There are three things I love doing: eating, going for a walk, and sleeping! My human knows just how to make me feel happy – she feeds me very well, and makes sure that I eat the right things for my doggy diet, she takes me on some fabulous walks, and she makes sure I have the comfiest bed!
Just like humans, sleep is important for a dog’s wellbeing. We can be described as social sleepers because we match our sleep patterns with the people around us – when everyone in the house goes to bed, so do we, usually!
What Do Dogs Do At Night?
Well this really depends on what sort of day we’ve had.
Routine is just as important to dogs as it is to humans. Although I can’t tell the time, I know my day is starting when I hear my human’s alarm go off in the morning. I always go and sit at the bottom of the stairs until she comes down and lets me go outside for a pee.
Then the day starts:
Now, if my day goes according to plan and I’ve had lots of exercise, I sleep very well!
However, there are sometimes occasions when dogs don’t sleep very well.
There’s a cat that sometimes prowls around my garden at night, grrrh! And although cats are very good climbers, this tabby sometimes knocks things over when she’s chasing a mouse and that disturbs my sleep, so I have to get up and wander around to investigate.
Also, our neighbours next door have a new baby – and it certainly doesn’t have a good night's sleep! Dogs have very good hearing and I can hear that baby’s cry very clearly. I bet its parents will be glad when it starts to sleep through the night – and so will I!
Although my human has given me the best bed, sometimes I find myself circling and digging my bed and that’s because it's what my ancestors used to do. In the wild, it was natural for them to paw their bed to make sure there were no bugs or rodents that could annoy them during the night, and they circled around to face the wind to make sure they could smell any predators approaching.
I am used to spending time home alone because my human goes out to work every day. After lockdown, she spent a lot of time helping me to readjust, but my cousin Fifi, a French Bulldog, doesn’t like to be left alone. She loves to play and spend time with her humans during the day, but she doesn't like being alone at night. Her human has put one of her T-shirts in her bed and that seems to make her feel better because it has her scent on it. Her human has also plugged an ADAPTIL Calm Home Diffuser close to Fifi’s bed and that gives her a lot of comfort.
Did you know that a puppy should be able to hold their bladder for the same number of hours as their age in months? So when you bring a puppy home when they are about 2 months old, they should be able to hold their bladder for about 2 hrs. That’s just one of the reasons why puppies don’t sleep through the night.
Just like humans, a senior dog’s joints and senses can be impacted by age, which can mean they get restless at night, so you might hear them wandering around the house trying to get comfortable. They may even need to go outside for a pee more often.
As I said before, we have a good routine, and:
I know that if, for any reason, I don’t sleep well at night, my human will double check all of these things, and if I don’t settle she will get the vet to check me out. She looks after me very well!