Wednesday 10 October 2007

How much do dogs sleep?

Penny sleeps a lot. I wondered why that is so and had a look at a few sites. Pet Place says nobody is sure why they sleep so much and that it depends on the breed of dog - larger breeds sleep more.

An article at Pet Tails had more information and I was interested in what it said about stages of sleep and positions dogs sleep in. One comment was that if the dog is curled up she is probably in a light sleep. I would say this is true of Penny because if I walk past her when she is curled up she is often resting with her eyes open - I assume she opens them when she hears me moving around.

I also feel sure this article is correct when it says dogs sleep on their backs with their paws in the air because they have less fur on their bellies and thus they are trying to cool down. I've often seen Penny sleep like this on a warm night.

Animal Behavior Associates says
How much do dogs and cats sleep? Under controlled laboratory conditions both cats and dogs sleep about 13 hours per day but they wake up more frequently than people do. How much and when pets sleep varies enormously depending on the social and physical environment. A dog living as an only pet in an apartment may sleep much more than one working as a herding dog on a farm. Pets will often adjust their activity and sleep cycles so that they can be active when people and other animals are active.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

If my Mum is home, I like to follow her around to keep an eye on things(and maybe she will throw me a ball or something). But when she is out I sleep all the time- as I do if she is busy and ignoring me. But then I sort of sleep with one eye open in case there is some sudden activity. As for Puss Cat, she just sleeps all day, then wanders about all night. I guess cats do their hunting at night.
Licks
Jabari

parlance said...

Jabari, when we had to keep Penny quiet because she had a sore elbow, we all went out for the day on the assumption that she would sleep all day. I wonder what she actually did?

Anonymous said...

i think with penny in the house ir would be very quie because they say she sleeps for about 13 hours a day,which is probablly even longer than us and we are ALWAYS doing things unlike dogs who just sleep or play with their toys.