Question about dogs

Discussion in 'Biology & Genetics' started by timojin, Dec 29, 2016.

  1. timojin Valued Senior Member

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    Do dogs go to sleep earlier in the last weeks of December and wake up earlier ?
     
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  3. Xelasnave.1947 Valued Senior Member

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    They may regulate their sleep by the length of the day so they get to sleep earlier but wake up when they have had enough sleep which would be earlier.
    I hope your dogs are OK
    Alex
     
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  5. timojin Valued Senior Member

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    I have noticed my malamed in November got to sleep after 10 pm now 9.0 pm is in the garage sleeping Now wakes up after 10.am before at 7 am he was up
     
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  7. Xelasnave.1947 Valued Senior Member

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    I don't know but that seems unusual.
    Try posting on a pet forum or go to the vet.
    They suffer in silence unfortunately.
    I do hope we are worrying about nothing good luck.
    Alex
     
  8. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    Domestic dogs have adapted to their humans' sleep schedule. But bear in mind that dogs have much better night vision than humans, so feral dogs are more likely to be awake and hunting at night, when it's easier to sneak up on prey.

    In fact, that night vision was one of several reasons that we welcomed them into our camps. With dogs sitting around the campfire, watching for predators, we could get a full night's sleep. An uninterrupted period of sleep allows our brain to catalog and organize everything we saw, did and learned during the previous day.

    Wolves domesticated themselves (they were attracted by all the perfectly good food we left all over the camp, which we call "garbage") at different times in different regions. But it was generally about 15,000 to 20,000 years ago, and examination of human sites from that time shows clear evidence of a quantum improvement in human thought.

    Ironically, this partnership did just the opposite for the dogs. They stopped being hunters and eat whatever we give them, which has much less protein content than the raw meat they were used to. Maintenance of a brain requires an enormous amount of protein, so as they got used to a poorer diet, they became measurably less intelligent than wolves.
     
  9. Randwolf Ignorance killed the cat Valued Senior Member

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    Dogs in general sleep longer as they get older. Have you factored that in?
     
  10. timojin Valued Senior Member

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    No. my dog is only 5 years old, I noticed this year at the in the second week in December, him going to sleep in the garage at about 8 pm and waking up at 9 to 10 am
     
  11. Bowser Namaste Valued Senior Member

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    We had an old dog whose sleep schedule was consistent throughout the year. Just got a puppy today who plays for a couple hours and sleeps for three hours.
     
  12. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    No, but I've never had a working dog. Companion dogs sleep almost as much as domestic cats (18-20 hours).
     
  13. Bowser Namaste Valued Senior Member

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    When I give this closer examination, it comes to mind that our older dog kept his sleep schedule aligned with that of me and my wife. Of course, when we were at work, he was sleeping on the couch.
     
  14. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    Of course. In roughly 20,000 years of more-or-less selective breeding, dogs have become well-suited for life in a human family.

    Dogs that were developed as working breeds, on the other hand, have a few important differences in their psychology, otherwise they wouldn't be very good at their jobs. Many would rather spend their nights awake, outside the house, to protect their flock of grazing animals from predators. These days, there are bears and coyotes almost everywhere, and wolves and cougars can do a lot of damage too. Even wild boars, which are omnivores, can and will kill smaller animals for food.

    A good guard dog won't even let a raccoon eat from his family's trash bin.
     

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