You might have noticed that your dog loves to sleep. But how many hours do they actually can sleep and nap during a day? Let’s have a look!
Adult dogs will usually sleep around 9-14 hours a day. This amount contains the naps during the day and nighttime. How many hours your dog can sleep might be different as it depends on your dog’s age, breed, activity level, and health.
Even sleeping location might affect your doggos amount of sleep. A new place with different sounds and smells might cause your dog to be sleeping less.
If you let your dog sleep in the same bed with you, it’s more often difficult for your dog to sleep as well when you’re tossing and turning. Studies show that 63% of pet owners who share their bed with their doggo experience poor sleep.
Puppies can sleep between 18 and 20 hours a day. Puppies will sleep more because their brains are developing and they’re growing. To a puppy everything is new and exciting so just the environment will tire the puppy out.
I love to see pictures of puppies when they have fallen asleep right in the middle of playtime! They have just crashed right there and then.
Dog’s sleeping pattern
Dogs have a polyphasic sleep pattern. That means dogs sleep multiple times throughout a 24-hour period. When we sleep around 6-8 hours long periods, our dogs sleep around 45 minute periods.
Dogs are flexible with their sleep behavior. Most dogs are very alert and can pop up and be very active when someone enters the house. Except for my pug who wasn’t really a watchdog. She would just snore more loudly, hahha.
If they have an active day with fewer naps, they can sleep more the following day. When you go to a new location or visit a friend together, your dog might be really exhausted that evening and the next day as well.
This is good to know when you have a situation when you can’t walk your dog so much one day, so you can tire your dog the day before.
Routines will help your dog to sleep more peacefully
Dogs love routines for the same reasons we do. Routines make us feel more relaxed when everything is not changing all the time. That’s the same with dogs. Routines will make your dog feel more secure about the environment.
If you would like to help your dog feel more relaxed at home or in a new environment, pay attention to your dog’s sleeping routine and environment.
Is it about the amount of sleep or bathroom brakes?
When we are thinking about how many hours our dog can sleep, 95% of the time it’s about bathroom breaks.
Most often bathroom brakes are counted as such:
- 5 month old: 6 hours before a bathroom break
- 6 month old: 7 hours before a bathroom break
- 7 month old: 8 hours before a bathroom break
- — 10-month-old and up: 10-12 hours before a bathroom break
I don’t consider this to be the most accurate. It’s because a puppy will run around more than an adult dog and will have to relieve themselves more often. Not to mention how tiny a puppy is so there isn’t a lot of room and training to be made yet to hold the pee.
When my dogs were puppies, the situation didn’t go as the bathroom brake list suggests.
I got my last two rescue dogs when they were six months old. They used the puppy pads every now and then until they were about 9 months old. So about the first 3 months when they became a part of our family. With rescue dogs, you need to remember that they are coming from a rescue center where they could pee wherever and whenever.
I went outside every 3-4 hours at first. But when they were playing and running around at home they just started peeing in mid-walk.
That’s just puppy-life.
Why does your dog sleep all day
When we look at our furry doggos it’s obvious that they do sleep alot. A lot. We are used to sleeping at night and maybe crash to the sofa for a little nap after work. But dogs are really the masters of sleeping and napping.
That’s normal for carnivals though.
It’s normal for your dog to spend about 50% of the day asleep. Another 30% will be spent in resting-mode and just about 20% of the day they are active.
National Sleep Foundation
Our doggo family routine for comparison
In our little family the dogs will sleep throughout the night. That’s about 8-9 hours when they will be left alone in the living room in their own places. Yep, no dogs in our bed. We love to sleep without being woken up by – no reason, hahh. And less dog hair in the sheats.
Well, moving on.
We will go out with the dogs right when we roll out of bed and then breakfast for all. If it’s a normal workday they will notice the rhythm and go back to snuggle in their own places. It’s usually still dark and they fall asleep again.
I have a dog camera and I look at that every once in a while when at work.
I use the camera especially if there’s a change in my routine. Because of Covid, my routine changed a few times. When I went back to the office for a little while I made sure with the camera that everything was okay at home.
My drive to work is less than half an hour and there’s never traffic. Yeah, I know. So the dogs will be left alone for around 8,5 hours if my husband has a long day. If not, it’s around 6 hours. To some people 8,5 hours might seem a lot but that’s the routine for 9-5 folk.
Our dogs have some safe toys to play with if they feel like it. I haven’t seen them playing in a long time when we are at work though. I have a sensor in the camera so I’m notified when there’s movement in our home.
When I worked from home I kept the routine the same. So nothing happened during the day time and our dogs slept the whole day. Even when we were home.
After work, it’s time to go for a long walk or run to burn that energy.
Then they stay semi-active before dinner time. After dinner, they will totally crash with us and we have a family evening on the couch. Yes, the couch is okay but only when they are not begging and we give them permission to jump on the couch.
And that’s how our workdays go at the moment. Not gonna lie, it has been so nice to work from home! During the weekends there’s more activity for all of us and it’s so nice to really spend more time with them.
17 dogs that sleeps the most
During my research I found these 17 lovely dog breeds that absolutely love to sleep and nap!
If you are not the most active person and you’re thinking which dog breed is best for you, you should definitely check more about these breeds:
- Bull dogs
- Shih Tzu
- Mastiff
- Basset Hound
- French bulldog
- Pekingese
- Basset Hound
- Greyhound
- Great Dane
- Lhasa Apso
- Cavalier King Charles Spaniel
- Saint Bernard
- Chow Chow
- Great Dane
- Cocker Spaniel
- Pug
- Great Pyrenees
Conclusion
There’s nothing to be worried about if your dog sleeps a lot during a 24 hour period. It’s good to always still consult your vet if you notice any changes in your dog’s behavior. If you notice that your dog doesn’t seem to be so active as before, there might be some pain that causes that.
When your dog is healthy and you want to tire your dog more, it doesn’t always have to be physical activity. You can play new games with your dog or learn new tricks together. There’s also a lot of puzzle toys for dogs so they really need to use their brain. That will tire them out as well.
Our older rescue dog loves to find treats that we hide for him. He became so good at it that we had moved the game outside with more distractions and smells.
It’s great to notice what games your dog really loves to play!