Do dogs have trouble adjusting to Daylight Saving Time?

By Stephen Beech

Working dogs take longer to adjust than pets when we alter the clocks, according to a new study.

Pet pooches are "more flexible" when it comes to Daylight Saving Time, say scientists.

But working dogs took a day to adjust.

Canadian researchers found sled dogs were more active than usual the morning after the clocks turned back whereas pet dogs and their owners seemed to be unaffected.

The study, published in the journal PLOS One, is the first to investigate the impact of Daylight Saving Time (DST) on domestic dogs’ activity.

Co-author Ming Fei Li, a doctoral student at the University of Toronto, said: "DST is used by many countries to maintain the alignment between daylight hours and human activity patterns, by setting clocks forward one hour in the spring and back one hour in the autumn.

"Previous research has shown that DST can disrupt human sleep and behavior, but its impact on the domestic animals we live and work with had not been studied."

To investigate how DST impacts domestic dogs, the research team used motion-sensitive watches to monitor the activity patterns of 25 working sled dogs, 29 pet dogs, and their human carers living in Canada, during the weeks surrounding the autumn DST time shift.

Li said: "For sled dogs, DST represented a change to their strict daily routine.

"Prior to the time shift, sled dog handlers arrived at the reserve at sunrise, but after DST came into effect, sunrise was an hour before their arrival.

"As a result of this mismatch, after the DST time shift, sled dogs were less active in the hour after sunrise than they were before the shift.

"However, they didn’t immediately adjust to the change in their routine.

"On the day that DST came into effect, sled dogs were more active than usual in the hour prior to their handler’s arrival.

"In contrast, pet dogs and their owners showed no change in their morning activity patterns on the Sunday that DST came into effect.

"After DST, even though pet owners woke up earlier on weekdays, their pet dogs did not change their morning behavior.

"However, age had a significant influence on the dogs’ response to DST, and older pet dogs were less active on the first morning after the time shift."

She added: "Changes to human schedules can have a ripple effect through the daily lives of dogs, which may affect their well-being.

"The findings highlight the importance of flexibility and gradual changes to help dogs adjust to modifications to their daily routine."