Although being a central aspect of a dog’s health and significant portion of his life, sleeping is often an overlooked element when raising a golden retriever. Many owners experience problems when it comes to their golden retriever’s sleeping habits, we will teach you a few golden retriever sleeping tips to handle these problems.
Dogs sleep a lot when they aren’t doing anything, this was inherited from their wolf counterparts, wolfs can lay around and sleep for extended periods of time until they go on another hunt, dogs have retained a portion of this sleep ability. We usually sleep for about 8 hours a night, on the other hand it is not unusual for a golden retriever to sleep longer than that, even more common if it can’t go outside to play cause of weather or for some another reason. It wouldn’t be uncommon for a dog to sleep in the middle of the morning right after breakfast, be pretty active for a while until lunch and afterwards for a while, then sleep a couple hours in the afternoon, have dinner, play vigorously and attempt to get you to join him, then call it a night and sleep for another 8 hours and waking in time for breakfast again in the following morning.
Golden retrievers can sleep from 10 to 12 hours a day and spend a couple more hours just laying around, this is not abnormal for a full grown or a puppy, a little less normal for a adolescent golden who is more active and playful, however every dog has it own routine and personally, this affects when and how long they sleep, some are more restless, others are more calm and quiet, and still we have those who are more sleepy and calm saving energy just to spend all at once when possible.
Golden Retriever Sleeping Tips
Out of all the problems many owners encounter with their golden retrievers, one is related to their sleeping habits, many owners encounter this problem with varying degrees of concern. For the most times, owners can’t get their dog to sleep at the same time they go to bed, some can’t have them sleep long enough during they night so they won’t awake them or the neighbors, others can’t even place them to sleep at all.
I will discuss a number of golden retriever sleeping tips that will improve your ability to manage when and how long your dog should sleep, this way you and your neighbors will enjoy quieter nights.
Choosing a sleeping area for your Golden Retriever
Whether we are talking about a new puppy or a grown dog you just brought home, the first of any golden retriever sleeping tips its establishing a sleeping place for your dog right on the first night. This can be a kennel or a crate and have an elevated area as a sleeping area, with a nice blanket on it.
Although important to establish a sleeping place for your dog, you need to train him to go to his sleeping place at will, usually, by making a comfortable sleeping arrangement your dog will be more inclined to sleep on it than on the floor. Do not pick up your dog to move him to his sleeping space, this will create the false association that the sleeping space is a negative experience to have.
Many chose to share the bed with their dogs, you shouldn’t do this right away, it is important for your dog to get used to his sleeping place before allowing him to join you in bed, and if you can avoid it, the better, you won’t have to clean your bed and your dog will be more reliable on his own, because it is hardly conceivable you will be able to let your dog sleep with you every time, this way you avoid future problems.
To better have your dog adjust to his sleeping arrangements, be sure he had a good exercise, enough food and water, plus some petting, a toy and treat on his sleeping area if needed, this should make it fairly easy for him to adjust to his new sleeping place.
Making your Golden Retriever Sleep at Night
Before explaining how you can make your golden retriever sleep at night, you should know and understand something. Dogs adapt to our routines and most won’t distinguish a Monday morning from a weekend’s morning. With this being said, your dog won’t sleep longer on holidays and weekends unless it is his nature to sleep late, instead he will follow his own will or your work week routine.
To have your golden sleeping during the night and wake up only in the morning, first start by arranging a sleeping area for him like mentioned earlier, then make sure your dog had plenty exercise to have him quite worn out and tired, exercising your dog to have him tired before bed is number of two of all golden retriever sleeping tips. After this, invite your dog to the bed you arranged for him, don’t forget to have a blanket where he will lay over and be sure he can’t get out of the room were he’s sleeping. The exercise should range from 40 to 60 minutes in case of puppies, and 90 to 180 minutes should be enough for most adult golden retrievers. Be sure not to over exercise your dog, if you realize he had enough then it is time to stop and call it a night.
Most dogs will sleep 7 to 8 hours with a nice setup such as this, the exercise is very important as it will reinforce the dog’s need to rest and sleep long enough, for the most times this will even work on a very active golden retriever. However if you find your dog still wakes up a bit earlier than he should, follow the same process for a few days and wait for results. If even at end of a week your dog still wakes up early, look for any source of noise that might be waking him up and remove or silence them, sometimes just hearing the owner snoring his enough to wake a dog when this one reaches 4 to 6 hours of sleep. If you found there is no sources of noise, then increase the exercise duration your dog performs and watch the results. When exercising your dog do not forget you will need to adequately provide food and water according to the duration and intensity of the exercise before it occurs and make more water available afterwards.
For sleepless dogs you should try a warm bag under the bed’s blanket and a clock with a rhythmic ticking sound, it has been found that some rhythmic noises often calm down people and pets.
Kindness and petting also goes a long way to calm down a dog and make him ready to sleep, and treats will also help lure him to his sleeping area. Also, yawning is contagious, so you can also try yawning intentionally towards your dog, this helps induce sleepiness, specially when directed towards puppies.
When dealing with puppies in new surroundings that still haven’t had a chance to become accustomed to the area, it is a nice idea to have a night light, a ticking clock and hold him for a while before placing him in his bed.
Lastly, don’t let your dog sleep all day because allowing him to do so, will make him more prone to stay awake during the night. If you find your dog wakes up an hour earlier or so, don’t pay attention to him, don’t go petting him or give him a treat, instead leave him there until it is the time for you to get up and allow him time to adapt to your routine.
With all these golden retriever sleeping tips you shouldn’t have a problem placing your dog to sleep and have him sleep long enough so that you can have a quiet night as well. Try to be the most patient and calm person on the world, specially when awaken by your dog in middle of a good dream.