Do you wonder why your dog is sleeping so much? Do not worry about this. Sleep is essential to all animals. Sleep allows the body of the animal to relax and replenished. This is the same with dogs. Dogs do sleep to get energy for them to do a given task. Other than this sleep plays a vital role for all animals. In this article, have discussed some of the reasons why dogs sleep and dog, sleep in general.
Below are some of the reasons why dogs do sleep most of their time.
Table of Contents
Reasons to why dogs sleep so much
Dog’s age and size
According to the scientist, an average sleeping hour for dogs ranges from 12 to 14 hours. But with older dogs, need more hours sleeping. This is because they become older, so they require more time to rest. This is because as they grow old, they get tired quickly. They need more resting time for them to carry out their functions properly.
This is the opposite to pappies, as they take some time in doing exercise. Exploring and playing around the new environment. For older dogs, they will sleep up to 18 to 20 hours to do their functions well. However, also this will depend on the breed of the dogs and how they are engaged.
The health condition of the dog
The health condition of the dog can affect its sleeping time. Some health conditions can affect your dog. Excessive sleep in a dog can be a result of either diabetes, hypothyroidism or depression. As the owner monitor the rest of your dog. But if you realize there is a dramatic change in the sleeping pattern then know that your dog’s health is not good. With this, you need to consult your veterinarian to help in identifying the problem.
Lack of enough recommended exercise
Like human beings, dogs also need exercise. Lack of it will make dogs lazy and less active on all the days. All dogs need a daily basis exercise. With laziness, dogs get much time doing nothing, and hence they sleep. Those dogs that do exercise daily, they became active and engaging accordingly cannot take most of their time sleeping. Try to engage your dog doing bay having a daily exercise.
Bad diet
For a dog to be active every day, it must eat well. Mediocre or lousy diet makes the dog weak and inactive. This makes it prone to sleep most of the time. Proper diet and exercise go hand in hand. Your dog can’t do exercise if it is poorly fed. Adequate nutrition makes your dog energetic. It also makes the dog more active most of the time. This will significantly reduce the sleeping time. The diet should also be restricting. Avoid that diet that will make your dog fail it asleep.
Lack of what to do
In most cases, dogs have not been assigned any task to do. They sleep much of their time because they are not engaged. In some homes, dogs are used to do some work. This helps them to be active for most of their time. If you want your dog to be aggressive for most of the time, try to train and assigning it some task to do.
Change in life in your dog
Dogs do react to a sudden change of environment. Most dogs are adopted to their original context. The change of the environment affects them. This causes them to sleep for much of their time. In some cases, some dogs may die. Some dog breed expresses their mood through sleeping.
Breeds
As we have mentioned, the average sleep of dogs is between 12 to 14 hours a day. However, some breeds sleep longer than others. Breeds like Jack Russell has more energy and does not sleep comfortably. Mastiff breed, on the other hand, sleeps more hours of 18 hours a day. Understand that the kind of your dog can be a factor that makes your dog sleep so much.
Genetics
Initially before domestication dogs were wild animals. They spent most of the time during the day sleeping. At night dogs hunted to get food. When they were adopted by human beings. They had to learn how to adapt to the new environment. This included sleeping even at night. This is due to the food was provided by a human being. With human being schedule, dogs started to sleep in most of their time.
Science
Up to now, no scientific evidence has been provided to why dogs sleep most of their time. Research as only showed that dogs nap more. To add on that dog’s dream when they are in REM sleep. Some of the studies have shown that some dogs run while asleep. They advise one should not wake them as they are sleeping.
How many hours a day should a dog sleep?
Most researchers agree that dogs should sleep 50 percent of their daytime rest 30 percent and 20 percent be active. But puppies should sleep less. They should be involved in an exercise as their body is growing. To add on that puppies should be engaged in playing, jumping, licking and running. By doing this, your dog will remain active. They will also perform their work very well and efficiently.
To older dogs, they should be allowed to sleep in most of their time. This is because their body is not healthy just like aged people. Experts recommend that older dogs should rest at least 18 hours a day.
Conclusion
Dogs do sleep much of their time. We have seen some of the reasons why they sleep much. Some of the ideas are bad diet, dog’s age, and size, healthy conditions of the dog and other factors. However, to maintain them to be active, try to engage your dog. Engage your dog in exercise, playing, running, and jumping. A proper diet can also make your dog active.
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