How Much Sleep Does Your Dog Need?
In our view, mental health awareness shouldn’t just be limited to us humans. As sentient beings, our pets too can struggle with their emotions, and their brain will manifest those emotions into the behaviours we see every day.
Here’s a great and really common example - a puppy that is lacking sleep may demonstrate behaviour that you would initially deem as ‘being naughty’ – tugging at your clothes, over stimulation, hyperactive zoomies etc. You may think they have lots of excess energy and so you take them for more walks or extend their walk time, but it just doesn’t seem to stop their behaviour…. sound familiar?! You’re not alone!!
There could of course be other things at play here so do consult a vet and/or a qualified, reward-based trainer or behaviourist if you aren’t sure but, if you do know that your dog isn’t getting enough sleep (see the guide below), this would be something to begin to work on building with them!
Even just keeping a simple diary of when your puppy has slept throughout the day can help you spot patterns of change in their behaviour from one day to the next.
Dog Sleep Guide
(Over a 24-hour period …)
8-9 weeks – up to 20 hours
10-12 weeks – up to 18 hours
13-18 weeks – up to 16 hours
18-20 weeks – up to 14 hours
Adult dogs – around 12 hours
So that’s all great to know and you may be thinking they aren’t getting enough sleep, but how do you help your pup to get that much-needed sleep?!
Dogs, especially puppies, can’t always control themselves when it comes to rest. Their impulses are just too strong, so they’re always anticipating what’s next and can get that FOMO feeling - for anyone who thinks I’m speaking a new language, that’s fear of missing out. I had that same thought when I first heard the abbreviation…
Rest is boring in our puppies worlds, but it’s just as crucial for them as it is for us - it enables them to process all of those new experiences with people, dogs, sniffs, sounds and everything in between and it also helps them to learn (just like lack of sleep for us humans hugely impacts our memory consolidation and concentration levels).
So we will more often than not need to intervene at first and, you’ll love to hear, it is super simple to help promote rest! When you give your dog something appropriate to chew, lick or sniff it will promote and build some lovely calmness into their day. This in turn will help to get them on their way to taking a much needed nap. With all of this we are helping them to get those brain muscles working in the right way, and not just focusing on tiring out their bodies with exercise.
They’ll also LOVE it!!
Things that are appropriate to chew include …
carrots or long lasting, natural food based chews (you won’t find any raw hide here!) that are either meaty or Yak milk based - why not go check out all the natural chews we have available to order in our shop.
non-food-based chews like olivewood sticks and dogroot chews (any dogs who have a love of chewing wood will love both of these options - they’re available in different sizes for teeny tiny dogs to large, hard chewers!
Things that are great for licking include …
Lickimats and Kongs with some lovely natural yoghurt, dog friendly peanut butter (huge emphasis on the dog friendly part here!) or squeezy cheese - popping these in the freezer for a few minutes will also make them last a bit longer!
And sniffing can be anything from ….
feeding your dog with a puzzle feeder (ditch those food bowls!), remembering to start with easy ones initially and building up the difficulty level as they begin to understand the game more (this also a great confidence boosting activity for your dogs!)
wrapping your dogs food in a towel or blanket for them to find between each layer
hiding your dogs food in between the packaging of your latest Amazon delivery boxes - if they rip up the packaging it’s recycling anyway!
Scatter feeding your dogs their meal in the garden so they spend 15 minutes snuffling around to find it all.
Honestly, just trying to do one or two of those things each day will help to play a huge part in improving your dog’s mental health and promote those calming activities, which then lead to support rest and sleep.
If you are struggling with a new dog, here is a handy guide from the RSPCA, outlining the basics in a simple way.
If you’d love some support with this, or any other training advice for your puppy, you know where we are!
