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By: jerrybrecken
There are many theories, which try to explain the phenomenon of sleep, such as sleeping consolidates memories and sleeping is a way of conserving energy. Different species have distinct sleeping duration or length: humans sleep eight to 10 hours a day, bats and opossums for 18 to 20 hours, while elephants and giraffes for only three to four hours. However, you might have noticed that your pooch dozes off much longer than you do. And, most probably, your observation caused you some worries. You probably wondered why your pet loves to doze off for long hours. Take a quick look at these facts to help you understand your pooch's strange sleeping habits: Because they spend meager energy in catching a prey, dogs basically have more time to sleep (approximately up to 16 hours) compared to humans. Canines have this huge gain over humans. Because they exert and use little energy, dogs are able to indulge in a long sleep quite unlike humans. Dogs' sleeping hours are greatly affected by various orientations. The said factors are: pets' activities, health, age, and breed aside from environmental or weather conditions. Consider the following: -- Dogs who are treated as pets generally sleep longer compared to dogs who are doing different activities, and since dogs basically have fewer tasks and responsibilities than humans, they're expected to have longer sleeping hours. -- Dogs that are suffering from illnesses, undergo medications, suffer from depression, hypothyroidism, and senility generally sleep longer than normal. -- Middle-aged dogs take about 16 hours of sleep per day, while senior ones doze off much longer. This perhaps, is the reason why dogs of this age bracket tend to be less mobile than the younger ones. Thus, they can indulge in idleness. As such, like what we are aware of, idleness leads to sleep. -- Dogs have the tendency to sleep more during sunny days. Establishing a rigid standard for dogs' everyday sleeping hours is difficult. This is basically due to the interaction of the different factors mentioned earlier. Hence, a standard concerning dogs' sleeping hours is far from reality. Your dog's long sleeping hours should never be a cause of alarm. Just make sure that it immediately reacts to sudden bursts of noise or other activities. Older dogs fall under a slightly different case as their failure to be alert may be caused by difficulty in hearing. Should your pet display some weird deviations, experts say that you should take them to the nearest vet. However, always remember that only prolonged changes in your dog's sleeping habits need an expert's advice. To be sure, ask for help if you notice indications like when your dog is sleeping at a higher or lower rate than the usual or is visibly lethargic-- shows signs of sadness, depression, aggressiveness, or a sudden change in weight.
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About the Author Jerry Brecken writes for dogbedsforyou.com, a website providing popular varieties of dog supplies and pet beds such as the dog travel beds for your beloved pet.
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