Sleeping Habits

[Greg & Sue]

Hi, just wondering if there is a "normal" when it comes to sleeping habits for the group? Dakota has a fairly regular routine of morning nap (3-4 hours), afternoon nap (3-4 hours), and night sleep (8-10 hours) of course depending on what else is going on. She's loves to be social, so if people are around or we are going places she will not be as likely to sleep, then of course the next day she is fairly flat all day. Just wondering what others see as normal (Dakota is a standard GD (75lbs), 5 yrs).

[Kendra K. Rhoton]

This is sooooo funny... yes... Remington sleeps his 8 hours with me at night, up for breakfast, then back to bed with DH for 8 hours during the day... then up from 4-8. So what's that? 16 hours of sleep! Goodness, what a life!

[Adina P]

My Rosco pretty much lays around cat-napping all day.  He's not asleep for long stretches except at night, though since I'm always moving around the house and he's always following me :)

[Linda Karell]

Yeah, that's pretty much Chervil's routine, too. She'll sleep until we get up (8 or so hours during the week, 9 or 10 on the weekend--I know, I should have been a dog, too!). A quick run around the house, eat, then nap until a three-mile walk/romp, more sleep, up and eat, more sleep, play with the neighbor dog or a nice evening walk, and then sleep until bed time. She's 17 months, standard size. If her naps get interrupted during the day (company, lots of errands, visiting dogs), she'll tend to sleep even more the next day.

It seems like a lot, until I compare it to our cats, who sleep closer to 23.5 hours a day!

[Eva (Lilo and Rocky)]

Rocky naps during the afternoon while Lilo is on guard duty. If she barks, he comes running, of course. I'd say he probably naps 2-3 hours max. Lilo is pretty much awake all day; but is hard to get out of bed in the morning and hates it when I wake her up early (before 8 am). They both settle down around 9pm. Rocky gets up at 5am so we don't need an alarm clock any longer :)

[cheryl & oliver]

Oliver gets up and walked with DH around 7 am. He walks and feeds the dogs, and then Oliver comes back in our bedroom, runs into his cage, gets his snack, and will go back to sleep for a good 2-3 hrs if I don't get up. He is then up and with me till around noon, then sprawls out on the floor wherever he chooses and sleeps for about an hr or two. Of course if Renny barks, he is right there to see what is happening. He will play and nap the rest of the day on and off. After dinner he is usually wide awake and playful till around 9PM, and then it is like a switch goes off, he crashes for the night. I wake him around midnight when I go to sleep or whenever and he goes into our bedroom, into his crate, and goes back to sleep. Ny husband said when he dies he wants to come back s one of our dogs, lol....He loves his crate, I think it is too small for him now, but it is the biggest one you can get, but he loves it, and if u don't close the door when he goes in, he barks and hits it closed...Silly dog...

[Michele, Biscuit & Mo]

Penny is a "go with the flow" kinda dog. She sleeps a full 8 hours at night and then, depending on what's going on around the house, she either lazes around (never fully asleep, but fully lazy) or hangs out with whatever people happen to be around. She's very funny - a couple of good walks each day seem to be enough activity for her. And when we do our "doodle play" after dinner, she'll play hard for about 5 minutes, then drops her toy and just lays down. Hilarious.

[Phoebe's Mom]

Phoebe sleeps for 7 hours at night and then naps on and off during the day. She is really more of a cat napper than a steady napper who might sleep for hours. She definitely does nap more deeply when she is crated for a while during the day. Sometimes so soundly that she does not realize that I have come into the room which sort of freaks me out!

[Frannie & Callie]

Callie is a napper. I worked from home a few days the other week. Callie always follows me around and I could tell I was disturbing her sleep habits! I was getting some baleful doodle looks. She's generally a good sleeper at night. I get up, shower, and get ready, and then Callie will get up...or sometimes, like this morning, I have to go and wake her up. The first dog that I had as an adult slept about 20 hours a day. It really worried me until my dad pointed out "well it's not like she has hobbies and is going to be up all night working a crossword puzzle".

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Ned and Clancy naps all the time. They are not high energy guys. Clancy seems to sleep through the night but Ned moves from bed to crate to floor to dog pillow.

[Laura & Chewie]

Chewie sleeps in his crate from 10:00-10:30 to 7:30-8:00 in the morning. During the day it depends. If nobody is around except me, he lazes around, but doesn't really take a long nap. He just dozes here and there, but is much too nosy with every sound to fall into a deep sleep. If there's more activity in the house, he rarely lays down...has to be in on the action. Of course, on daycare days, he gets very little rest. Sometimes I feel he needs more as he can get "grouchy" when overtired...LOL.

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

LOL! Peri has to go to "time out" sometimes at daycare because she gets grouchy. Never mean, but just grouchy. She likes her beauty rest - after all, she is a Lady :)

Seriously though, she naps on and off all day long and is ready for bed by 10 and sleeps until 6am on her bed or on the floor. One the weekends, she will sleep in with us and hop on the bed when the sun rises and I say "come on up".

[Camilla and Darwin]

Darwin sleeps A LOT. He naps all day, alternating between laying awake, just resting, and sleeping. I would say he naps at least 4-6 hours during the day. Then he sleeps for 8-10 hours at night.