let sleeping dogs lie

Did you know that puppies need as many as 20 hours of sleep per day? When they’re not getting enough shut-eye, they often begin to behave like overly-tired toddler. And once they’re in this state, convincing them to take a nap is next-to-impossible. Getting enough good quality sleep facilitates memory consolidation and learning, helps regulate your puppy’s mood and helps keep them healthy.

So a big challenge for us is trying to facilitate as much sleep as possible for our puppies. Puppies know that in order to be safe, they need to be with an adult. As a result, they’re incredible attuned to their humans’ movement. If you’re moving about, they’ll be right there after you. And as we only sleep for 8 hours a night, and tend to live pretty active lives when we’re awake, our puppies simply aren’t having enough down time. In contrast, adult dogs need 12-16 hours of sleep a day, so if your puppy was living with his doggy family, he’d already be having a lot more quiet time. Dogs also naturally opt to spend a lot of their waking time in quite sedentary states, and don’t rush about all the time like we do.

Additionally, dogs are naturally polyphasic sleepers- it’s normal for them to sleep in multiple blocks in any 24 hour period, typically getting about 40% of their sleep during the day. Again, if a puppy was being reared by their mum, this pattern of polyphasic sleep would be facilitated. In order to help your puppy rack up enough sleep hours during the day, invest in some good reading material, and set aside time during the day when you can sit really quietly with your puppy- not moving about- and allow him the opportunity to snooze without distraction.

Dogs, and especially puppies, are also social sleepers. In order to feel safe, really switch off, and get the quality sleep they require, they need to be around others- preferably within touching distance! For social animals, like dogs and horses, there is always someone awake, or just drowsing, so the others can sleep soundly, safe in the knowledge that someone is keeping watch. If we expect our puppies to sleep alone, they feel like they have to maintain a degree of watchfulness, and don’t tend to get enough deep sleep. 

This is why my advice to puppy parents is always to allow your puppy to sleep as close to you as possible, and at very least, in the same room. If you don’t want your puppy in the bed for fear of squashing him, you could create a ‘cot’ beside your bed- you could put your puppy’s bed in a cardboard box and have the box beside your bed. The added benefit of this is that the puppy is likely to mooch about and squeak if he need to go to the toilet overnight, and you can bring him to the appropriate spot, facilitating toilet training! If this is still too close for comfort, why not cordon off a corner of your room, place a water-proof bedsheet in the cordoned off area, along with your puppy’s bed, and allow him to sleep there. That way, he can at least hear and smell you! Most people who allow their puppies to sleep with them find that everyone gets a better night’s sleep (uninterrupted by a distressed, howling puppy!), and many stick with this arrangement for life. If you do want to get a bit of space from your puppy, you can gradually move them out of your bedroom- a puppy gate at your door, and the puppy on the other side is sometimes an acceptable arrangement! The puppy doesn’t feel too far from you, but you don’t have the puppy in your room. 

I do not recommend locking your puppy in a crate in a separate part of the house. They will be scared and lonely, and it is simply too long to expect them to hold their bladder. 

Lastly, please don’t pay any heed to anyone who tells you that allowing your dog to sleep on your bed or sofa will cause them to become ‘dominant’. The dominance theory has been thankfully debunked by science, and we now know that the only reason dogs like to be on sofas and beds is because they’re high up (being up high feels safe), they are comfortable, and they smell of us!

Submitted by Stephanie Rousseau: dog trainer, behaviourist, and author of Office Dogs: The Manual. However, as physical book are not borrowable presently you can check out the website here: www.stephsdogtraining.ie

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