Blogspot - Companion Animal Psychology

Women whose dog sleeps on the bed report better sleep than those with a human or feline sleeping partner. Photo: Julie Vader/Shutterstock Whether or not pets should be allowed to sleep on the bed is an age-old question. Some worry it will lead to a disturbed night’s sleep, while some old-fashioned dog trainers still claim it will spoil the dog. The latter argument is based on out-dated ideas about dominance and dog training and can be easily dismissed, but the issue of sleep quality is starting to get researchers attention. A new study by Dr. Christy Hoffman (Canisius College) et al and published in Anthrozoös asked women about who sleeps in/on the bed with them and how good they thought their sleep was over the previous month. The results show dogs are a less disruptive sleep partner than another human, while cats are just as disruptive as humans. Dogs are perceived as providing more comfort and security than another human, while cats provide even less. Not only that, but...

Dogs fall asleep faster but get less deep sleep after a bad experience compared to after a good experience. Photo: Karen Laventure (Shutterstock) We all know the feeling when something bad happens in the day and then we just can’t sleep at night. It turns out that, just like humans, dogs’ sleep is affected by bad experiences – but the effects are not quite the same. A new paper by Dr. Anna Kis ( Hungarian Academy of Sciences ) (including members of the Family Dog Project ) took EEG measurements of dogs sleeping after a good or bad experience. While humans take longer to fall asleep after a bad day, the dogs fell asleep more quickly after a bad experience than after a good one. This is thought to be a protective response to stress. But, just like humans, dogs did not sleep as well after the bad experience, showing their sleep was disturbed. 16 pet dogs took part in the study, which took place over 3 sessions. The first session was a practice one so the dogs could get used to the equipm...