Knowing your Golden Retriever puppy’s sleep schedule is important for their well-being. Let’s look at how much sleep they need each day.
How Much Sleep Does My Golden Retriever Puppy Need?
Between 4 and 12 weeks of age, a Golden Retriever puppy needs about 20 hours of sleep, and by the time they’re about six months of age, they need about 16 hours of sleep.
Why Sleep Matters So Much for Puppies
So, let them have their nap. The more energy that they burn, the crazier they go, and then they’ll crash really hard. And if we don’t let them sleep, then that’s when they become little mini terrors. Overstimulated puppies are what you want to avoid.
Do You Know Your Puppy’s Sleep Schedule?
So even then, you know, they’re learning every day, and we really want them to have a really good night’s sleep. That said, even though puppies sleep a lot, make sure that when they do bounce back, they bounce back to their full little terror selves.
Any kind of sleepy, lethargic, quiet puppy that isn’t really rousable should be seen by a vet because there definitely are some things that can go wrong with their health. Making sure you give your puppies plenty of opportunities to have rests is really important too. So having nice quiet places, settling, soothing spots that we don’t interact and don’t have too much fun time can be a really good system.
Building a Daily Schedule Around Rest and Learning
By the age of seven weeks, your puppy’s brain is fully developed. That means that by the time they’re ready to come home with you, they’re ready to start learning. Most puppies come home to their new families around the eight-week mark, and at eight weeks, this is a really important relationship-building time. We’re not going to focus so much on teaching our dog specific skills.
Food is a valuable resource to puppies. They immediately see it as something that they want, and it’s great that it can be something that comes through you. At eight weeks, one of the first things you want to start doing is taking advantage of natural training opportunities, like hand-feeding your puppy.
We can also do things like saying their name, then feeding them. This is really going to load up value on that new word that they’re hearing. Remember, they don’t know what their name is, so we need to start to build value on it by doing name, then reward. We use yes as a verbal marker to let the puppy know they’ve done something absolutely right. Yes, then reward your puppy.
Supervision, Crates, and House Training Around Naps
Use something like a house line. It gives you so much control and allows your puppy to make some choices as they move around the area you’re in as you’re supervising them. It’s just a line or a leash that you’ve cut the loop and the handle off, and you clip it to your puppy’s collar so you can keep them out of trouble and redirect them if you need to.
Your puppy has just gone through a dramatic life change. They’ve come away from their litter. They’re now in a new environment, in a new home with new people, so really set your puppy up to be successful. The best way to do that is to ensure 100% supervision. Make sure that when your puppy is out of the kennel or crate, you’re there with them to give them good information.
Progressing Skills as a Golden Retriever Puppy Grows
At nine weeks old, your puppy’s second week home, you’re probably going to start to get a little bit more confidence. So supervision is even more important at this point. Your puppy is going to be exploring more and they’re going to be more active and they’re going to have a little bit more energy.
Once your puppy is nine weeks, you can start to increase the challenge of some of the things, the foundational things that you were doing the week before. Continue hand-feeding your puppy: name, then reward, marking the yes, really loading value on that word.
Another thing at this point is handling your puppy’s collar a lot. You’re going to gently reach in when you reward your puppy and take their collar and then reward them, so that every time your puppy comes near, you can take their collar and they know something good is about to happen.