Why do dogs spin in circles before going to sleep?
It’s hard to say why dogs spin in circles before they lay down, but there are several ideas.
One of the science questions that makes us pause sometimes throughout a normal day is “Why do dogs spin in circles before they sleep?”
Author Laura Ingalls Wilder describes this phenomenon in recounting her childhood Bulldog Jack’s behavior in several of the early Little House on the Prairie books.
Online magazine Mental Floss thinks that it’s something that’s been genetically wired into domestic dogs’ behavior, and never undone through the course of breeding.
Noted psychologist and author Stanley Coren, in a 2016 article for Psychology Today, says that “the most sensible suggestion is that dogs are making a little nest for themselves by trampling down brush or grass before they settle in for a nap.”
Coren tried to figure out the answer to this question by running an experiment, where 62 dogs were divided into an area with a smooth, tightly-woven flat carpet or a bumpy shag carpet.
About one in five participants spun around before lying down on the smooth carpet, while over half the dogs – 55 percent – spun around while on the uneven carpet. Only one of the dogs who spun on the smooth surface did so multiple times, while 19 percent on the uneven surface circled more than once.
Coren also noted that some of the dogs on the shag carpeting poked at it several times before lying down, too, although no one kept track of exactly how many participants did this.
Since wolves sometimes lie down in tight circles for mutual protection when the pack needs a rest, this might be some type of signal that “It’s time for sleeping now,” too.
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