[vizslaa]

Hi everyone,

I was just wondering how much is normal for a 5 month old vizsla to sleep?

Ours wakes up at around 8.30 / 9 am, but she has to be "dragged down" to go out and then to have breakfast. She'll be up for about half an hour (toilet, then breakfast), then she will sleep for an hour. Then we go to the park, she comes back, plays a little while and sleeps for an hour. Then lunch, little playtime and sleep. Then around 2.30 pm we go to the park again. She'll sleep again from around 3.30 until 5. She gets her dinner at 5, stays awake very playful at this time until around 7 pm. Then she'll sleep again and at around 9 livens up for about half hour to an hour before then falling asleep for the rest of the night.

So I would say she sleeps around 17 or so hours.

When she's awake and also in the park she is very lively and energetic.

Is this sleep pattern normal, or is she bored or depressed?

When she is awake we always play together because I find that if left to play alone she will soon give up and go to sleep again.

Any opinions or advice from experiences would be very appreciated

Thank you

 

[BoredomBusters]

Dogs need twice as much sleep as humans when they are adults (approximately) so I would expect a puppy to sleep a bit more. When I've looked after vizlas I have found them very lazy and happy to sleep around the house, but I give them a lot of mental and physical stimulation during waking periods. It sounds like you are doing exactly the same - she will need less sleep as she gets older.

 

[vizslaa]

I do try
We always seek out other dogs when in the park and luckily there are always some in our local park and she is very well socialised. Plus she goes into a doggie daycare twice a week for precisely that reason, to give her a chance to socialise and to learn from older dogs etc.

Just wasn't sure if it really was ok for her to want to sleep so much, I wouldn't want her to have a boring "childhood"

 

[BoredomBusters]

If she's spending a lot of time playing with other dogs that will exhaust her. It would be better if she was playing with you rather than other dogs, otherwise you'll get to about 9 months and she'll be off after other dogs all the time because they are much more fun than Mum.

 

[vizslaa]

Hmm, I need to give that some more attention then thanks for the tip

Although we do play with her a lot too and it is obvious that she really thrives on her human company. To be honest very often she eventually leaves the other dogs and stays closer to the human walkers
We're thinking of getting her a little brother though so she has some doggie company at home, but that's probably a few more months down the road....once we are sure we know what we're doing
Plus need to get a bigger bed first too haha.

 

[Howl]

Love lazy dogs!
My OH gets up and works from home at 8.30am my lot sleep until 11am when he feeds them. Then they sleep until his 1.30pm lunch where they walk for an hour. They then sleep until 6pm I get home and they potter about a bit and play/train. Walked again 40 mins-1 hour (much more in the summer). We get in and they sleep, sleep and ... sleep. Until we wake them at about 9/10pm for tea then last toilet session and they go to bed.
On a weekend they sleep til lunch, eat, walk usually around 3-5 hours then they barely raise their heads unless we fancy bathing/brush them. If we have done a long day walk they will sleep all the next day too.
Wouldn't have it any other way.

 

[vizslaa]

Haha, dog's life... )
Well I feel much better now and I will let her sleep as much as she chooses to

 

[RockoAndDexter]

I'd say my 6 month staff is pretty similar in his sleeping pattern. He's out for the count after an energetic walk or playtime, which gives us plenty of chill out time!