There are many situations in life in which we may want to relax or sleep a little, either for a trip or simply because you need it. It is important to know how to sleep a dog correctly so that it does not suffer any type of stress, as well as to follow some simple guidelines when it wakes up.
Depending on the reason why we want our dog or puppy to fall asleep, we must follow different instructions. So from Dogsis.com we will review the most common causes and how we should proceed.
Index of contents
- 1 How to sleep a dog for a long trip by car or other means
- 2 How to sleep a dog at home
- 3 How to put a puppy to sleep
- 4 How to wake up a dog correctly
How to sleep a dog for a long trip by car or other means
The dog car trips They don’t always work well, some dogs get dizzy, bored, or just overwhelmed by the situation. When it comes to taking a short trip it is not necessary to put them to sleep, whatever the case may be, but if it is a long trip…. sleeping them is an excellent option.
It is important to follow some simple tips that will make our dog sleep peacefully, which we detail below. Although we must first know that the best way to sleep a dog for a trip, is to sedate it with the pills that the vet has provided us.
We should never give a dog pills to relax or sleep as humans, as we could kill them. Veterinarians have specific pills to relax and sleep dogs, they will also indicate the exact amount that we should give them and the time in advance.
The procedure before a trip is to take our dog for a walk, so that it can relieve itself and spend some energy. We should not give him any food, although we should always leave water at his disposal. We will give you the sleeping pills once we have returned from the walk and with the advance notice that the vet has indicated. Usually about 30 or 60 minutes before the trip.
We will let our dog be relaxed (they can feel our nervousness on trips, so we have to relax them a bit) for the pills to take effect. When we leave, we will put our dog in a comfortable place with space, so that he can sleep peacefully throughout the trip.
These pills usually have an effect of about six or eight hours, so if when we reach our destination our dog is still a little “groggy”, we will put him in a comfortable and quiet place to rest as long as he wants. You do not have to force him to wake up, but let him do it naturally.
If we travel by car we must be especially careful with the temperature and avoid direct sunlight, it could suffer a heat stroke with terrible consequences. When we make a stop along the way, we’ll put water in so you can drink if you want.
How to sleep a dog at home
Sometimes it happens that our dog or puppy has a great desire to play or so much energy that he does not stop or sleep … Or simply that for different reasons we need our dog to be calm in his bed.
It is necessary to follow certain routines so that our dog gets used to resting, if it does it naturally. Carrying out the following tips we will ensure that our dog sleeps or is calm in his bed.
It is important that our dog has spent his energy and is calm, for this we must give him a great walk a few hours before sleeping. Likewise when the time comes to go to sleep, we must get him to relieve himself again.
A dog that wants to urinate or poop becomes nervous and cannot sleep well. So it is important that they have previously met their needs. Once these steps are done, we will put our dog in his bed in a quiet place, where there are no excessive noises or distractions and pet him so that he relaxes until he falls asleep.
If our dog does not fall asleep, we can give him some food to bite on, such as a piece of bread (whenever he feels good) or a little food hidden in a toy (kong), so he can play quietly for a while until he falls asleep for tiredness or boredom.
There are no magic tricks or home remedies for sleeping a dog, the correct way to do this is to spend your energy and put it in a quiet and comfortable place. We can feed you before bed if it coincides with the nap time, what’s more, it is even recommended that you take a nap after each meal.
How to put a puppy to sleep
Puppies are characterized by sleeping for short periods of time but many times a day, so it could be said that they spend the day sleeping and waking up to eat and play. We should not force a puppy to go to sleep, as it will do so naturally when needed.
Although we can do some tricks to tire him out and make him sleep peacefully. It consists of playing with it to spend its energies, we can throw the ball a little, walk or play to bite dog toys.
A puppy has a small capacity for energy, so although they are very vigorous the truth is that they hardly have endurance. After a while of games or walks, we can give you your food ration and accompany you to your bed where we will caress you to relax you.
It is important to remember that puppies often wake up in the middle of the night and start crying to get our attention. We must not go to them since then they would do it every night, we must let them get used to it and in a few days they will not cry even if they wake up.
How to wake up a dog correctly
When a dog has fallen asleep naturally, we must let it also wake up naturally…. that is, at your own pace. But if for various reasons we have to wake him up, remember to do it very gently.
We can call him by name with a soft and calm voice until he wakes up, when he has met us we can start stroking him if we want (recommended). You should never wake up a dog with a start, a scare or catching it … because it can get scared and bite us unintentionally since dogs dream a lot and it might coincide with some nightmare.
On the other hand, if our dog has been asleep with sleeping pills, we must let him wake up at his own pace. If you have to wake him up for example to get out of the car, he is gently awakened as we explained earlier, but we must let him finish his nap in another place like, calm and cool.
The effect of the pills lasts about eight hours, although you will see that in reality your dog will be · groggy ”until the next day, which is when the effects will have completely disappeared.