Puppies need sleep, and its going to be more then you think.
16-20 hours is the general consensus amongst industry experts. People who work with pups as well as those who study them.
Why?
Their brains are growing
Their bodies are physically growing
They are constantly learning
About the world they exist in and then all of our arbitrary rules
Why do these 2 legged dogs expect so much!
Plus more!
It’s also a great management plan we can enact. It has the potential to prevent and decrease incidents of
Biting
Barking
Erratic Behaviour
It will improve
Their calmness
Ability to learn
Playing appropriately
These are pretty bold claims hey. So what about the how? How on earth do I help my puppy sleep when they don’t want to?!
We can’t “make” them sleep, we can however inspire calmness. If we inspire calmness we are getting closer to a state where we can sleep. If your excited, you can’t just lay down and sleep.
Again, how, right?
The key is calmness, and luckily we can teach calm! So forget (for now!) about teaching all the fancy tricks and going on long walks etc with your pup.
Instead start teaching Boundary games.
Crate games are also great, when a dog loves sleeping in their crate it can be super helpful.
Start delivering food slowly.
Consider what Absolute Dogs call “Ditching the bowl”. Instead of putting all their food in a food or slow feeder, think about more interesting ways for your pup to eat.
Stuffed kongs
Scatter Feeding
Aeroplane feeding (a slow delivery of their meals)
What other ways can you think of?
Just doing these can get us moving towards the calmer puppy! The calmer puppy will sleep more, which gets us all the benefits mentioned above!
You’ll note none of the above claims to fix or get rid of puppy behaviour entirely. Thats because you can’t make a puppy not puppy. If you did you would be suppressing so many behaviours and causing some serious issues down the road. Know there will be sleepless nights, biting, barking etc. What we can do is make sure these behaviours come out when its safe.
Give them appropriate chews.
Wear clothes you don’t mine getting teeth stuck in.
Play but help them calm down after
Ditch the bowl
If you liked this consider Buying me a Hot Chocolate!
If you want to know more please contact me!
Happy to help anyone and everyone any way I can!