Dog sleeps all day: Normal?

[1C5]

See avatar. He just turned 3, seems very healthy, gets 3 walks/day. But when not going on his walks or playing, he sleeps ALL the time. He is bascially sleeping 20 hours a day.

Normal or strange?

[Shajen]

normal for the breed.

plus, some dogs are lazy.

Is he active when actually doing something?

[1C5]

Yeah, loves to hunt, swim, chase balls, but if I don't take him to do something, just sleeps.

[DING-DONG YO]

I have an australian shepherd which is usually a very high energy dog.

He gets one walk/day and maybe some time with the ball, one trip to daycamp/week, 1-2 trips to off-leash park/week.

Aside from that, he's pretty lazy, sleeps all day, sits on the couch and watches TV at night. Sleeps all night.

But he's a dog. Let him be lazy and enjoy his want for nothing life.

[AdamL]

Hehehe, he's getting more walks a day than sadly many dogs get in a week. I think you're just keeping him busy enough that he's actually inclined to use his down time for, well, being down. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[Claunchy]

I just assumed all dogs did this. What else are they going to do when they aren't playing/walking? Watch TV?

[dblgutshot]

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I just assumed all dogs did this. What else are they going to do when they aren't playing/walking? Watch TV?

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My dog likes to watch golf and horses.

[M.B.E.]

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I have an australian shepherd which is usually a very high energy dog.

He gets one walk/day and maybe some time with the ball, one trip to daycamp/week, 1-2 trips to off-leash park/week.

[/ QUOTE ]
How long is the one walk a day? Unless it's more than 45 minutes or so, your dog is not getting enough exercise. Probably two or three walks of 20 minutes each would be better. A friend of mine had an Australian Shepherd that got really fat.

Here's a link that Google found, which says basically that different dogs sleep for different amounts, depending on breed but also on their environment:

http://www.dailyitem.com/archive/200...ries/02fea.htm

[DING-DONG YO]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I have an australian shepherd which is usually a very high energy dog.

He gets one walk/day and maybe some time with the ball, one trip to daycamp/week, 1-2 trips to off-leash park/week.

[/ QUOTE ]
How long is the one walk a day? Unless it's more than 45 minutes or so, your dog is not getting enough exercise. Probably two or three walks of 20 minutes each would be better. A friend of mine had an Australian Shepherd that got really fat.

Here's a link that Google found, which says basically that different dogs sleep for different amounts, depending on breed but also on their environment:

http://www.dailyitem.com/archive/200...ries/02fea.htm

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks for the link. Good article.

It's usually between 30-45 minutes. We walk up to the tennis courts in our neighborood and throw the ball with him for about 15 minutes and walk back. We try to wear him out once per day.

Also, having a petsmart close by is nice. We take our dog to doggy day camp once a week. That really helps wear him out until the weekend.

[swede123]

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I just assumed all dogs did this. What else are they going to do when they aren't playing/walking? Watch TV?

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My dog likes to watch golf and horses.

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My dog also likes watching horses on TV. In addition he's a big football fan. He gets bored watching Baseball though (like his owner).

To the OP. Nothing unusual. Even in the wild predatory animals do sleep a majority of the time to digest their large but infrequent meals, rest up for future hunting and so on. It sounds like you give your dog all the attention he needs and requires, good for you!

Swede