Whether it’s a hunting dog, police dog, sheepdog, guard dog, or pug, they all exhibit an interesting behavior before going to sleep.
You’ll see them circling around their sleeping spot several times before finally lying down to sleep.
Why is this? There is actually a reason behind it.
The dogs we have domesticated today have ancestors that were wolves. Wolves live in the wild, where the law of survival is the strong preying on the weak. Although wolves prey on smaller animals, they also face the danger of becoming prey for even fiercer beasts. Therefore, they always make their dens in hidden places. Moreover, it’s often difficult to find a flat and comfortable den in the wild, so they need to slightly level the tangled grass or uneven rocks. As a result, wolves would always trample the area a bit before lying down to sleep.
This behavior of ensuring their own safety has been passed down through generations, eventually becoming instinctual, much like how eels living in freshwater rivers and lakes must travel to the distant ocean to spawn, or how geese and swallows must migrate long distances at the same time every year.
Since dogs are descended from wolves, they naturally retain some of this instinct. Thus, regardless of whether their sleeping place is a flat wooden board, a soft grass mat, or even warm cotton bedding, they will still follow their ancestral instinct by circling the spot a few times before sleeping.