Stages of sleep
Dog sleep is similar in structure to human sleep and goes through several stages:
- Nap. The dog doesn't want to sleep, but he needs rest. Therefore, he lies down, closes his eyes and plunges into a state on the verge of sleep and wakefulness. He can hear everything that is happening around him, and at any moment he is ready to jump up.
- Shallow sleep. If the dog feels tired, it lies down and falls into a shallow sleep. The body relaxes and regains strength, but a loud sound can easily snap it out of this state.
- Deep dream. After some time, if not disturbed, the dog sinks deeper and enters the stage of deep, dreamless sleep. He is relaxed, his body is motionless, he sniffles or even snores.
- Quick sleep. After some time, deep sleep turns into rapid sleep - this is the stage of dreams when the brain is activated and processes the impressions received. The dog twitches its paws, its eyes move under its eyelids, sometimes it whines or barks, wags its tail, and changes its position. The duration of this stage is short.
Deep and fast phases replace each other, like in humans. If one of them is missing, the animal will not truly rest.
Stages of sleep in dogs
The sleep structure of dogs and humans is identical, except that the duration of the periods is different. At each stage, the brain experiences stress, and certain processes occur in the body. Sleep is usually divided into several types:
- Napping - the animal is fully conscious, controls the situation, but behaves relaxed. This stage is considered as a temporary rest to recuperate or the first stage of falling asleep.
- Shallow – active tissue repair processes are launched in the body, the dog is completely relaxed, but can hear sounds around him.
- Deep is the only stage of complete muscle rest. Typically, at this stage, you can see the dog moving its lips or twitching its paws.
- Fast is a relatively recently discovered stage. At this stage, the dog is completely motionless and relaxed, but you may notice rapid movement of the eyeballs. After REM sleep ends, the dog either wakes up or falls back into light sleep. By the way, a person remembers his dreams in detail if he woke up immediately after the REM stage of sleep.
Important! Deep sleep is the only state of the body when the immune system works at full strength.
When and how do dogs sleep?
The domestic dog is a faithful pet for humans, but traces of its wolf ancestors have not disappeared from its genes. That’s why her sleep structure is the same as theirs.
The wolf sleeps as much as he can afford. In good times, he gets up in the morning, hunts with the pack, eats and goes to bed until the evening. In the evening he wakes up, eats, plays with the flock and goes to bed again until his turn comes to be on duty. When good times give way to bad, the wolf sleeps when he falls exhausted or when he finally manages to catch something.
A dog also sleeps according to the same principle: in good times, it dozes after walking and eating, sleeps deeply at night, so that in the morning it can wake up and go for a walk again.
She sleeps up to sixteen hours a day , and the rest of the time she spends energy and has fun.
Although the actual figure depends, of course, on many factors.
Age
Puppies up to 2-3 months old seem to sleep around the clock. They fall asleep while walking and with their faces buried in the bowl. This is an absolutely normal phenomenon, since tailed babies sleep up to 20 hours a day. Puppies do not yet need to guard the territory, they are well-fed and immune to irritating environmental factors... that is why they sleep and do not doze. Growing up babies become more active, continue to eat a lot, go for walks, get tired and also sleep for a long time - up to 18 hours a day.
Note! Whining, pawing, and even jumping up in sleep are not alarming symptoms. It is believed that dogs, like people, are capable of seeing and experiencing dreams. But walking with half-closed eyes in a state of apparent sleep is already a neurological disorder.
Older dogs again increase their sleep time to 20 hours a day, but it all depends on the breed. Many representatives of the canine world remain active until a very advanced age. An older dog (7–10 years old) sleeps all night, after every meal and walk. Given the general slowdown in metabolism and increase in sleep time, older pets are reduced in caloric intake. Otherwise, the four-legged dog will look constantly tired and exhausted.
Sleep depending on the dog's age
Just like people, dogs sleep different amounts of time at different times in their lives.
A puppy spends most of its life sleeping for up to a month, waking up only to eat. He is still small, his body is growing with might and main, nothing is required of him yet.
Up to three months, a puppy becomes more active and is awake for four hours a day. He not only has time to eat, but also explores the surrounding area, plays with his brothers and sisters, meets the breeder, and gets very tired.
A puppy up to six months is awake for about six hours. He already goes for walks with his owner, already learns simple commands, already understands requests like “place!” or “who ate the sock, huh?”
By the age of six months, he switches to the regime characteristic of mature dogs. He sleeps for up to two-thirds of the day, and the rest of the time he walks, communicates with people, continues to learn commands and has an intense time.
An old dog - depending on the breed, a dog can become old at seven years old, or maybe at twelve - returns to the same routine that it had as a puppy. He sleeps for eighteen to twenty hours and no longer runs for a stick as quickly as before.
Puppy from 2 to 3 months. Part 4
Final post about puppies of this age. Some nuances of feeding, grooming, training a puppy. And the main question is how not to go crazy, burn out and fall into despair because “he doesn’t understand anything”!
