Underexercised or underslept?

Picture a puppy. It’s early evening, the humans in the home are readying for dinnertime, and this baby dog is suddenly a whirling dervish. He’s leaping off the couch, running about the house at top speeds, and putting his sharp little puppy teeth on anything and everything - including humans. Would you guess this puppy needs to go for a little run? Or would you say this puppy needs a nap?

Almost everyone has heard the old adage, “A tired dog is a good dog.” This misleading little maxim insinuates that

exercise is the universal answer - and more of it if undesired or problematic behaviors continue. Nationwide, I’d venture to guess that yes, many dogs are indeed lacking in this department, and we know that having (or not having) an outlet to expend energy physically is one of the bigger influences on behavior. But we also now know the flip side of the same coin, and another of the facets that greatly impacts canine behavior, is sleep. 

Interestingly, the behaviors we often see from a shortage of either are almost identical in dogs. All those wild puppy zoomies and biting, especially in the evening, could mean our puppies needed more exercise, but more likely mean they were ready for bed some time ago. (For you human parents, this may sound all too familiar, because the same goes for kids.) With dogs beyond puppyhood, an inability to settle down or restlessness would, for most people, indicate a shortage of energy outlets, but could just as likely mean an overtired, overstimulated pup who needs a nap. 

Not enough sleep has the same detrimental effect on canine behavior as it does on human behavior. Dogs generally need more sleep than people, so a long night’s sleep plus several couple hour naps a day is highly recommended - and puppies need even more! Ideally puppies under 5 months or would be asleep 20 hours a day. Adolescent pups need 18 hours/day, and shooting for 16 hours/day for adult dogs (over 3 or so) is ideal. Sleep is for repairing, restoring, and cleaning the brain and body. So it makes sense that puppies and adolescents - whose brains and bodies are undergoing bigger changes than adult dogs - require more. Growing is tiring work!

Why do dogs need more sleep than people? Some speculate that dogs cannot access REM sleep as easily. Whatever the reason, many puppies, adolescents, and even adult dogs need help when it comes to settling down for rest, especially if they have developed the habit of being “on” all day long or live in a busy, stimulating household. Often it’s up to us to intentionally facilitate that pattern of activity  - up time down time, up time, down time - repeated a couple times throughout the day to develop this habit of turning “off”. 

Especially since covid and with many more people working from home, it seems dogs, particularly puppies, aren’t getting the rest they need. There isn’t really any type of dog that is designed to be “on” all day long every day. Even working dogs work in spurts, then rest; they don’t expend high levels of physical and mental activity for hours on end daily. When I visited with shepherds in France, their dogs brought sheep stragglers back from Andorra all day as the shepherds sat, drank wine, and kept an eye on things through binoculars, whistling directions. But then those dogs went home and slept for a week. 

So, yes, we can give too much of a good thing. Especially here in the Jackson area, where “more is better” when it comes to exercise is a commonly held belief, this misconception can become a vicious cycle: many pups who are overexercised have a harder time settling down, and so they appear to need more exercise, when they actually need more sleep. Dare I say, this is particularly true of those with “high energy” breeds like herding or working type dogs. I have seen devoted, well-intentioned folks who are constantly, mindlessly throwing things for their dogs almost all day long or taking them for hours and hours of high energy activity because they believe the dog needs this sort of constant stimulation. I’d venture to say the dog’s apparent  “need”  is, in reality, just an unhealthy habit the human accidentally cultivated in an easily aroused dog. While these types of dogs are certainly up for, capable of, and easily taught to be “on” all day long - and to clarify, an occasional long day is perfectly OK - it’s not good for them physically or mentally to be day after day on the go without down time. Most dogs who tend towards this behavior are easy to “jack up” but less easy to help “settle down”, and many actually need a helping hand to learn that stepping out of “Hyperarousal-land” actually feels good.

I know how being underslept or overtired feels as a person, and I bet you do too. I suspect our under-rested dogs also feel foggy and jittery; their behavior is just a reflection of that. I’ve worked with many dogs with behavior challenges, and after changing quality and quantity of their sleep, the result is often a completely different dog: calmer, more relaxed, more able to focus and learn.

Of course, I could say the same for many cases in which the quality and quantity of exercise was changed. What’s ideal for exercise, then? Daily, perhaps an hour or so of vigorous heart thumping exercise (playing with toys or other dogs, running, biking, skiing), another two hours of moderate exercise (slow leashed walking, sniffing, puttering around, licking, chewing); and a couple hours of low energy action like just hanging out. What kind of exercise expends what kind of energy depends on the individual dog of course - chewing could be a heart-thumping endeavor for some dogs, and for others, not so much!

In the end, we need to recognize that both sleep and exercise are important factors for canine physical and behavioral health. The right balance of the two helps dogs feel and behave their best, and it’s up to the humans to find it. Rather than “A tired dog is a good dog” let the mantra “A satisfied dog is a good dog” be your guide!