day, is now lethargic during the day.

the dog wants to sleep even when the owner wants to play games with the dog or give the dog treats, which is not normal

difficulty waking the dog in the morning.

the dog waking up suddenly, in a state of fear or stress.

Or you may notice that your dog's sleep schedule doesn't seem to change much, but there are other physical signs, such as limping or lameness. Reluctance to walk, run or jump, increase or decrease in eating and urinating or defecating, frequent staring at corners or walls, aggressive behavior, a tendency to pace back and forth, drooling, etc. It's better to take your dog to the doctor, it may be more than just a sleep problem. A lethargic dog may be suffering from hypothyroidism, diabetes, anxiety, or many other serious conditions. Having your vet give your dog a thorough examination, including blood tests and other tests, and early treatment is the best way to go.

II. How many hours of sleep does a dog normally get each day?

How long does a dog normally sleep each day? This is not a question we can generalize, as the normal sleep time for dogs varies depending on their breed, age, and physical condition.

First of all, according to the age of the dog divide, just-born small puppies, are not very energetic, definitely not like adult dogs as an active and chaotic group. Because just born, the body function is not fully mature, the whole body quality is very fragile, and a careless will be infected with a variety of fatal diseases, life-threatening.

Therefore, small puppies need to sleep very much after birth, in fact, like humans, we human babies are born, and also need to sleep much longer than adults. Just-born puppies can not do a lot of things, out of drinking milk is going to the toilet, so, generally small puppies a day 24 hours, 22 hours are sleeping.

Secondly, let's talk about adult puppies, if they do not have strenuous exercise, generally 24 hours a day, they need to sleep 15 hours, because they have the magical ability to fall back to sleep, so the quality of sleep is very good. But if it's a police dog puppy, because it takes a long time to train, their sleep time is relatively less than other kinds of puppies.

According to statistics.

2-5 months of age, the dog sleeps about 20-22 hours a day.

After 6 months of age is 16-20 hours.

But now most dogs sleep less because there is a major reason.

Not enough exercise.
To the outside world is particularly eager, a little wind will wake up, resulting in poor sleep quality.

This is the same as people. People who do physical work have good sleep quality. The poor sleep quality of office workers and computer workers. Easily manic, bad temper.

Dogs because of living in the city, every day is not shut in the home, or cage, long-term exercise is not met, demolition of the home, love to bark, see people especially excited, see the dog is also reckless to rush up.

The more so, the more afraid to take out, the vicious circle, the dog is increasingly disobedient.

Rural dogs are different. There is especially a lot of the same kind of play together, but also free to run around, except for the food is not very good.

Want to let the dog have a good quality of sleep, and sufficient sleep time, we must consume the dog's excess physical energy. In this way, the dog can return home to sleep peacefully.

In addition to this, is training. It can also quickly achieve the effect of making the dog settle down.

Three, how much time does a dog usually need to sleep

Dogs do need more sleep.
Especially when they are newborns, they can sleep up to 22 hours a day, with the remaining two hours spent drinking milk and pooping and shushing. After growing up, you still need to sleep more than 15 hours a day to be enough! Our feeling is that dogs seem to be able to fall asleep at any time, the dog may play with the master very vigorously one moment, the next moment the eyelids heavy to doze off, even lying on the master's side or even legs to enjoy the master's massage can also enjoy the squinting.

The dog's sleep is divided into light sleep and mature sleep
Light sleep is easy to wake up at any time, which is also a primitive instinct to stay alert. The situation that looks like you can fall asleep at any time, basically are light sleep. When the dog is asleep, the dog's body will be very relaxed, hands and feet will be slightly twitching, and sometimes sleep to all fours, emitting a slight moaning sound, looks a bit like a person in a dream. The owner may think it is what happened when he sees such a situation, but in fact it is sleeping sweetly, it is best not to disturb, because dogs are like people, woken up in their sleep, may lose their temper, and if frightened, will want to bite people in self-defense! Sometimes sleeping dogs are suddenly awakened by shock, because they do not slow down to dizziness, they can easily turn over on all fours, but their legs and feet are too weak to stand up, just like people with three highs are prone to stroke when they are awakened in their sleep for a reason.

Why do dogs need to sleep for a long time?
As said above, dogs sleep is divided into light sleep and mature sleep, and only in the mature sleep time, the dog can really rest, most of the time the dog is light sleep, and the dog really mature sleep time is not so long. Dogs do want to sleep and do not want to be disturbed, will choose a quiet, dark corner, a beautiful sleep, remind the owner if your dog is a very timid or very alert and aggressive dog, do not because the dog's sleeping posture super cute to touch the dog!